At Annapolis, McCain, admirals' son, calls for service to country

by Jill Zuckman

Sen. John McCain takes another patriotic walk down memory lane today when he returns to the Naval Academy in Annapolis and recalls the most important lesson he learned there – the importance of serving a cause greater than your own self-interest.

McCain famously graduated fifth from the bottom of his class.

“In truth, my four years at the Naval Academy were not notable for exemplary virtue or academic achievement but, rather, for the impressive catalogue of demerits I managed to accumulate,” he is expected to say, according to prepared remarks. “By my reckoning, at the end of my second class year, I had marched enough extra duty to take me to Baltimore and back seventeen times -- which, if not a record, certainly ranks somewhere very near the top.”

Nevertheless, McCain, pictured here in the arms of his grandfather the admiral and a father who also became an admiral, managed to absorb the importance of many of the Naval Academy’s lessons – honor, courage, sacrifice and the expectation of proving worthy of the country’s trust.

“In a later crisis, I would suffer a genuine attack on my dignity, an attack, unlike the affronts I had exaggerated as a boy, that left me desperate and uncertain,” McCain will say, referring to his time as a prisoner of war. “It was then I would recall, awakened by the example of men who shared my circumstances, the lesson that the Academy in its venerable and enduring way had labored to impress upon me. It changed my life forever. I had found my cause: citizenship in the greatest nation on earth.”

McCain will call upon Americans to become active participants in their democracy.

“If you find faults with our country, make it a better one. If you are disappointed with the mistakes of government, join its ranks and work to correct them,” he will say. “I hope more Americans would consider enlisting in our Armed Forces. I hope more would consider running for public office or working in federal, state and local governments.

“But there are many public causes where your service can make our country a stronger, better one than we inherited,” say McCain’s remarks. “Wherever there is a hungry child, a great cause exists. Where there is an illiterate adult, a great cause exists. Wherever there are people who are denied the basic rights of man, a great cause exists. Wherever there is suffering, a great cause exists.”