Decorations register · Notice Nearby
No rights-safe contemporary likeness is on file. The record is the decoration and the writing, not an invented face.
John S. McCain III
1936–2018
Captain (retired; Navy biographical data also lists wartime ranks through Commander)
Attack Squadron 163 (VA-163); shot down over North Vietnam October 1967; POW until March 1973
Documented decorations
Purple Heart
one gold star (two awards)
Named on the official Navy biographical data release for John S. McCain III (Navy Personnel Center / U.S. government work).
Public sources
Bronze Star Medal
Combat “V” and two gold stars (three awards)
Named on the official Navy biographical data release; published valor citations describe POW resistance under Combat “V”.
Public sources
Silver Star
Named on the official Navy biographical data release for gallantry while interned as a POW, October–December 1967.
Public sources
John Sidney McCain III’s Purple Heart, Bronze Star Medal, and Silver Star are on the Navy’s own released biographical awards list — not on a campaign flyer. The Navy Personnel Center data names the Purple Heart with one gold star, the Bronze Star Medal with Combat “V” and two gold stars, and the Silver Star, among other decorations. This page records those three. It will not invent a fourth valor medal the Navy list does not carry.
The Silver Star and Bronze Star citations that have been published describe resistance under interrogation and cruelty in North Vietnamese prisons after his A-4 was shot down in October 1967. The Purple Hearts are the Navy’s public mark of wounds. A long Senate career is public fact. It is not a military decoration, and it is not printed here as if it were.
He is not yet on the Vietnam war-roll essay. This decorations page is the first Notice Nearby entry for his named awards. Living politics stay off this register.
This name is not yet on a war-roll essay. The decorations above are the documented public record this register will stand on until that essay is written.
A publisher register — not a verification
This decorations register is publisher-curated from public records — Medal of Honor Society citations, published general orders, and official Army, Navy, and Marine Corps biographies. It is not a verified-veteran product. Notice Nearby does not certify service and does not issue badges.
A paid or unpaid memorial does not enroll anyone here. Checkout, VET50, and a family’s mention of service on an obituary are not applications to this list. We add a name only when a public official source names the decoration.
Claiming a decoration that was not awarded is stolen valor. It is a disrespect to those who earned the medal and, in some cases, a federal crime. This register will not invent an award to fill a page.
These pages are a historical register. They are not Legal Publication, not a newspaper notice, and not proof that a statute was satisfied.