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For what it’s worth...Here’s some McCain history ala Wiki.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_life_and_military_career_of_John_McCain

Naval Academy

John McCain at the U.S. Naval Academy, mid-1950s
Having done well on its entrance exams,[5] McCain entered the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, in June 1954, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather.[40] He had neither been ordered to go there by his parents nor discussed alternatives; as he later wrote, “I remember simply recognizing my eventual enrollment at the Academy as an immutable fact of life, and accepting it without comment.”[41]

Ambivalent about his presence there,[40] McCain chose not to conform to the Academy’s rules and some of its traditions.[42] Each year he was given over a hundred demerits – earning him membership in the “Century Club”[20] – for offenses such as shoes not being shined, formation faults, room in disorder, and talking out of place.[40] His father came to the Academy to reprimand him on his behavior a number of times.[32] He hated “plebe year”, the trial by ordeal and hazing of entering midshipmen that would eventually weed out one quarter of the class.[43] He did not take well to those of higher rank arbitrarily wielding power over him – “It was bullshit, and I resented the hell out of it”[40] – and occasionally intervened when he saw it being done to others.[20][32] At 5-foot 7 inches[13] and 127 pounds[44] (1.70 m and 58 kg), he competed as a lightweight boxer for three years, where he lacked skills but was fearless and “didn’t have a reverse gear”.[44] In his final year, he managed the battalion boxing team to a brigade championship.[45]

Possessed of a strong intelligence,[46] McCain did well in a few subjects that interested him, such as English literature, history, and government.[20][40] There was a fixed Bachelor of Science curriculum taken by all midshipmen;[47][48][49] McCain’s classmates were impressed by his cramming abilities on mathematics, science, and engineering courses[50] and thought his low grades were by inclination and not ability,[20] while McCain would later acknowledge that those courses were a struggle for him.[51] His class rank was further lowered by poor grades for conduct and leadership, which reflected his sloppy appearance, rebellious attitude, and poor relations with his company officer.[50][52] Despite his low standing, he was popular and a leader among his fellow midshipmen, in what biographer Robert Timberg called a “manic, intuitive, highly idiosyncratic way”.[40] Good at attracting women,[20] he was famed for organizing off-Yard activities with a group who called themselves “the Bad Bunch”;[32] one classmate said that “being on liberty with John McCain was like being in a train wreck.”[40] Other midshipmen were annoyed by his behavior.[32] A June 1957 training cruise aboard the destroyer USS Hunt[53] found McCain showing good skills at the conn,[54] and the destination stop in Rio de Janeiro led to a dream-like romance with Brazilian fashion model and ballerina Maria Gracinda that persisted through a Christmastime reunion.[55][56]

McCain graduated from the Naval Academy in June 1958; he was fifth from the bottom in class rank, 894th out of 899.[40] Despite his difficulties, McCain later wrote that he never defamed the more compelling traditions of the Academy – courage, resilience, honor, and sacrifice for one’s country – and he never wavered in his desire to show his father and family that he was of the same mettle as his naval forebears.[57] Indeed, Slew and Jack McCain had not had sterling records at the Academy themselves, finishing in the bottom third and bottom twentieth respectively.[58] McCain realized later that the Academy had taught him that “to sustain my self-respect for a lifetime it would be necessary for me to have the honor of serving something greater than my self-interest”, a lesson that he would need to carry him through a “desperate and uncertain” time a decade later.[57]