McCain was then commissioned an
ensign, and spent two and a half years as a naval aviator in training at
Naval Air Station Pensacola in
Florida and
Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in
Texas,
[19] flying
A-1 Skyraiders.
[20] He earned a reputation as a party man, as he drove a
Corvette, dated an
exotic dancer named "Marie the Flame of Florida", and, as he would later say, "generally misused my good health and youth."
[10] He began as a subpar flier, with limited patience for studying aviation manuals.
[21] During a practice run in Texas, his engine quit while landing, and his aircraft crashed into
Corpus Christi Bay, though he escaped without major injuries.
[21][19] He graduated from flight school in 1960,
[22] and became a naval pilot of
attack aircraft.
McCain was then stationed on the
aircraft carriers USS Intrepid and
USS Enterprise,
[23] in the
Caribbean Sea and in deployments to the
Mediterranean Sea.
[21] He was on alert duty on
Enterprise when it imposed a blockade and quarantine of
Cuba during the 1962
Cuban Missile Crisis.
[24][22] His aviation skills improved, but he had another close call when he and his plane emerged intact from a collision with power lines, after flying too low over
Spain.
[21] He was rotated back to shore duty, serving as a
flight instructor at
Naval Air Station Meridian in
Mississippi, where McCain Field was named for his grandfather.
[23]
By 1964 he was in a relationship with Carol Shepp, a
model originally from
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; they had known each other at
Annapolis and she had married and then divorced one of his classmates.
[19][23] On
July 3,
1965, McCain married Shepp in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
[18] McCain adopted her two children Doug and Andy,
[25] who were five and three years old at the time;
[23] he and Carol then had a daughter named Sidney in September 1966.
[26][27][28]
In fall 1965, he had his third close call when a
flameout over
Norfolk, Virginia led to his ejecting safely, and his plane crashed.
[21] McCain grew frustrated with his training role, and requested a combat assignment.
[20] In December 1966, McCain was assigned to the
aircraft carrier USS Forrestal, flying
A-4 Skyhawks with the
VA-46 "Clansmen";
[29] his service there began with tours in the
Mediterranean Sea and the
Atlantic Ocean.
[30] By this time, McCain's father had risen in the ranks, making
rear admiral in 1958 and
vice admiral in 1963.
[31] In May of 1967, his father was promoted to four-star admiral, and became
Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Naval Forces, Europe, stationed in London.
[4]
On
October 26,
1967, McCain was flying as part of a 20-plane attack against a
thermal power plant in central
Hanoi, a heavily defended target area that had previously been off-limits to U.S. raids.
[41][42] McCain's
A-4 Skyhawk was shot down by a Soviet-made
SA-2 anti-aircraft missile
[42] while pulling up after dropping its bombs.
[43] McCain
fractured both arms and a leg in being hit and ejecting from his plane.
No wonder he hates pilots. He wasn't any good at it himself
