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Remembering VAdm. James Bond Stockdale, 1923-2005
Naval Aviation News, Sept-Oct, 2005 by John Sherwood
On 9 September 1965, Commander James Stockdale flew his 202nd combat mission over North Vietnam in an A-4 Skyhawk. What should have been a straightforward attack against a group of railroad cars south of Thanh Hoa turned into a seven-year odyssey that transformed this 40-year-old commander of Air Wing 16 into one of the U.S. Navy's most inspirational heroes.
Stockdale was born on 23 December 1923 in Abingdon, Ill., and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946. Initially a surface officer on fast minesweepers, he transferred to aviation in 1949, earning his wings in 1950. Stockdale immediately proved to be a standout aviator. Qualified as a landing signal officer in 1952, he attended test pilot school at the Naval Air Test Center in Patuxent River, Md., in 1954, and served as an academic and flight instructor there until 1957. Early in 1960, as the executive officer of Fighter Squadron (VF) 24, he became the first person to amass more than 1,000 flight hours in the F-8 Crusader.
Later in Vietnam, Stockdale played a significant role in the Gulf of Tonkin incident, which the Johnson administration used to justify the deployment of major U.S. ground, air, and naval forces to Southeast Asia. As the commanding officer of VF-51 on Ticonderoga (CVA 14), his flight of F-8s strafed three Vietnamese P-4 patrol boats that attacked Maddox (DD 731) on 2 August 1964, leaving one of the P-4s dead in water and on fire. For this mission and his role in leading a retaliatory attack against a tank farm near Vinh, North Vietnam, on 5 August, Stockdale received the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC). He later earned a second DFC and a Legion of Merit for his leadership and heroism as the commander of Air Wing 16 from May to September 1965.
It was in North Vietnamese captivity, however, where his courage and strength as a leader became legend. Stockdale endured 15 torture sessions, untreated broken bones, and four years of solitary confinement, but never lost his will to fight. A student of Greek philosophy, Stockdale often quoted the Stoic, Epictetus, "Lameness is an impediment to the leg but not to the will."
To avoid being paraded in front of foreign journalists in 1969, Stockdale bludgeoned his face with a wooden stool and cut his scalp with a razor, knowing the North Vietnamese would not display a disfigured prisoner. In addition to his personal ordeals, Stockdale was an effective leader of other POWs, helping develop a communications system and a comprehensive set of rules governing prisoner behavior. His hard-line attitude toward his captors and his dictum, "unity over self," also made him a role model for others.
After the war in 1973, Stockdale was promoted to rear admiral, and in 1976, President Gerald Ford awarded Stockdale the Medal of Honor for his service to the country in captivity. He was one of only two naval aviators from the Vietnam War period to receive the nation's highest decoration. As president of the Naval War College from 1977 to 1979, Stockdale convinced a technically oriented service of the importance of studying the humanities. He developed the philosophy course "Foundations of Moral Obligation," which is still taught at the War College today. The course has provided generations of officers not only with a basic grounding in Western philosophy but also with an ethical compass to use throughout their careers. Excerpts from Stockdale's book, Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter Pilot, now comprise part of the course's syllabus.
Retiring from the Navy in 1979 as a vice admiral, Stockdale held other positions of distinction, including president of the Citadel military college in South Carolina; senior research fellow at the Hoover Institute at Stanford University, Calif; and candidate for Vice President of the United States in the 1992 elections.
Admiral Stockdale died on 5 July 2005 in Coronado, Calif., after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. In the words of fellow POW RAdm. (Ret.) Jeremiah Denton, Stockdale had "limitless physical courage." He was also one of the Navy's great minds of the last century.
John Sherwood is a historian in the Contemporary History Branch of the Naval Historical Center.
COPYRIGHT 2005 Department of the Navy, Naval Historical Center
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group
