Vice Admiral (VADM) James Bond Stockdale was one of the most highly decorated officers in the history of the United States Navy. He was one of only 15 Medal of Honor recipients for the entire Vietnam War, and the only VADM to wear both aviator wings and the Medal of Honor. Stockdale was the highest ranking Prisoner of War (POW) in Vietnam.
His family hailed from Mt. Pleasant, the “Athens of Iowa,” a leader in women’s rights and education. James was born in Abingdon, Illinois on December 23, 1923, the only child of Mabel Edith (née Bond), a master’s level school teacher, and Vernon Beard Stockdale, a company executive. Vernon enlisted in the Navy after his boss Jim promised to hold his job; James was named after him.
Mabel’s influence meant education had a high priority, and Vernon hoped Jim would attend Annapolis. He was so careful about ensuring admission that he gave Jim carrot juice because the eye exams were “very stiff.”
Jim Stockdale spent many days of his childhood listening to Vernon’s Navy stories. In grammar school and high school, he excelled in academics, music and athletics. After a year at Monmouth College, close to home at his mother’s request, he was appointed to the US Naval Academy, Class of 1947.
Just before graduation, Jim met smart and sassy Sybil Bailey on an Easter weekend blind date. Soon after, Jim asked her if she wanted to look at “miniatures.” A tradition for Academy Graduates was to give miniatures of class rings for engagement. Jim and Syb’ married June 28, 1947.
She would later be recognized for her own heroic efforts to make the public aware of the sufferings of POWs in Vietnam and their families at home.
Ensign James Stockdale received his diploma with a handshake from Admiral Nimitz, while Vernon beamed as the photographer he hired took pictures of his only child. Also in his graduating class were future United States President Jimmy Carter, and Commander Everett Alvarez, the first American shot down and captured in Vietnam. Alvarez recalled, “In hindsight, it was as if Stockdale was meant to be there…as if God had a plan for him.” Jim’s Naval Academy yearbook, the Lucky Bag,’ included a herald for each graduate. Jim’s said “it would be a lucky man who found himself deployed with Stock.” That prophesy proved true.
The newlyweds moved to the then southernmost house (literally) in America, on Key West, Florida, where Sybil credited her reading of The Navy Wife with preparing her for naval life. Their four boys, James Jr., Sidney, Stanford, and Taylor, came along in the many duty stations where the family resided.
Jim’s early appointments were as an officer aboard minesweepers and destroyers before he his was trained as a Navy fighter pilot in Pensacola, Florida, in 1954. Jim was selected for Test Pilot School with 17 others, including John Glenn, the first man to orbit the earth.
In between assignments flying the F8 Crusader, Jim earned a master’s degree at Stanford University in 1962. Sybil earned hers there as well. He later credited those stoic philosophy studies with giving him “inner strength” to survive torture and imprisonment.
Stock then returned to sea. He flew almost every aircraft in the Navy’s inventory, accumulating over a thousand hours in the top fighter, the F-8U Crusader. By the mid-1960s, he was commanding a fighter squadron aboard USS Oriskany in the Tonkin Gulf when the controversial “attack” on the Destroyer Maddox plunged the US into war. This action on the part of the US was a challenge Stockdale describes in he and Sybil’s book, “In Love and War.”
On September 9, 1965, Commander James Stockdale was shot down after he “launched his A-4E Skyhawk off the flight deck of USS Oriskany approaching his target, his plane riddled with anti-aircraft fire that set his engine aflame within seconds. With no way to maneuver, Stockdale had no choice but to punch out from the aircraft, and he watched as his plane slammed into a rice paddy and exploded in a ball of fire.” Jim’s father Vernon died earlier that year.
Stockdale would endure extensive solitary confinement and periodic torture for nearly 8-years at the infamous Hoa Lo Prison, or “Hanoi Hilton” and other prisons in Hanoi. Jim was among those who spent two years in solitary confinement for their resistance. The “Alcatraz 11” were held in a separate facility where they were shackled every night in 3×9 foot cells with bright lights 24/7. It was there that he earned the reputation as an exemplary leader by many POWs, including another 2015 banner recipient on the Avenue of Heroes, Vice Admiral Ed Martin.
Sybil and their sons lived in Coronado during his imprisonment in the home they purchased just one year before.
Stockdale took his role as highest ranking prisoner seriously. He organized resistance among fellow prisoners, established a code of conduct, and developed a secret communication system to talk with other POWs. He passed information to Navy Intelligence through coded letters to Sybil, confirming that there was torture.
