Nimitz, exhausted and afraid of mosquitoes, stayed inside,īut the others, half-naked, raced from the shelter and dove for the nearest trench. That night, as the visiting dignitaries slept in a hut, they launched a vicious bombing attack. Was secured by then, but Japanese aircraft still bombed regularly. "Bull" Halsey, and Navy secretary Frank Knox were making an inspection tour of Guadalcanal. One tale unearthed by Potter goes back to January 1943 when McCain, Pacific Fleet commander Chester Nimitz, South Pacific commander William F. "There were few wiser or more competent officers in the Navy than Slew McCain, but whenever his name came up, somebody had a ridiculous story to tell about him - and many of the stories were true," said Potter. Poorly fitting false teeth, which caused his speech to be plagued by whistles, compounded the problem, as did a herky-jerky gait and a high-strung, fidgety nature, characteristics he passed on to his son and grandson. Bony, wizened, with a hooked nose and sunken cheeks, he turned sixty during World War II and looked at least ten years older, according to naval historian E.B. John Sidney McCain defied the image of the senior naval officer. The solemn, somewhat cadaverous figure in the picture had evoked both cheers and howls in his lifetime, but never indifference. On such occasions, he abandoned his studied nonchalance toward things military. "That's my grandfather, right there," he would tell friends, pointing excitedly to a framed photograph of the historic Japanese surrender ceremony aboard the battleship As a teenager, John McCain didn't talk much about the Navy, but when he did it was evident that he understood he was the inheritor of an uncommon seafaring legacy.
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