Editor’s note: John McCain died Aug. 25 at the age of 81 after his battle with brain cancer.
When U.S. Sen. John McCain speaks at the Naval Academy Monday night, the 1958 graduate will be returning to familiar ground.
He’s expected to talk about leadership and service to the country, a topic he has addressed frequently. Here’s a look back at some of what he’s said:
More than 24 years ago McCain addressed the graduating class of 1993 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, telling them that though the Cold War may have ended the immediate threat of Communism, the world remains a dangerous place.
“Yours is a world where power projection must become the essence of our national defense,” he said.
Four years later, in September of 1997, McCain spoke to the brigade of midshipmen at Alumni Hall as part of the academy’s Forrestal Lecture Series. There he told the brigade that standing tall and serving America is a proud challenge, even in a cynical age. The key is honor, he told them.
“Virtue is not determined in moments of public attention to our behavior,” he said. “Courage, devotion, humility, compassion – all the noble qualities of humanity – are not practiced in pursuit of public approval.”
McCain was also asked if he intends to run for president — again, the year was 1997.
“I am very flattered by all this attention,” McCain said. “But I would remind you that as a senator, unless you are under indictment or detoxification, you always consider yourself a candidate for president.”
He first ran for president in 2000, when he lost the Republican primary to George W. Bush.
McCain also addressed the brigade less than a month after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, delivering a message about terrorism and its threat to America. That Oct. 9, 2001 speech was also a part of the Forrestal Lecture Series.
“They can ask an all-loving God for mercy,” McCain said in 2001. “But don’t ask us. We bring justice, not mercy.”
“My warrior days were long ago, but not so long ago that I have forgotten their purpose and their reward,” he told the midshipman. “This is your call to arms. This is your moment to make history. There will never be another nation such as ours. Take good care of her. The fate of the world depends upon it.”
McCain also spoke at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium in April of 2008, in a campaign event for his presidential run, though he did not address the brigade.
There he urged Americans to follow ideals greater than their own self interests, saying his “misspent youth” was only productive after he embraced serving his country.
“All lives are a struggle against selfishness,” he said. “If my life had not shared a common purpose, it would not have amounted to much more than eccentric.”
He also said in that speech that more Americans should recognize that the duties of citizenship don’t end at the voting booth, encouraging them to find small causes worthy of championing, and to serve in the military and at all levels of government.
“The cynical and indifferent know not what they miss, ” McCain said. “No nation complacent in its greatness can long sustain it.”
McCain spoke to the brigade again in 2012, once more as part of the Forrestal Lecture Series.
He started the lecture with a joke.
“It’s always a pleasure to return to Annapolis, or, as some of my classmates often refer to the Naval Academy during my years as a midshipman, the scene of the crime,” he said.
Toward the end of his lecture, he talked about the necessity of American leadership.
“The rumors of our decline can be proven premature, if we have the will, the fortitude and confidence to do in this century what we did in the last: help make this world another, better place than we found it,” McCain said in 2012. “We will only fail if we give up and become the first American generation to accept our destiny rather than make it. That would be a tragic fate not only for us, but for the progress of the human race.”
And McCain most recently addressed midshipmen remotely during a prerecorded interview with The Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward, which aired during the 2017 Naval History Conference, organized by the U.S. Naval Institute and held in Alumni Hall.
“I’ve been around a long, long time. I’ve made more mistakes than most anybody you will ever know, ” McCain said. “But one thing has guided me, is what I learned the first day I walked through the main gate at the Naval Academy. And that was do the right thing, and do it honorably, and you can never go wrong.”
In his video message, McCain – diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, over the summer – told the midshipmen that they’re blessed because at the academy they’re exposed to the “honor and integrity and courage” of the centuries of people who served in the Navy before them.
McCain’s grandfather, father and son all attended the academy, and last month in an interview with “60 Minutes, ” the six-term Arizona senator said he’d like to have a ceremony at the Naval Academy “when I leave.”
“So, my friends, the next time you’re walking around the Yard and you see one of these names – ‘I wonder who that was?’ – look them up. They were important for us to be able to have the lives we have today, ” McCain said. “And don’t let them down.”
The lecture starts at 7 p.m., and isn’t open to the public. It will be streamed live online.
