decades who often laughed together, clearly of two parties of two very different sets of political ideologies, but it is just a notable moment that they each suffered from this cancer and passed on the same day nine years apart. of course, senator mccain was also very close friends with joe biden, former vice president whose son beau and forged a bond between the families that existed from years of friendship through the senate but certainly in this time over the last 13 months of the public awareness of the diagnosis for senator mccain, the bidens and the mccains have shared a lot of what that experience of going through such a difficult cancer has been. the other thing i m struck by, richard, is when we think of senator mccain and the warrior serving his country, the political maverick at times, controversial at times, always in the arena, i m also very struck by his sense of humor. if you were in the halls of
joyful warrior. i ve enjoyed every single day of it. the good ones and the not so good ones. i ve been inspired by the service of better patriots than me. reporter: patriotism rooted in family. his father and grandfather both admirals passed down his name and his navy career. more than 50 years ago on his 23rd mission over vietnam, enemy fire downed his plane. american planes were shot down and two of their pilots captured. one of them was lieutenant commander john mccain. reporter: a prisoner of war for almost 2,000 days, tortured and beaten. to the hospital where i almost died. reporter: mccain refused early release to deny communist north vietnam a propaganda victory. in 1973 a celebrated welcome home. courage in war that forged his national identity. i fell in love with my
those years, of course, he ran for president in 2008. lost to barack obama. his concession speech was considered one of the most gracious in the years since he remained a vital control on national security and senate armed services committee chairman and the bill to provide for the pentagon bears his name. senator john mccain, a friend i have known for 22 years and covered all that time passed away peacefully today. richard. nbc s kelly o donnell there with the mccain family with the sad news and details. kelly, thank you very much for that. announcer: this is an nbc news special report. hi, richarrd lui at nbc headquarters with a special report. sad news, again, arizona senator john mccain has died.
fight for more than a year. he announced his brain cancer diagnosis in july of last year and has not been at the u.s. capitol since december. he fought hard taking chemotherapy surgeries and then the family announced on friday that it would it had reached the time when senator mccain decided he would not seek any additional medical treatment and in the about 30 hours since that announcement was made i m told that those who loved him and were closest to him were around him at the family ranch. other former staffers, friends and aides have been coming in to arizona both in phoenix and here in the sedona area to say good-bye to a man who served his country in so many ways. an irascible character, a patriot, at times certainly the midst of controversy whether it was issues like immigration reform or the subject of torture, he was a voice, air clear voice on that issue for many years having suffered such great torture when he was held as a prisoner of war during
we have heard this happened at 4:28 local time. we re getting that announcement from senator mccain s office on friday his family announcing medical treatment was being stopped. mccain had been fighting an aggressive form of brain cancer for more than one year. cindy and john mccain were married for 38 years, senator john mccain would have been 82 this wednesday. again, breaking news this hour, arizona senator john mccain has died at the age of 81. here s nbc s kelly o donnell with more. reporter: a spirited young aviator, the fierce campaigner. we face many dangerous threats in this dangerous world. but i m not afraid of them. i m prepared for them. [ applause ] reporter: an irascible statesman. we never hide from history. we make history. reporter: through it all, john mccain carried himself as a