Waiting for John McCain
By Archives Specialist Vishi Garig: A Service of the Clay County Clerk of the Circuit Court
Oct
ober 27, 1967: John McCain’s wife and children had just been notified that John was missing in action.
His plane was shot down over Hanoi, Vietnam. They did not know it yet, but their waiting would last five
and a half years, years spent in Orange Park, Florida.
Carol McCain was no shrinking violet. A true Navy wife, she set about waiting for his return with grit and
determination. Naval aviator’s spouses spend most of their marriages waiting: waiting for them to go on
deployment, waiting for them during deployment, waiting for them to come back from deployment.
Today, cycles of “going to sea” last at least six months and happen at least twice in a three year duty
assignment. If you’re a carrier pilot you go out with the carrier even more often on training missions.
Now just imagine that your Navy pilot is going to war. He or she is going to be shot at, maybe captured or
killed. They might be gone for a very long time. It takes a special person to be a Navy spouse and Carol
McCain was one of those.
Carol Shepp McCain was nick-named “Long Tall Sally” by John. She stood 5’ 8’’ and had been a swim wear
model back in her home state of Pennsylvania. She was tall, thin and beautiful. She and John met first
when he was at the Naval Academy. By the time they reconnected, she was divorced with two young sons.
She and John married in 1965 and he adopted her children. Soon they would have a daughter named
Sydney together.
They were stationed at Cecil Field in 1966. His squadron was slated to go to Yankee Station off the coast
of Vietnam for deployment in September 1967. Carol and the children would stay behind in Orange Park.
After the customary Navy good bye on the tarmac, the family went home and John flew off to meet the
carrier Oriskany. It was only about a month later that John was shot down.
Son Doug McCain told the Virginia Beach Pilot newspaper about his memories of the day his father was
shot down. “It was my first day of Cub Scouts and I came home and my mother was crying at the kitchen
table”, he recalled.
Carol busied herself while waiting. Official records at the Clerk of the Courts showed that she improved
their home at 553 Fatio Lane, Orange Park, by a adding on a room addition, a swimming pool and a new
septic tank and fuel tank. Back in 1969, in Florida, for a married woman to take out a mortgage, buy a
house and so on she had to have herself declared a “free dealer”, giving herself the same rights she had
as if she was a single woman. In October 1969 she filed her petition and got a court order making herself
a free dealer. She had no choice - John was locked up at the Hanoi Hilton as a prisoner of war (POW).
Carol McCain took the kids to visit her family in Pennsylvania. On December 23, 1969, Carol was traveling
on icy and treacherous roads to deliver gifts. Her car slid headfirst into a telephone pole propelling her
through the front windshield. She lay grievously injured in the snow. Hours went by before she was
discovered. Her injuries were massive; her legs, and an arm were crushed. There were internal injuries,
too. Surgeons, in order to save her legs, removed about 5 inches of bone in each leg. She was no longer
“Long Tall Sally.” She spent six months in a hospital bed. She had to learn to walk again. Ross Perot, an
advocate of POWs, paid her medical bills. True to form, she refused to allow the military to notify John of
her injuries. She felt that he had enough to worry about in captivity.
All the while, friends and neighbors in Orange Park helped care for her and her children. Folks in Clay
County do that to this day when deployment is underway.
After his release in 1973 John was eventually assigned to command the training squadron (RAG VA-174)
at Cecil Field. After serving serval more years in the Navy and making the rank of Captain, he retired. John
McCain divorced Carol in 1980 and later married Cindy Henley. Carol went on to be the director of the
White House Visitors Center under the Reagan Administration.
When McCain came though Jacksonville during his 2008 presidential run he spoke to reporters with Action
News Jax. “Long ago, when I was away in prison, the town of Orange Park and the people of Jacksonville
could not have been kinder to my family during the period when I was away, nor have been more warm
in welcoming me home”, he said. "The people of Jacksonville opened their hearts to my family," he added.
"My children had about 50,000 parents while I was gone and I'm very grateful."
McCain wrote in his memoirs that Orange Park neighbors fixed his house, took kids to sports and "helped
my family hold together, body and soul."
Carol Shepp McCain owned the house at 535 Fatio Lane till she and John sold it in 1979 to Leonard and
Susan Certain.
Sources: File of Clay County Archives, New York Times, United Press International, Florida Times Union,
Action News Jax, First Coast News, The Virginia Beach Pilot, Faith of My Fathers by John McCain, The
Washington Post, http://memory.loc.gov
With Dad in Vietnam, Carol celebrates Thanksgiving with Doug, Andy and Sidney. (Family Photos) From
the Washington Post Farhi, Paul (October 6, 2008). "The Separate Peace of John and Carol”
A j
oyous return in 1973.
At
home in Orange Park in the mid-1970’s. (family photos) From the Washington Post Farhi, Paul
(October 6, 2008). "The Separate Peace of John and Carol”
http://memory.loc.gov
