A hero's farewell Vietnam POW icon Stockdale honored at memorial service

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Subject: A hero's farewell Vietnam POW icon Stockdale honored at memorial service

 


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A hero's farewell

Vietnam POW icon Stockdale honored at memorial service


By Rick Rogers
STAFF WRITER
July 17, 2005

A fighter-bomber bearing his name stood vigil as eight Medal of Honor recipients escorted the flag-draped coffin of retired Vice Adm. James B. Stockdale yesterday on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan at North Island Naval Air Station.

NELVIN CEPEDA / Union-Tribune

Navy pallbearers carried the casket of retired Vice Adm. James B. Stockdale past his family on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan during yesterday's memorial service at North Island Naval Air Station. Stockdale, a Coronado resident, died July 5.

Stockdale was remembered as a leader, a teacher, a father and a hero at the memorial service, attended by hundreds. "There is a time to live and a time to die," Navy Secretary Gordon England told the audience. "And there is also a time to honor heroes." Stockdale, who also was presidential candidate Ross Perot's running mate in 1992, died July 5 at his Coronado home with his wife and four sons at his side. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease five years ago. He was 81.

He was one of the most decorated officers in U.S. naval history, having received two Distinguished Flying Crosses, two Purple Hearts and four Silver Stars among his 26 combat decorations. He also was the only three-star admiral to wear both aviator's wings and the Medal of Honor. Stockdale was awarded the nation's highest combat honor in 1976 for his actions as a prisoner-of-war leader after being shot down Sept. 9, 1965.

By convincing his captors at Hoa Lo Prison, known as the "Hanoi Hilton," that he would rather die than capitulate, Stockdale became a symbol and leader of the U.S. resistance against North Vietnamese attempts to use prisoners for propaganda. Stockdale once smashed his face with a stool to keep from being used in a propaganda film. Stockdale, the highest-ranking Navy officer captured during the war, was forced to wear leg irons for two years and spent four years in solitary confinement.

He and other POWs were released in early 1973. "Stockdale was and is revered," said Ray Merritt, 76, who also was shot down in September 1965. "Stockdale was always the epitome of a superb leader. He was far and away the leader of those who were in the same prison with him."prison with him."


NELVIN CEPEDA / Union-Tribune
Vice Adm. James Zortman, commander of Naval Air Forces and Naval Air Force, Pacific Fleet, presented Sybil Stockdale the flag that was flown aboard the Ronald Reagan the day her husband died.

Stockdale's accomplishments were not lost on younger sailors. "He was one of the more decorated officers of the Vietnam era. I studied him at the Naval Academy," said Lt. Peter Quinn, 29, an F/A-18 pilot. "It was not hard to get volunteers for this (service)." Stockdale's appeal transcended the military.

"He was an amazing man. He went through stages of outstanding accomplishments," said Robert Marbut Jr., who juggled his schedule to bring his three children to the memorial service. Marbut, 44, said he and others benefited from the years Stockdale spent as chairman of the President's Commission on White House Fellowships.

He said Stockdale shaped the program by emphasizing the education gained by sitting down with the likes of Henry Kissinger, Alexander Haig and David Brinkley. Fellows serve a year as special assistants to the vice president, members of the Cabinet and the president's staff. In addition to the work assignment, the fellowship includes an education program. President Johnson started the program in 1964.

Marbut was a White House Fellow from 1989 to '90, the year after Stockdale left as chairman. "He really grew the program. Adm. Stockdale added prestige to the program," Marbut said. "He was a consummate teacher. I was the benefactor of his leadership and thought it was important to bring the kids because they don't know a lot about him."

Stockdale's four sons offered tributes that taken together described a grounded man of humor, wit and intellect who loved his family as much as they loved him.

James Stockdale II recalled being a 10-year-old and complaining to his father about all the things his friends had that he did not. "Entitlement and privilege corrupt," Stockdale remembered his father advising him. Sidney B. Stockdale said his mother, Sybil, wrote him a letter every week while her husband was held captive.

He said she always concluded her letters with the same blessing: "May God keep you dearest all the lonely nights. The wind is still, the moon shines down on Western hills. God keep you dearest till the light." Stockdale will be buried Saturday at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.
Rick Rogers: (760) 476-8212; rick.rogers@uniontrib.com
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Contribuited,
YNCS Don Harribine, USN(ret)