The Separate Peace of John And Carol

John had known Carol since his days at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. She was dating one of his classmates, Alasdair Swanson, whom she later married. That marriage was brief, but produced two children, Doug and Andy.

After divorcing Swanson, Carol began seeing McCain. After their marriage, John adopted Carol's boys and the couple had a daughter together, Sidney, in the fall of 1966.

On Oct. 26, 1967, McCain took off from the USS Oriskany for a bombing run over Hanoi. When a wing of his A-4E Skyhawk was sheared off by an antiaircraft missile, McCain ejected. His broken body was dragged from a lake by North Vietnamese soldiers and civilians, who bayoneted him and beat him. He was thrown into prison.

He wouldn't see his wife or children until 1973.

Carol, living in Florida at the time, endured without her husband of 28 months. Two years after McCain's capture, her life took another traumatic turn. During a visit to her parents in Philadelphia just before Christmas 1969, she braked on an icy patch of road. The car slid into a utility pole, throwing Carol from the vehicle. The car came to rest on top of her. She lay in the cold for hours before rescuers found her.

The accident left her with two broken legs, a broken pelvis, a ruptured spleen and numerous scars. The injuries were so dire that doctors considered amputating her legs to save her. Instead, they rebuilt them with rods and pins. She was confined to a hospital bed for six months, and her children were sent off to her parents and friends in Florida.

McCain never learned of his wife's accident while in prison; Carol said she didn't want word of her grievous injuries to upset him further.

After leaving the hospital weighing 80 pounds, Carol gradually regained her strength. But the combined effect of prolonged inactivity and nearly two dozen surgeries distorted what had been her model's figure. When McCain returned home, the Long Tall Sally of his imagination was four inches shorter, heavier and moved about only with the aid of a wheelchair or crutches. He, too, was on crutches from his injuries.

Both of them gradually restored some of their physical vigor through torturous physical therapy sessions. And for several years in the 1970s, the family was whole again.

McCain, who resumed his Navy career upon his return, became a minor celebrity. He spoke often to groups about his war experiences, giving speeches that were by turns poignant and hilarious. Among the people he charmed were Ronald and Nancy Reagan, who met the McCains in 1973 during Reagan's second term as California governor.

The two couples became friendly, and Carol McCain worked on Reagan's 1976 presidential campaign in Florida. In late 1979, Nancy Reagan hired her as a press assistant for the 1980 campaign, easing some of Carol's distress about her impending divorce.

Nancy Reagan later arranged for Carol and Sidney to live with the family of future attorney general Edwin Meese in Southern California at the time of the divorce, then named her to head the White House Visitors Office after Reagan was elected.