McCain ends 81-year journey with burial at Naval Academy

As Americans paid their final respect, the war hero John McCain is being laid to rest at the Naval Academy in Annapolis Maryland on Sunday. He will be buried alongside his longtime friend and classmate, Adm Chuck Larson.

Senator John McCain's daughter Meghan McCain paid tearful tribute to her father on Saturday at memorial service which was attended by former presidents and leaders of both Democratic and Republican parties. 

Former Presidents Barack Obama and George W Bush eulogized him at Washington National Cathedral at the service. 

Meghan McCain made no secret of her unhappiness with Trump's criticism of her father as she said, "He (John McCain) was a great man, we gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness, the real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice."

Trump, who has feuded publicly with McCain as he mocked for getting captured in Vietnam. US President was not invited to any events as he spent day tweeting and golfing.

However, top members of Trump's administration including his daughter Ivanka, son-in-law Jared Kushner, chief of staff John Kelly and national security adviser John Bolton were present at the solemn cathedral service.

The statesman and former prisoner of war died August 25 of brain cancer, days shy of his 82nd birthday. 

McCain was a leading voice for revamping the country's immigration, campaign finance and environmental laws. But it was his military service, punctuated by years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, that molded McCain's political life.

McCain, who rose to the rank of captain in the US Navy, was shot down over Hanoi while on a bombing mission in 1967.

Held as a prisoner until 1973, McCain was tortured by his North Vietnamese captors in a jail that Americans dubbed the "Hanoi Hilton."

(With inputs from news agencies)