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McCain, John. Grandson of a US Navy admiral. Son of a US Navy admiral. Fighter pilot aboard the Forrestal — in one of the A-4 Skyhawk aircraft destroyed in the fire — one of, if not the, first aircraft affected when a Phantom loosed a rocket on the deck (hat tip to DKos poster Timpanogus). Forty-one years ago, the Navy yanked McCain out of a burning plane — and off the carrier where it caught fire. He was transferred immediately. The plane was recorded as a crash, credited to McCain. His fifth and final crash resulted from being shot down over Vietnam. One of McCain's wrecks is on the bottom of Corpus Christi Bay; one’s in Iberia; one was jettisoned over the side of the Forrestal during that god-awful inferno that killed 134 sailors that same day, destroyed more than 20 combat aircraft, and sent the ship into drydock so long she never went back to Southeast Asia air operations.