Grand Island man recollects time spent with John McCain in the navy

Posted By: KLKN Newsroom

8@Klkntv.com

Grand Island, Neb

Tributes are pouring in for John McCain. His colleagues, family and people all over the nation reflecting on his life of service.

One Nebraska man is LSO sharing his story on what it was like to serve under McCain in the Navy.

Al Gosda of Grand Island said McCain was actually his commanding officer in 1976 at the naval base in Jacksonville, Florida.

"I was almost two years in VA 174 where John was a commanding officer there for a short time there," Gosda said.

Although he said he met McCain a couple of years after he was released as a Vietnam prisoner of war, Gosda said you could certainly still see how much his time locked up took a toll.

"First time I ran into John was at an airplane hangar and we exchanged pleasantries. My first impression was where did he buy that shirt, because it was three sizes too big for him. He must’ve gotten it at the little boys department because his arms were just skin and bones, since he had just come back from the prison camp,” Gosda said.

He said for the almost two years he worked with McCain, he doesn’t have anything bad to say about him.

"All you get is impressions because of brief encounters and he was always very polite and if you were talking to John he was always focused on the conversation," Gosda said.

McCain will lie in state Wednesday at the Arizona state capitol on what would have been his 82nd birthday.

On Friday, he will lie in state in Washington D.C.