On June 27, 1970, a reporter with a poetic bent described Admiral John S. McCain Jr. as the shortest, saltiest, and most incorrigible admiral in the Navy. That reporter was Col. R.D. Heinl Jr., and he was not exaggerating. McCain, standing barely five-foot-seven, paced the floor of his headquarters in Pearl Harbor with a cigar clenched in his teeth. He commanded the largest forward-deployed force in American history. His authority reached across 500 ships, 7,500 aircraft, and nearly a million servicemen scattered throughout the Pacific from the Golden Gate to the Indian Ocean.