Washington (CNN) On Sunday, Sen. John McCain will be honored in a private memorial service at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and laid to rest alongside his longtime friend and classmate, Adm. Chuck Larson.

"Chuck has his wingman back now," Sarah Larson, the wife of the late admiral, told CNN's John Berman in an interview on "New Day" Friday.

Sarah Larson, who was married to Chuck for 52 years before he died in 2014, said she first learned 20 years ago that McCain and her husband wanted to be buried next to one another.

"Chuck came home one day and he said, 'I picked out my grave,' and I went 'Oh, OK.' And when you do that kind of thing 20 some years ago, you don't think that's ever going to happen, so I just said, 'That's fine, good,' and he said, 'By the way, John is going to be next to me,'" Sarah Larson recalled.

She added, "That was 20 some years ago, and then all of a sudden, it hit that oh my goodness, they will be next to each other."

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