John S. McCain, Jr.-- Part 3: Lackluster USNA Career, Then, Subs

John S. McCain, Jr. entered the United States Naval Academy at age 16 in 1927 and accumulated many demerits and had just mediocre grades.  He was also known as a drinker and quite the partier, very dangerous during Prohibition.  He graduated  in 1931 #423rd out of 441.

Upon graduation, he was appointed ensign and assigned to the battleship Oklahoma.  (His father had also spent time on the doomed cruiser USS San Diego which was sunk by a mine during Wold War I.)  The USS Oklahoma was sunk at Pearl Harbor in 1941.

While stationed on the USS Oklahoma, based in Long Beach, California, he met Roberta Wright and when her parents objected, they eloped and were married in Tijuana, Mexico.

He managed to get into Submarine School at Naval Submarine Base New London in Connecticut.  There he placed #28 out of 29.

Next came service on the  old World War I-era submarines S-45 and R-13.  In 1940 and early 1941, he was on the more modern Skipjack.  In April 1941, he received his first command, the World War I submarine O-8.  This ship had been decommissioned in 1931, but with WW II imminent, was called back to duty as a training ship with McCain in command.

--GreGen