WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain will be buried Sunday afternoon at the U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery in Annapolis, Maryland, following a private service at the academy’s chapel.
The Vietnam veteran and six-term senator’s plot is next to that of his longtime friend and academy classmate Adm. Chuck Larson, who passed away four years ago.
The cemetery, which is about 6.7 acres in size, was laid out in 1869. A columbarium was added in 1987. Its beautiful grounds, overlooking the Severn River and College Creek, are the final resting place for numerous other notable people. Below are some of them:
- Vice Adm. James Stockdale, like McCain, was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. The Medal of Honor recipient was also Ross Perot’s running mate when Perot made a surprising independent run for president in 1992.
- Rear Adm. C. Wade McClusky led the air attack at the Battle of Midway, turning the tide of World War II.
- Steve Belichick was a Naval Academy football coach and father of New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick. Watch the younger Belichick visit his dad’s grave here.
- Adm. Joseph Mason Reeves made major advances in Naval aviation and is credited with creating one of the very first football helmets, made out of leather.
- Charles Zimmerman was bandmaster at the Naval Academy and composed “Anchors Aweigh,” the academy’s fight song.
- Rear Adm. Wilson Flagg and his wife Darlene died aboard American Airlines Flight 77 when it crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.
McCain’s memorial service and burial will be closed to the public, and there will be limited public access to the Naval Academy starting at 1 p.m. Sunday.
If you’d like to visit the cemetery on another day, you’ll have to pass through security and follow some rules. If you can’t make it in person, the cemetery also has a searchable list of many burial records online that includes photos of headstones and details of their inscriptions.
