Wikipedia:Today's featured article/February 23, 2016

The military career of John McCain included attack aircraft missions as a naval aviator in the Vietnam War followed by internment for more than five years as a prisoner of war. His father and grandfather were admirals in the United States Navy. Born in 1936 in the Panama Canal Zone, McCain graduated in 1958 from the U.S. Naval Academy, where his rebellious attitude resulted in a low standing. Off the coast of Vietnam, he narrowly escaped death in the 1967 Forrestal fire. On a bombing mission in October 1967, he was shot down over Hanoi and badly injured in the crash before enduring periods of torture as a prisoner of war. In 1968, he refused a North Vietnamese offer of early release, because it would have meant leaving before other prisoners who had been held longer. He was released in 1973 after the Paris Peace Accords. Upon his return, McCain studied at the National War College and commanded a large training squadron in Florida. In 1979 he was promoted to captain and became the director of the navy's Senate Liaison Office. McCain has been a U.S. Senator from Arizona since 1987, and was the Republican nominee in the 2008 presidential election.