When Arizona Sen. John McCain needed someone to introduce him at a rally last fall, the honor went to retired Navy Capt. Jack Fellowes.

Fellowes, of Annapolis, offers a perspective on the presidential candidate that few others could: The pair attended the Naval Academy in Annapolis together in the 1950s and later shared a cell at the Vietnamese prison camp known as the Hanoi Hilton.

"I talked as much as I could about his bravery in prison, his integrity and honesty," Fellowes said of the four-term senator.

As McCain attempts to lock up the Republican presidential nomination in a crucial round of primaries on Super Tuesday, he is relying on a select group of supporters: military veterans, including those he knows from his days at the academy and in Vietnam.

McCain, the son and grandson of Navy admirals, boasts military credentials unique among the presidential candidates. His military background has drawn veterans who helped him win primaries in South Carolina and Florida, and they stand to be a force today, when more than 20 states hold primaries and caucuses.

Many military veterans will naturally flock to the campaign of McCain, in the same way that large numbers of women support Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and many blacks support Sen. Barack Obama, said Larry J. Sabato, a political science professor at the University of Virginia.

"Everybody looks for something they have in common with the candidates," Sabato said. "McCain is not just a veteran, he was a war hero, POW, and naturally this is a story that tends to attract people."

That story begins with McCain's time at the Naval Academy, where he graduated in 1958, finishing near the bottom of his class. He had a reputation as a bit of a troublemaker, and he reportedly came within a few demerits of expulsion. When he served as a guest speaker at a political science class at the academy in 2005, he thanked the class, tongue in cheek, for having him back to the "old school where I did so well."

A Navy pilot, he won several decorations for heroism in Vietnam, where he spent more than five years in a prison camp after a missile downed his airplane.

If elected, McCain would be the second academy graduate to occupy the Oval Office, after Democrat Jimmy Carter.

Many former Naval Academy classmates of McCain's have signed up to support his campaign.

Frank Gamboa, a retired Navy captain who roomed with McCain in the academy's Bancroft Hall, joined about two dozen veterans who traveled by bus to New Hampshire last month to campaign for McCain in that state's primary.

The group visited local veterans posts, emphasizing McCain's character and leadership skills, Gamboa said. McCain scored a stunning come-from-behind victory in New Hampshire, six months after his campaign was written off by many observers.

More than 150 members of McCain's Class of 1958 belong to a Washington-area alumni chapter, Gamboa said. "I haven't met one yet that's not supporting him," he said.

Norm Bednarek of Annapolis, a 1959 academy graduate, said he recently started wearing a pin from McCain's 2000 campaign that reads "FMBNH," or "For McCain Before New Hampshire."

He has driven numerous times to Northern Virginia to volunteer at the McCain campaign's national headquarters.

Veterans' support of McCain is about more than simply a brotherhood mentality, Bednarek said.

"I don't think that plays as much as the recognition that you know what the training was for leadership, and you know the guy's got leadership skills," Bednarek said. "You know you can trust his judgment."

McCain, 71, still maintains ties to the academy. He sits on the Board of Visitors, an oversight panel, and his son, John McCain IV, is a midshipman second class majoring in political science. The elder McCain has spoken on the campus in recent years, and he joined his son for last year's Army-Navy football game.

"I've suggested a number of times, he's the closest thing we have to a favorite son, because he did live here for four or five years," said Donald E. Murphy, a former Baltimore County delegate who is a co-chairman of McCain's campaign in Maryland.

McCain's support among veterans contrasts somewhat with that for Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004.

Although Kerry also was a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, he was the target of negative campaigning from the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which raised questions about his record in Vietnam that were widely disputed.

After returning from Vietnam, Kerry had testified before Congress in 1971 about American military "atrocities" in Vietnam and participated in anti-war protests.

For McCain, veterans could play a significant role today in states with heavy concentrations of military veterans, Sabato said. Maryland will hold its primary Feb. 12.

Sabato pointed to exit polls showing that among veterans who voted in the South Carolina GOP primary, McCain held a double-digit edge over former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

"Any state that has a large proportion of veterans and military personnel, McCain has a natural connection," Sabato said.

josh.mitchell@baltsun.com