"Glory is not a conceit. It is not a decoration for valor. Glory belongs to the act of being constant to something greater than yourself, to a cause, to your principles, to the people on whom you rely and who rely on you in return." ~ John McCain
Vietnam war hero and US Senator, John Sidney McCain III (1936-) was born on this day in the Panama Canal Zone, the son and grandson of four-star admirals.
"Leadership is both burden and privilege," McCain said.
He graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1958 and served 22 years as an aviator, including over five years in a North Vietnamese POW prison after his plane was shot down over Hanoi in 1967. In solitary confinement for over three years, he was released in 1973 at the end of the war.
"Speaking from experience, failing stinks. Just don't stop there. Don't be undone by it. Move on. Failure is no more a permanent condition than success."
A longtime admirer of Ronald Reagan, McCain turned to politics in 1977 as the Navy’s liaison to the U.S. Senate. He was first elected to represent Arizona in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982, then elected to the Senate in 1985.
He ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for President in 2000 and turned to overhauling the campaign finance system. With a reputation as a politician willing to speak his mind, he once said, "If hypocrisy were gold, the Capitol would be Fort Knox."
Biographer Elizabeth Drew said of McCain: "His candor and forthrightness are a very powerful part of his political arsenal. It gives him a tremendous following--unlike any I've seen on Capitol Hill."
Glory comes with service to others.