TOMMY ESPINOZA, FRIEND OF JOHN MCCAIN: He was warm. He was energy. He was going 100 miles an hour, but yet he made time to be with you. And then the second time we get a call to come to Las Vegas. This is, of course, when he's in his presidential campaign. And we end up in Las Vegas with his two right-hand folks that have always run his campaigns, which I have the greatest respect for. So we do the quick chitchat and then John says, I want you to speak on my behalf at the Republican convention.</s>LARRY FITZGERALD, ARIZONA CARDINALS BASEBALL PLAYER: "I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's." Senator McCain spoke these heartfelt words as he accepted the Republican nomination for president in 2008. They were the words of an authentic American hero. We all know how the story goes, a fiery Navy pilot shot down by the North Vietnamese over a lake near Hanoi. As his plane spun out of control, he bailed out to plunge into the lake below. That pilot, a young John McCain, was taken hostage as a prisoner of war where he spent more than five and a half years. Almost 2,000 days he would endure countless beatings, torture, solitary confinement, and mental and emotional anguish that none of us will ever have to endure. After getting to know Senator McCain, I felt compelled to visit Vietnam. I wanted to see the places where the will of John McCain was tested and forged. I saw the lake. I walked the steps. I sat in the cell. And the ordeal that my friend survived became all the more real. Many people might wonder what a young African-American kid from Minnesota and a highly decorated Vietnam War hero-turned United States Senator might have in common. Well, I thought of a few. I'm black. He was white.</s>JOE BIDEN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My name is Joe Biden.
Arizona Memorial Service for Senator John McCain. 