Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Nathan Burke/U.S. Navy via AP
Sen. John McCain is laid to rest at the United States Naval Academy Chapel, Sept. 2, 2018, on Sunday, Sept. 2, 2018.
- Senator John McCain was buried on Sunday at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
- McCain trained there as a young man in the 1950s, and met his best friend Chuck Larson.
- Larson later became a US Admiral, and chose burial plots at the academy with space for McCain, himself, and their wives.
Sen. John McCain was finally laid to rest on Sunday at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland a day after a ceremony in Washington, D.C., where thousands of prominent business, media, military, and political figures came to pay their respects.
In contrast, Sunday's ceremony at McCain's alma mater was small and private. The late senator graduated from the elite naval academy in 1958, where he met his friend Chuck Larson, before serving in Vietnam as a fighter jet pilot.
Larson, who later became a US admiral, and McCain forged a strong bond and decided to be buried next to each other.
Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Nathan Burke/U.S. Navy via AP
The pair had made the decision 20 years ago, when Larson told his wife that he had selected four plots for them and their wives, Larson's wife Sarah told CNN.
"Chuck came home one day and he said, 'I picked out my grave, and I went 'Oh, OK,'" Sarah Larson told CNN's John Berman in an interview on Friday. "So I just said, 'That's fine, good,' and he said, 'By the way, John is going to be next to me.'"
Hundreds of midshipmen lined the route from the academy chapel to the cemetery.
Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Nathan Burke/U.S. Navy via AP
Family and friends walked behind the carriage holding his casket. Navy jets formed a "missing man" formation in the sky in his honor.
Sunday's ceremony concluded over a week of services for the late senator, who died on August 25 at the age of 81 from brain cancer.
McCain is survived by his 106-year-old mother Roberta, seven children, and his second wife, Cindy, who paused for an emotional moment with his casket during his memorial in Arizona last week.
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