Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., will be buried “back where it began,” next to his old Navy buddy Chuck Larson–not at Arlington National Cemetery where his father and grandfather are buried.
McCain wrote in his memoir: “The Restless Wave” that he wants to be laid to rest “in the cemetery on the Severn River in Maryland.”
“I want to smell the rose-scented breeze and feel the sun on my shoulders,” McCain wrote. “I want to watch the hawks hunt from the sycamore, and then take my leave bound for a place near my old friend Chuck Larson, in the cemetery on the Severn River, back where it began.”
A Naval Academy spokesman has confirmed that McCain has a dedicated plot at the cemetery that is close to Larson.
McCain and Larson developed a lifelong friendship during their time in the Naval Academy. Larson died in 2014 at the age of 77.
The war hero and 2008 presidential nominee wrote in his memoir that Larson was someone he “looked up to since we were boys,” and called it a “privilege and an honor, as a young man and an old one, to serve in Chuck’s shadow.”