John Sidney McCain III (born August 29, 1936) is the senior United States Senator from Arizona and presumptive Republican Party nominee for President of the United States in the upcoming 2008 election.McCain's grandfather and father were the first pair of father/son Four-Star admirals in the United States Navy. McCain graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1958. He became a naval aviator, flying attack aircraft from carriers. During the Vietnam War in 1967, he narrowly escaped death in the Forrestal fire. On his 23rd bombing mission over North Vietnam later in 1967, he was shot down, badly injured, and captured as a prisoner of war by the North Vietnamese. He spent five and a half years as a prisoner of war, including periods of torture, before he was released in accordance with the Paris Peace Accords in 1973.McCain retired from the Navy in 1981 and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona's 1st congressional district in 1982. After serving two terms, he was elected to the Senate in 1986, winning reelection in 1992, 1998, and 2004. While generally adhering to conservative principles, McCain has established a reputation as a political maverick for his willingness to disagree with his party on several key issues. Surviving the Keating Five scandal of the 1980s, he made campaign finance reform one of his signature concerns, eventually co-sponsoring the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act in 2002.McCain lost the Republican nomination in the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush after closely contested battles in several early primary states. In the 2008 presidential election cycle, McCain staged a comeback after his campaign stumbled in mid-2007, and by the end of January 2008, he was the Republican front-runner once again. Following victories in early February and the withdrawal of his closest competitors, McCain gained enough delegates to solidify his status as the presumptive nominee on March 4, 2008.