Former presidential candidate and naval aviator Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) died today after succumbing to a long battle with cancer, according to a statement from his office released late Saturday. He was 81.
“Senator John Sidney McCain III died at 4:28 pm on August 25, 2018. With the Senator when he passed were his wife Cindy and their family,” read the statement issued by his office. “At his death, he had served the United States of America faithfully for sixty years.”
McCain had been battling brain cancer and announced he was stopping treatment on Friday.
“Last summer, Senator John McCain shared with Americans the news our family already knew: he had been diagnosed with an aggressive glioblastoma, and the prognosis was serious. In the year since, John has surpassed expectations for his survival. But the progress of disease and the inexorable advance of age render their verdict. With his usual strength of will, he has now chosen to discontinue medical treatment,” the McCain family said in a separate Friday statement.
McCain graduated from the Naval Academy in 1958 and flew A-4 Skyhawks during the Vietnam War.
In 1967, McCain was shot down over Hanoi on a bombing mission and captured by North Vietnamese troops. He was held in the infamous Hanoi Hilton until 1973.
Following his retirement from the Navy in 1981, McCain won an election in 1982 and served in Congress for 36 years and ran for president on the Republican ticket in 2008.
McCain announced his illness in July of 2017.
The following is an October 2017 interview of McCain conducted for the Naval Institute by Bob Woodward of The Washington Post.
