Translated material
Admiral's offspring
McCain remembers family glory
Yesterday, Arizona Senator and Republican presidential candidate John McCain launched a week-long campaign under the slogan “Serving America.” He will tour places reminiscent of his ancestors' military accomplishments and his own military career. The journey began yesterday in the town of Meridian, Mississippi - the McCain family home since 1848.McCain, 71, gave a speech at a local university located near the naval airfield named after his grandfather, John Sidney McCain. During World War II, he commanded an aircraft carrier group in the Pacific Ocean, and in 1945 he attended the signing ceremony of Japan's surrender aboard the battleship Missouri. The politician's father, also John Sidney McCain, was a submarine commander during that war, and during the Vietnam War he commanded the US armed forces in the Pacific. McCain's grandfather and father held the rank of admiral - the only case in the history of the US Navy.
In 1967, a young military pilot and now presidential candidate, McCain III, was shot down over Hanoi and captured. My father then had to make difficult decisions. “Every night he prayed on his knees for my safe return. But when duty demanded it, he ordered B-52 bombers to bomb Hanoi close to the prison where I was being held,” McCain, 71, recalled yesterday. -- The military history of our family goes back to the American War of Independence (1775--1783. - Ed. ). A distant relative of mine served on General George Washington's staff. My ancestors probably fought in most of the wars in our nation’s history.”
Yesterday, the presidential candidate did not touch upon either Iraq or the financial crisis in the United States. In general terms, he argued that the government should help parents raise their children and guarantee social protection to those in need. In a few days, the senator will visit his places of study - a high school in the suburbs of Washington and the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Then McCain will visit Florida, where he trained as a naval pilot. The tour will end in Arizona, where he now lives.