WHEREAS, on August 25, 2018, the Honorable John Sidney McCain III, senior United States Senator from Arizona and a true statesman and American patriot of our modern age lost his battle against brain cancer and passed away at his home in Cornville, Arizona; and
WHEREAS, the Chicago City Council has been informed of his passing by Alderman Edward M. Burke; and
WHEREAS, the Honorable John Sidney McCain III was a 1958 graduate of the United States Naval Academy; and
WHEREAS, on his twenty-third bombing mission during the Vietnam War in October 1967, the Honorable John Sidney McCain III was shot down over Hanoi and badly injured; and
WHEREAS, the Honorable John Sidney McCain III endured five-and-a-half-years as a prisoner of war and endured subsequent tortures before his release from captivity in 1973; and
WHEREAS, in 1968 he refused an offer of early release because he did not want to leave behind other prisoners of war who had been there longer; and
WHEREAS, the Honorable John Sidney McCain 111 retired from the Navy as a captain in 1981; and
WHEREAS, the Honorable John Sidney McCain III was awarded the Navy Commendation Medal and the Bronze Star Medal for missions flown over North Vietnam; and
WHEREAS, included among his other military service decorations and awards were the Silver Star, two Legion of Merits, Distinguished Flying Cross, three Bronze Star Medals, two Purple Hearts, two Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals, and the Prisoner of War Medal; and
WHEREAS, the Honorable John Sidney McCain III entered politics and won election to Arizona's first Congressional District in 1982; and
WHEREAS, the Honorable John Sidney McCain III was elected to the United States Senate for the first time in 1986, succeeding the Honorable Barry Goldwater; and
WHEREAS, the Honorable John Sidney McCain III won re-election to the U.S. Senate five times; and
WHEREAS, the Honorable John Sidney McCain III won the 2008 Republican Party presidential nomination and garnered 173 electoral votes in the fall election; and
WHEREAS, as the senior senator from Arizona, the Honorable John Sidney McCain III stood at the center of foreign and domestic policy making for over three decades; and
WHEREAS, throughout his distinguished thirty-two year tenure in the U.S. Senate, the Honorable John Sidney McCain III made campaign finance reform one of his highest priorities, resulting in passage of the McCain-Feingold Act of 2002; and
WHEREAS, in the spirit of bi-partisanship, the Honorable John Sidney McCain III worked tirelessly to achieve meaningful and lasting immigration reform and a "cap and trade" system to curb greenhouse gas emissions and championed anti-smoking campaigns targeting the tobacco industry; and
WHEREAS, in 1997, the Honorable John Sidney McCain III became Chairman of the Commerce Committee; and
WHEREAS, in 2015, the Honorable John Sidney McCain 111 became Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee; and
WHEREAS, up until his cancer diagnosis, the Honorable John Sidney McCain III maintained an exhaustive overseas travel schedule, meeting with his counterparts from around the world to promote peace, cooperation and mutual understanding among nations; and
WHEREAS, the Honorable John Sidney McCain III is a respected and revered hero of our nation; now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, That we, the Mayor and the members of the Chicago City Council assembled this twentieth day of September, 2018, do hereby join with city, state, and federal government and the citizens of the United States as we mourn the passing of the Honorable John Sidney McCain III and express our profound sorrow and deepest condolence to his widow Cindy Lou Hensley McCain; his sons John Sidney IV ("Jack") McCain; James McCain; Andrew McCain; Douglas McCain; and daughters Bridget McCain; Sidney McCain; and Meghan McCain; and