James Stockdale

James Bond "Jim" Stockdale (December 23, 1923 – July 5, 2005) was a United States Navy vice admiral and aviator who was awarded the Medal of Honor in the Vietnam War, during which he was a prisoner of war for over seven years.

Stockdale was the most senior naval officer held captive in Hanoi, North Vietnam.

Stockdale was born in Abingdon, Illinois, on December 23, 1923, the son of Vernon Beard Stockdale (1888–1964) and Mabel Edith Stockdale (Bond; 1889–1967).

Following a brief period at Monmouth College, he entered the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, in June 1943.

On June 5, 1946, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from the U.S. Naval Academy with the Class of 1947 due to the reduced schedule still in effect from World War II.

His first assignment was assistant gunnery officer aboard the destroyer minesweeper USS Carmick (DD-493) from June to October 1946.

He next served aboard the USS Thompson (DD-627) from October 1946 to February 1947, the USS Charles H. Roan (DD-853) from February 1947 to July 1948, and the USS Deming (PCS-1392) from July 1948 to June 1949.

Stockdale was accepted for flight training in June 1949 and reported to Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida.

He was designated a Naval Aviator at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas, in September 1950.

He was next assigned for additional training at Naval Air Station Norfolk in Virginia from October 1950 to January 1951.

In January 1954, he was accepted into the United States Naval Test Pilot School at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River base in Southern Maryland, and he completed his training in July 1954.

There he tutored the U.S. Marine Corps aviator John Glenn in mathematics and physics.

He was a test pilot until January 1957.

In 1959, the U.S. Navy sent Stockdale to Stanford University, where he earned a Master of Arts degree in international relations in 1962.

Stockdale preferred the life of a fighter pilot over academia, but he later credited Stoic philosophy with helping him cope as a prisoner of war.

He led aerial attacks from the carrier USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14) during the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident.

On August 2, 1964, while on a DESOTO patrol in the Tonkin Gulf, the destroyer USS Maddox (DD-731) engaged three North Vietnamese Navy P-4 torpedo boats from the 135th Torpedo Squadron.

After fighting a running gun and torpedo battle, in which Maddox fired over 280 5 in shells, and the torpedo boats expended their 6 torpedoes (all misses) and hundreds of rounds of 14.5mm machine gun fire; the combatants broke contact.

As the torpedo boats turned for their North Vietnamese coastline, four F-8 Crusader fighter aircraft from USS Ticonderoga (CV-14) arrived, and immediately attacked the retreating torpedo boats.

Stockdale (commander VF-51 (Fighter Squadron 51)), with Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Richard Hastings attacked torpedo boats T-333 and T-336, while Commander R. F. Mohrhardt and Lieutenant Commander C. E. Southwick attacked torpedo boat T-339.

The four F-8 pilots reported scoring no hits with their Zuni rockets, but reported hits on all three torpedo boats with their 20 mm cannon.

Two nights later, on August 4, 1964, Stockdale was overhead during the second reported attack in the Tonkin Gulf.

Unlike the first event, which was an actual sea battle, no Vietnamese forces were believed to have been involved in the second engagement.

The next morning, on August 5, 1964, President Johnson ordered bombing raids on North Vietnamese military targets which he announced were retaliation for the alleged incident of August 4.

When Stockdale was awakened in the early morning and was told he was to lead these attacks he responded: "Retaliation for what?"

Later, while a prisoner of war, he was concerned that he would be forced to reveal this secret about the Vietnam War.

On his next deployment, while commander of Carrier Air Wing Sixteen aboard the carrier USS Oriskany (CV-34), his A-4 Skyhawk jet was shot down in North Vietnam on September 9, 1965.

On September 9, 1965, while flying as the Carrier Air Wing Sixteen Commander from USS Oriskany (CV-34) on a mission over North Vietnam, Stockdale ejected from his Douglas A-4 Skyhawk, which had been struck by enemy fire and completely disabled.

He parachuted into a small village, where he was severely beaten and taken prisoner.

Stockdale was held as a prisoner of war in the Hỏa Lò Prison (the infamous "Hanoi Hilton") for the next 7 1⁄2 years.

As the senior naval officer, he was one of the primary organizers of prisoner resistance.

Tortured routinely and denied medical attention for the severely damaged leg he suffered during capture, Stockdale created and enforced a code of conduct for all prisoners which governed torture, secret communications, and behavior.

In the summer of 1969, he was locked in leg irons in a bath stall and routinely tortured and beaten.

When told by his captors that he was to be paraded in public, Stockdale slit his scalp with a razor to purposely disfigure himself so that his captors could not use him as propaganda.

When they covered his head with a hat, he beat himself with a stool until his face was swollen beyond recognition.

He served as president of the Naval War College from October 1977 until he retired from the navy in 1979.

As vice admiral, Stockdale was the president of The Citadel from 1979 to 1980.

In the early 1990s, he recounted: "[I] had the best seat in the house to watch that event, and our destroyers were just shooting at phantom targets—there were no PT boats there. ... There was nothing there but black water and American fire power."

Stockdale was a candidate for Vice President of the United States in the 1992 presidential election, on Ross Perot's independent ticket.

Academically, he ranked 130th among 821 graduates in his class.