 For his first ten years , " Johnny " McCain ( the nickname he was given as part of a family tradition of distinguishing the generations ) was frequently uprooted as his family , including older sister Sandy ( born 1934 ) and younger brother Joe ( born 1942 ) , followed his father to New London , Connecticut , Pearl Harbor , Hawaii , and other stations in the Pacific Ocean . Summer vacations were sometimes spent at the family 's <unk> plantation , but McCain always felt his heritage was military , not Southern . McCain attended whatever naval base school was available , often to the detriment of his education , as schools were sometimes substandard and their curricula often erratic . After the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor , his father was absent for long stretches . His formal education was supplemented by the efforts of his mother , who took advantage of the family 's many long @-@ distance travels to expose him to historical and cultural sites . He later wrote , " She taught me to find so much pleasure in life that misfortune could not rob me of the joy of living . " A Republican , she also made sure that he followed current events , although his parents avoided outward partisan affiliations due to his father 's military career . 
