--- title: John McCain Called Families of Late USS John McCain Sailors description: In honor of a new film about John McCain, his speechwriter shares a story about how the Senator paid tribute to sailors killed on duty. canonical: https://time.com/5290796/john-mccain-hbo-documentary-story/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-05-28T16:00:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:53:24.209Z article:section: History og:title: John McCain Called Families of Late USS John McCain Sailors og:description: His speechwriter shares a story about how the Senator paid tribute to sailors killed on duty og:url: https://time.com/5290796/john-mccain-hbo-documentary-story/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c39dca49835e740/698931984ee262c078311ebf/mccain-john-memorial1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2405 og:image:height: 1353 og:image:alt: mccain-john-memorial og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John McCain Called Families of Late USS John McCain Sailors twitter:description: His speechwriter shares a story about how the Senator paid tribute to sailors killed on duty twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c39dca49835e740/698931984ee262c078311ebf/mccain-john-memorial1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Moving Way John McCain Honored Sailors Killed on the Ship That Bears His Name > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-sub-2026q3/newsletters?i=fa9ee11b-0455-436f-a954-07a53739e78e&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) * TIME Subscriptions: [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-sub-2026q3/subscribe?i=fa9ee11b-0455-436f-a954-07a53739e78e&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Sen. John McCain, Ill With Brain Cancer, Tells Western Allies 'I Am Counting on You... to Never Give Up' [Watch (HLS stream): Sen. John McCain, Ill With Brain Cancer, Tells Western Allies 'I Am Counting on You... to Never Give Up'](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/V3ock2Uh.m3u8) (7:46)  _Published 2018-02-20. Cindy McCain accepted an award on behalf of her husband John McCain, who is ill with brain cancer, on Saturday night at the Munich Security Conference_  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer May 28, 2018 4:00 PM UTC  U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) Clair Popkin—Courtesy of HBO  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer May 28, 2018 4:00 PM UTC Every year on [Memorial Day](http://time.com/5291026/memorial-day-started-birthplace-history/), the last Monday in May, Americans take time to honor their fellow citizens who have died serving in the armed forces. But that doesn’t mean there’s only one day on which those Americans are remembered. Case in point: this poignant anecdote about Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), himself a Navy veteran who spent more than five years in the prisoner-of-war camp known as the “Hanoi Hilton” during the Vietnam War. Memorial Day marks the premiere of an HBO documentary about McCain, which features his longtime speechwriter Mark Salter, who also co-wrote McCain’s latest [memoir. ](http://time.com/5287133/john-mccain-memoir-book-quotes/)Speaking about the documentary, TIME asked Salter to recall a favorite memory about McCain, and Salter mentioned something McCain did last summer, after 10 crew members were killed when the destroyer USS _John S. McCain_ — which is [named after the Senator’s father and grandfather, both Navy admirals](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/20/world/asia/uss-john-mccain-collision-merchant-ship.html) — [collided with a merchant vessel](http://time.com/5006790/pacific-navy-collisions-avoidable/) east of Singapore. Salter said he had gone to have dinner with McCain at his Phoenix home. The Senator was a few weeks into [treatment for](http://time.com/5260113/john-mccain-health-book/) the [brain cancer](http://time.com/5260113/john-mccain-health-book/) he continues to battle and, Salter says, the effects were starting to be visible to those who spent time with him. But, Salter says, he found that McCain had nonetheless given himself a difficult task. “He was sitting at a table calling the families of every member on the USS _John S. McCain_ that had been killed in that accident to express his condolences,” says Salter. “He’s not the Secretary of the Navy. He’s not the Secretary of Defense. He’s not the President of the United States. \[He’s\] just one American recognizing the sacrifice that other American families had just made and wanting them to know that he was thinking about them, wanting to know — what did they need? What could he do for them? Then he’d call his staff and say, ‘this family wants this, see what we can do to get it for them.’ “No fanfare, drew no attention to it. Just a guy being decent at a moment when he had a lot of things to deal with.” The HBO [documentary](https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/john-mccain-for-whom-the-bell-tolls) _John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls,_ which also features insight from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Vice President Joe Biden, premieres at 8 p.m. on Monday. ## Transcript John especially wanted to be here to receive the high honor that you've so carefully bestowed on him this evening. He asked me to join you in his place, and to read a short statement from him to all of you. To my dear and cherished friends, and to my worthy adversaries, It breaks my heart that I cannot be with you tonight. But as Cindy has no doubt told you after may public consultations and polite disagreements with our doctors I was strongly advised not to come to Munich. As you all know, I never second guessed the experts. I want to thank Joe Biden, Wolfgang Ischinger, and all of my friends in Munich for honoring me with the award named for a man who was my hero, a visionary. An inspiration to us all, and to the reason we are all here, [ UNKNOWN ] Of all my many adventures and remembrances, Munich always stands out, I think about my days as a young navy captain escorting Senator John Tower and his colleagues to this conference, and watching as they help steer the transatlantic alliance through the hedious days of the cold war I think about being with Joe Biden and Bill Cohen. By the way, Bill Cohen was the best man in our wedding. Bill Cohen, and so many others who as we expanded NATO and took it to war in the Balkans. And I will always remember drinking schnapps With Joe Lieberman and later Sheldon Whitehouse. I offer these reflections not to bask in sentiment but because it raises a deeper question. Why do we come to Munich? Yes it is fun and friendships and fond memories, But that is not why Ludwig Von Kleist first brought the western world together here five decades ago and why we come back year after year. The real reason we come to Munich is because we believe that certain values should order our world. That the peace and prosperity we cherish depend on the survival and success of those values. And that they are worth the fighting for. We come to Munich because we want to live in a world where truth transcends falsehood. Sovereignty triumphs over subjugation. Justice reigns over oppression. Freedom overcomes tyranny. Where power is transformed into legitimacy and the fate of people and nations is determined by the rule of law and not the whim of rulers. We come to Munich because we know, and we can never afford to forget, that the alternative to a world ordered by these values is a dark and cruel place. Where laws, and rules, and rights count for nothing, and selfish brute force Trumps all. But put simply, we come to Munich because sustaining our vision of world order, what requires wealth and power and realism, is not merely a material struggle, it's a moral struggle. It's about the values that will govern our world. That is why we are allies, that is why we have stood by each other and sacrificed for each other and invested in our common defense and why we must continue to do so? My friends, if there is a benefit that comes from a advanced age It's the sense of perspective that forward. I have been blessed with an extraordinary life, I have experienced my share of hardship and suffering and conflict but there is no question that the world I have a good fortune to live in is more peaceful. More prospers and more fill with love and happiness and beauty and the values we all cherish in the world my father and grandfather knew. My youngest children have only read about the Berlin wall, their world was never divided by it, their lives were infected by a shadow. But for those of us born before the Cold War, or during the Cold War, that blessing was the achievement of a quote long and twilight struggle. I remember the enormous sacrifice it entailed. The many brave souls, some of whom were my friends gave their lives to secure it. I remember a span of more than half a century, when for all our differences, Americans maintained a bipartisan commitment to the freedom and security of our allies. All together, with our allies, we kept faith with those on the other side of those walls. Principles that divided the oppressed from the free. We were confident they wanted the same things we did, freedom, equal justice, the rule of law, a fair change to prosper by their own industry and talents. We kept the faith and we prevailed. This is our greatest inheritance and it did not happened by accident, it was born of imagination, and resolve, and good service. Much of it rendered every year, every year here in Munich. I have endeavored to do my small part to defend the values we hold dear. And I can assure you that the rewards I have derived from this service are far greater than the contribution that I have made. I find myself more and more returning to the words of Marilyn Robinson. It has seemed to me sometimes as though the Lord breathes on the poor gray ember of creation, And it turns to radiance for a moment, a year, or a span of life. Whatever your turn your eyes and the world can shine. It shines for transfiguration. You don't have to bring a thing to it, except a little willingness to see That is to acknowledge that there is more beauty than our eyes can bear, that precious things have been put into our hands, and to do nothing more than to honor them would do great harm. I am counting on on all of you as my friends. To honour the precious beautiful [ UNKNOWN ] that still entrusted in our care. I am counting on you to be brave. I am counting on you to be useful. I am counting on you to keep your faith and never give up though the true radiant of our world may at times seem obscured. Though we will never suffer adversity and set backs and misfortune. Never ever stop fighting for all that is good and just and decent. Our world and each other thank you. 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