Sen. John McCain, Former Presidential Nominee And Prisoner Of War, Dies At 81

Arizona senator and former Republican presidential nominee John McCain died Saturday at the age of 81.

McCain leaves behind his wife of 37 years, Cindy; seven children, including three from his first marriage, to Carol Shepp; and his 106-year-old mother, Roberta McCain.

Perhaps America's most famous prisoner of war, the former Navy pilot with a famous admiral father was shot down over Vietnam and spent 5 1/2 years as a POW in the north, most of that time in a prison sarcastically termed the Hanoi Hilton for the way inmates were treated.

McCain endured torture at the hands of his captors, a cause he would speak out against 40 years later as a United States senator during the Iraq War following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. McCain even voted against President Trump's nominee to be director of the CIA, Gina Haspel, for her role in overseas detention centers.

A Washington institution, McCain served in the Senate for more than 30 years, first entering public service as a congressman in 1982, just nine years after his release from the Vietnamese prison. - More, NPR

Sen. John McCain, Former Presidential Nominee And Prisoner Of War, Dies At 81