Terri Moon Cronk at the DoD News offers the below piece:
WASHINGTON, Sept. 1, 2018 — The
nation bid farewell to Arizona Sen. John S. McCain III -- former Senate Armed
Services Committee chairman, war hero and Vietnam prisoner of war -- in a
patriotic and emotional service today at the Washington National Cathedral.
McCain lost his battle with brain cancer Aug. 25 at age
81. He will be laid to rest tomorrow at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis,
Maryland.
VIPs, from former presidents Barack Obama, George Bush
and Bill Clinton, to Defense Secretary James N. Mattis and former defense
secretaries Leon Panetta and Ash Carter, attended the funeral.
The military provided ceremonial support for the retired
Navy captain from body bearers and ushers to the U.S. Navy Band and U.S. Naval
Academy Glee Club during a service that spanned two-and-a-half hours.
McCain’s ‘Amazing’ Life
Former President George W. Bush said what was remarkable
about McCain’s life was the “amazing sweep” of it.
“From a tiny prison cell in Vietnam to the floor of the
United States Senate, from trouble-making [Naval Academy] plebe to presidential
candidate, wherever John passed throughout the world, people immediately knew
there was a leader in their midst,” he said.
“And one epic life was written of courage and greatness
of our country,” Bush added.
“John was, above all, a man with a code,” the former
president said. “He lived by a set of public virtues that brought strength and
purpose to his life and to his country.
“He was courageous, with a courage that frightened his
captors and inspired his countrymen,” Bush said.
“As John would say: ‘My friends,’ we come to celebrate an
extraordinary man -- a warrior, a statesman, a patriot, [who] embodied so much
that is best in America,” former President Barack Obama said.
‘He Made This Country Better’
Obama said McCain made him and Bush better presidents
during his Senate tenure, “just as he made the Senate better. Just as he made
this country better.”
McCain showed a largeness of spirit and an ability to see
past differences in search of common ground, the 44th president said.
He answered the highest of callings to do something that
was bigger than he was by serving his country during a time of war, Obama said.
“Others this week and this morning have spoken of the
depths of his torment and the depths of his courage there in the cells of
Hanoi, when day after day, year after year, that youthful iron was tempered
into steel.” he said of McCain’s five-and-a-half years spent as a prisoner of
war.
In captivity, McCain learned how each moment, each day
and each choice is a test, the former president noted. “And John McCain passed
that test again and again and again. And that’s why when John spoke of virtues
like service and duty, it didn’t ring hollow. Those weren’t just words to him.
It was a truth that he had lived, and for which he was prepared to die.”
A Family Man
McCain was also lauded as a great family man, husband and
father.
His daughter, Meghan McCain, gave the eulogy and said,
“the nation is here to remember you,” to her father.
“That fervent faith, that proven devotion, that abiding
love -- that is what drove my father from the fiery skies above the Red River
Delta to the brink of the presidency itself,” she said.
“Dad,” McCain said, “your greatness is woven … into the
life and liberty of the country you sacrificed so much to defend.”
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