While he fought his battle in the French Colonial dungeon of Vietnam’s communist prisoner of war camp, Sybil fought the battle on American soil for POW recognition. She, like other wives obeyed the “keep quiet” policy until one televised prisoner blinked torture in Morse code. In response, Sybil and members of her POW/MIA support-group formed the National League of Families of American Prisoners Missing in Southeast Asia. She became a powerful spokesperson. Before long she met key leaders in Washington DC and organized the National League of Families, for better treatment of POW families.
While her efforts made headlines at home, Commander Stockdale’s conduct would earn him the nation’s highest award, the Medal of Honor. He shared that story in an interview shortly before his death.
“One day, sometime in 1969, the camp Commander said to me: “You will meet some of your countrymen tomorrow. I knew that he intended to show me off to another peace delegation’ as a humbled ‘war criminal,’ and I wanted no part of it. I used a large piece of wood as a club to beat my face, then smashed the glass in a small window and used sharp shards to cut open the mess. The injuries were horrible, but similar to others our captors had repeatedly inflicted on us. Obviously, I was not shown off. In an odd way, however, our captors were somehow impressed by my gesture. For the final years of captivity, we were not treated quite as brutally. I understand that this episode and its aftermath, was one reason I earned the Medal of Honor.”
That year was pivotal.
Sybil’s work brought pressure on Hanoi. The Viet Kong wanted a positive image to encourage the wave of US anti-war activism and celebrity endorsements. Then, Ho Chi Minh, who lived less than a mile from the prison, died. Treatment of POWs improved.
Just over four years later, on February 12, 1973 the North Vietnamese released nearly 600 POWs. Jim rejoined Sybil, and his nearly grown children in Coronado. He continued in the military as president of Rhode Island’s Naval War College until retiring in 1979.
In civilian life Stockdale was president of the Citadel Military Academy and a senior research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, a prominent think tank. He became Ross Perot’s running mate in their 1992 third-party run for the Presidency. Perot had worked alongside Sybil for Operation Homecoming that resulted in POW release.
VADM Stockdale continues to be an inspiration through the places, projects, and scholarships that bear his name – in Coronado and across the country. The roadway into Naval Air Station North Island (NASNI) is named for him, as is the VADM James B. Stockdale Building. The University of San Diego’s hosts the annual James Bond Stockdale Leadership and Ethics Symposium. VADM Stockdale was inducted into the Navy’s Carrier Hall of Fame, and on April 18, 2009, USS Stockdale (DD106) was commissioned in his honor. There is a plaque in front of the Coronado Public Library dedicated to both Jim and Sybil.
The Stockdale family spent many happy years fully engaged in all aspects of the community of Coronado. As members of the Hotel Del Beach and Tennis Club, Jim and Sybil could often be seen swimming at the pool and walking up and down their beloved “A” Avenue. Their sons attended Coronado schools, and all went on to have careers in education, something both Jim and Sybil were extremely proud of.
In that same interview where the retired Vice Admiral shared his Medal of Honor story, he was asked what he still wanted to do after he had accomplished so much. He replied, “I just want to take care of Sybil; nothing more.”
VADM James Bond Stockdale passed away in July of 2005 and was laid to rest at the Naval Academy Cemetery. His Naval Academy classmate, best friend, and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Deceased) ADM William Crowe delivered the eulogy and Chief of Naval Operations ADM Mike Mullen (Retired) closed with a final tribute.
Sybil continues to reside in Coronado. She and son Taylor and daughter-in-law Anne Stockdale were present at the Avenue of Heroes dedication ceremony in 2014.
*Family update:
Jim Stockdale, the oldest son, went to Mercersburg Academy, a boarding
school in Pennsylvania in the fall of 1966. He went on to graduate from
Ohio Wesleyan and had a career in education administration. He is now
retired living in Beaver PA and is doing some writing and other projects.
Sid Stockdale attended 9th grade at Coronado High School before going
to South Kent School, a boarding school in Connecticut. He graduated from
South Kent in 1973, Colorado College in 1977, and he has spent his
career in education, currently serving as the History Department Chair at
Albuquerque Academy.
Taylor Stockdale and Stanford Stockdale were much younger when their father
came home from Vietnam in 1973 – Taylor was 10 and Stan, 13. Both Taylor
and Stan spent their years in Coronado playing little league, pop
warner football, skateboarding, surfing, etc. They both went to Colorado
College, Stan graduating in 1983 and Taylor, 1985. And both have spent
their careers in education.
Stan passed away in 2014.
Taylor is currently Headmaster of The Webb Schools in Claremont, CA.
By Toni McGowan, with contributions by Tom Leary and Taylor Stockdale
VADM Stockdale’s banner is located at Fourth and Alameda.
Next week Hero is Commander Spuds Ellyson, same location.
