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The Namesake: Vice Admiral James Stockdale
Sailors who serve aboard USS Stockdale (DDG 106) will strive every day to preserve and reinforce the ship’s motto “Return with Honor”. Your support will help our sailors share this message with people of all nations in honor of the ship’s namesake and become part of Admiral James Stockdale’s legacy. Admiral Stockdale was born December, 1923 in Illinois, and passed away July 5, 2005 in San Diego, California. Stockdale flew almost every propeller- driven aircraft in the Navy’s inventory. In 1954, he applied for test pilot school at Patuxent River, Maryland. Along with 17 others—including John Glen—he made the cut. He was a standout and amassed more than 1,000 hours I the F-8U Crusader, then the Navy’s hottest fighter. By the mid-1960'S, Stockdale was commanding a fighter squadron, at the height of his profession.
On September 9, 1965, Stockdale catapulted his A-4 Skyraider off the flight deck of the USS Oriskany on what turned out to be his final mission over North Vietnam. Approaching his target, his plane was riddled with anti-aircraft fire. Within seconds, his engine was aflame and all hydraulic control was gone. He punched out, watching his plane slam in a rice paddy and explode in a fireball
Stockdale wound up in Hoa Lo Prison – the infamous Hanoi Hilton, where he spent then next seven years under unimaginable conditions. He was tortured no less than 150 times. Techniques included beatings, whippings, and hanging by rope devices. Mental torture never stopped. He was kept in solitary confinement, in total darkness for four years, chained in abrasive leg irons for 2 years. Malnourished, denied medical care, and deprived of all communication from home in violation of the Geneva Convention.
Through it all, Stockdale’s captors held out the promise of treatment if he would only admit that the United States was in criminal behavior against the Vietnamese people. But, he refused. Drawing strength from principles of stoic philosophy, Stockdale heroically resisted. He continuously defied his captors and exercised qualities of leadership in the finest tradition of the United States Navy by organizing and leading his fellow P.OW.’s. He improvised a set of rules governing behavior centered on the tenets, “Unity over Self’’ and “Home with Honor”. Despite the brutality and solitary confinement, Stockdale always led by example and his valor and dynamic leadership provided P.O.W.’s with the faith and strength to endure their ordeal. His captors focused on him as a subversive and the architect of a detailed policy and communications network. These qualities led his fellow P.O.W.s to follow orders and admire the courage of the man many only new as “CAG".
Upon his release after seven years as a captive, his extraordinary heroism became known, and he received the Congressional Medal of Honor in the Nation’s bicentennial year. He also became the most highly decorated officer in the history of 5H3 Navy, with 26 personal combat decorations, four Silver Star medals, in addition to the Medal of Honor.
After serving as the President of the Naval College, Stockdale retired from the Navy and embarked on a distinguished academic career. He was President of The Citadel, and he spent 15 years as a senior research Fellow at the Hoover Institution of War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University. In 1992 Stockdale accepted the offer of his friend, businessman H. Ross Perot, to be the vice presidential candidate of the Reform Party. He is the only 3-star admiral in the history of the Nay to earn the Congressional Medal of Honor and wear aviator wings.
Mrs. Sybil Stockdale: An American Hero
Throughout Adm. Stockdale’s’ captivity, his wife, Sybil campaigned for respectful treatment for all P.O.W.’s and urged our country not to forget these prisoners, by founding the League of Families.
Mrs. Sybil Stockdale tirelessly organized and led a nationwide effort to focus attention upon, and publicize the plight of the prisoners of war, demanding that the treatment of the P.O.W.’s be improved. Her dynamic leadership and persistent
efforts at home and abroad were a major factor for the betterment of conditions for all P.O.W.’s imprisoned in Vietnam.
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