Transcript for John McCain, born into a US Navy dynasty: Part 2
The first great testfohn McCain’s life julyf 1967.he was then lieuten commander McCain bombesions with the a-forcek from deck of the aircraft carrier in the gulf of Tonkin. It was the Vietnam wnd McCain was in thick of it And the ts athome, alwith the protests for civil rits by African-Americans, were the great points in the ‘6s I H americaame divided. Were just fat,b and happy, as theaying goestil Vietnam. And it’s never been the same since. Asain and other pilots prepared to take O boion, a missile on E jets accidy fires, igniting an inferno. Digging deep into the dusty chives of ABC news, we found ol film shot in math ofhegic fire. Incredibly, including this interview want commander McCain. So I walked out on the refueling probe, which is probe which sticks out in F of the aircraft, and jumped off the of therefueling pro D the fire and rolled clear. You see thee ball, he rolls away fm the cockpit, enveloped in flame. It’s a true story, I’m telling you. And he escaped. Without any ser injury, that Heheated death. Bu more than 130 of shipmates were not so lucky. The deck of the aircrt carrliterally melted. The burned so hot bombs the aircraft began G. First bomb exploded and this knocked me a ten feet and everyone who had B near me all either badly maimed or killed from this explosion. Lot of men died right aroundu. How in T world do you suppose yoame out this alive? I haveid I’ve been wondering that ever since happened. Know it would be possible. Ot fathernd grdfather we admirals in navy.so, his life was prett much out for him from the day he was Bo. Joh McCain was born August 29th, 1936, in the Panama canal ne. Boot just into a military family, but a navaly. His grandfather on the deckf our, anding in a position O honor when Douglas Macarthur accepted surrender of the Japanese. It expect te woube in the Navy foris career. He would become anadmiral. That’s a tough to bear for a young man and as a young kind of rebelled against the ideahat H future was already set him. He sort of fought agt it. I was immature and a bit resentfult myth had been arted for me, either intentionally or unintentionally, by ?????? spite of his fami history, the young McCain was no star pupil at the academy. Far from As H would always remind you, he wuite last in hi CL but he was reallylose to last in his class Diansawyer interview John McCain for “20/20.” What doe 894 mean for you in. Fifth of the bottom of any class many the naval academy. If I hadod at the bottom, president Eisenhower, who spoke Y graduate, then would have shaken my hand persona Still, the young midshipn was a natural leader. And he was comfole awayrom S duties, T He loved women. He a went out without of women. Ays had woman on his arm. Even the Fam stripper, the flame of Florida. Is it — M MARIA the flame of miami Flame of Florida. Unlike father and grandfather, admirals who captained ships, McCain destined too sometng else. To F higher thanhe high seas. I always had theit being pilot. I wanted to be a Navy pilot. Y 1965, thealator had settled Dow decid to marry a did mother of two boys. The first thingn McCain did was tho two sons. So, he was very committed Fam man. First chd, his daughty Carol. Ou wrote, I wanted to go to vietnamnd faith with famire that was the reason? Job, in time of war, to go to where the sound O and I wanted to do that, I been training for someears T fly in combat. I erin knew that I was going into harm’s way but I also thought it was my job to do it. Ere’s also a certain amount of excitementociated.e thing about a lot of young pilots, T D think they’re ever going to get hurt. Three months after T fire, he flew off inisskyhawk bomber on a missionor W he N for more than five years. He would and captured behimy lines. He was toed. He was beaten. He was abused. It five-plus years of hell.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
