John McCain’s grandfather and father would become the first father-son team to reach the rank of four-star admiral.

“My father spoke of him to me often, as an example of what kind of man I should aspire to be,” John McCain recalled.

Halsey biographer Potter wrote that “there were few wiser or more competent officers in the Navy than Slew McCain.” The Navy honored him in 1953 by naming a new destroyer the USS John S. McCain. Slew McCain is buried next to his brother, William Alexander McCain, a cavalry officer known as “Wild Bill.”

Bill McCain, who graduated from West Point, chased Mexican insurgent Pancho Villa with Gen. John J. “Black Jack” Pershing, served as an artillery officer during World War I and attained the rank of brigadier general.

In his 1999 book, Faith of My Fathers, McCain details his Scotch-Irish roots, noting that his great-aunt was a descendant of Robert the Bruce, an early Scottish king. On this continent, McCain’s roots date to the American Revolution.

An early ancestor, John Young, served on Gen. George Washington’s staff. After the family moved to Mississippi, a number of McCain’s ancestors fought in the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy.

source: azcentral.com