? McCain's father, Admiral John S. "Jack" McCain Jr., Naval
Academy class of 1931, won the Silver Star for his command of
two submarines during World War II. 


John McCain with his father Admiral John S. McCain Jr. 


? McCain's mother Roberta Wright McCain, was
born on February 7, 1912 with her twin sister, Rowena, in
Muskogee, Oklahoma.  She married John S. McCain, Jr., on
January 21, 1933, in Caesar's Bar, Tijuana, Mexico.
Roberta McCain, now aged 96 is still active and visible,
during her son's 2008 presidential campaign.


John McCain's mother, Roberta Wright McCain


? Paternal grandfather, Rear Admiral John S. "Slew"
McCain,  born in Carroll County, Mississippi, August
9, 1884, the son of John Sidney and Elizabeth-Ann Young
McCain.  He was a student at the University of Mississippi,
1901-02, graduated from the United States Naval Academy in
1906 and the Navy War College in 1929.  He married Katherine
Vaulx, August 9, 1909. Their children were: John Sidney, James
Gordon, Katherine Vaulx. He was a grizzled old sea dog who
commanded aircraft carriers in the Pacific during World War II
 most notably as a commander of the Fast Carrier Task Force.
He bet on horses, drank bourbon and water, and rolled his own
cigarettes with one hand.  McCain's exceedingly skillful
tactics protecting Canberra (CA-70) and Houston (CL-81) in
October 1944 earned him the Navy Cross. He witnessed the
Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on
Sept. 2, 1945.


John McCain's grandfather, John S. "Slew" McCain


While the majority of his service was reportedly excellent, a
lapse in McCain's leadership of his forces significantly
contributed to the Allied defeat and heavy losses in one of
the naval battles around Guadalcanal. McCain had been
requested to conduct extra reconnaissance missions over "The
Slot" in the Solomon Islands on August 8, 1942. For reasons
never explained, McCain failed to order the missions as
requested, and furthermore, didn't inform the Allied naval
commanders at Guadalcanal that they weren't carried out. As a
result, Allied naval forces were surprised and defeated in the
Battle of Savo Island on August 9, a defeat that jeopardized
the entire Guadalcanal operation for the Allies. 
Admiral John "Slew" McCain died on Sept. 6, 1945 and is buried
in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington DC.

		

• Barack Obama's mother is Ann Dunham.
She was born on November 29, 1942 in Wichita, Kansas, to
Stanley and Madelyn Dunham.  Ann attended the University of
Hawaii, where she met Barack Obama Sr. The two were married in
1960 and gave birth to Barack Jr. in 1961. In 1963 the couple
divorced and Ann Obama then married oil manager Lolo Soetoro,
another University of Hawaii student from Indonesia. In 1967,
when Soetoro's student visa was revoked because of political
unrest in Indonesia, Dunham and Barack, then in first grade,
accompanied him back to Jakarta where Obama's half-sister,
Maya Soetoro was born. Four years later Barack Obama Jr. was
sent back to the United States to be raised by her parents. 
Ann succumbed to ovarian cancer on November 7th, 1995.


Barack Obama Jr. with his mother Ann Dunham Obama

 
Barack Obama Jr. with his mother, Indonesian step-father Lolo
Soetoro,
and his sister Maya Soetoro in Jakarta Indonesia in 1970


• Obama's father is Barack Hussein Obama
Sr., economist, born in Alego, Siaya District, Kenya
in 1936.  He met Ann Dunham while a student at the East-West
Center of the University of Hawaii.  The couple married in
1960 and divorced in 1963 when Obama was two years old.
Barack Hussein Obama Sr. died in a car crash in Nairobi, Kenya
in 1982, leaving three wives, six sons and a daughter, all but
one of his children live in Britain or the United States.  He
is buried in the village of his birth.


Barack Obama Sr.

 
Barack Obama Sr.



• Barack Obama's maternal grandfather is Stanley
Armour Dunham, born on March 23, 1918 in Kansas,
Missouri.  At age 8 he found the body of his mother, Ruth
Armour Dunham, who had committed suicide at age 26.  He worked
on oil rigs during the Great Depression and served in the Army
during World War II.  He had an itch for adventure, moving his
family from Kansas to Texas to Washington state and finally to
Hawaii where he worked as a furniture salesman.  He died on
February 8, 1992 in Honolulu, Hawaii and is buried in
Punchbowl National Cemetery, Honolulu, Hawaii.

• Barack Obama's maternal grandmother is Madelyn
Lee Payne Dunham, born in October 1922 in Wichita,
Kansas.  She worked on a bomber assembly line during the war
and as vice-president of a bank.  She passed away on the eve
of the of the Presidential Election, November 3rd,2008 in
Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii at the age of 86.



Barack Obama Jr. with his maternal grandparents at his high
school graduation.

 
Barack Obama Jr. with his grandparents Madelyn and Stanley
Dunham.


• Obama's paternal grandfather is Hussein
Onyango Obama.  He was born in 1895 in Kenya and died
in 1979.