John McCain first entered the public spotlight as a Navy fighter pilot during the Vietnam War. Taken prisoner after his plane was shot down, he suffered five and a half years of torture and confinement before his release in 1973. In 1986, he began his long tenure as the U.S. senator from Arizona, a position he holds to this day. McCain ran for president on the Republican ticket in 2008, losing to Democrat Barack Obama in the general election. EARLY LIFE “Now, we begin the mos