In the shadow of Stockdale

[ColbertWatcher]

Background: I was hunting for images to use in the Truthiness Encyclopedia's captions game, when I stumbled upon this image and the story that went along with it:



Checking the yahoo caption, I read:

"The ship was named after Vice Admiral James Stockdale, the fighter pilot who spent 7 1/2 years in captivity in North Vietnam..."

--http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Medal-of-Honor-North-Vietnam-Ross-Perot-running-mate-Bath2C-Maine/photo//080510/480/2d977b0aac1c4eeeb69cdf579c5309b6//s:/ap/20080510/ap_on_re_us/stockdale_christening;_ylt=Al9qYLykvhpGupuP_BsxrAxH2ocA">Yahoo.com

I knew in the back of mind that I already knew this, but it kinda came as a shock what with all the McCain POW stuff that somehow I had forgotten about Stockdale.

So, I asked wikip*edia when Stockdale became a POW: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stockdale">September 9, 1965, just over two years before McCain was captured (October 26, 1967).

In addition, Stockdale was released on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stockdale#Return_to_the_United_States">February 12, 1973; McCain was released just over a month later on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain#Military_service_and_marriages">March 14, 1973.

Now, I'm not suggesting that McCain deliberately got himself captured and tried to remain a POW so that he could be one longer than Stockdale.

Oh, by the way, here is some more stuff on Stockdale from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stockdale#Prisoner_of_war">wikip*dia:

Locked in leg irons in a bath stall, he was 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, Stockdale beat himself with a stool until his face was swollen beyond recognition. He told them in no uncertain terms that they would never use him. When Stockdale heard that other prisoners were dying under the torture, he slit his wrists and told them that he preferred death to submission.

And, just a bit about his wife, Sybil:

"Early in her husband's captivity she organized The League of American Families of POWs and MIAs, with other wives of servicemen who were in similar circumstance. By 1968 she and her organization, which called for the President and the U.S. Congress to publicly acknowledge the mistreatment of the POW's (something that they had never done even though they had evidence of gross mistreatment), was finally getting the attention of the American press and consequently the attention of the North Vietnamese. Mrs. Stockdale personally made these demands known at the Paris Peace Talks and private comments made to her by the head of the Vietnamese delegation there indicated concern that her organization might catch the attention of the American public, something the North Vietnamese knew could turn the tide against them. The result could not have been more fortunate for James Stockdale at the very time he slit his wrists.

--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stockdale#Prisoner_of_war">Wikip*dia

James Stockdale died in 2005 from complications of Alzheimer's, his wife Sybil was at the christening ceremony for the ship named in his honor despite suffering from Parkinson's.

[Olney Blue]

1. He was Ross Perot's running mate.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/debatingourdestiny/interviews/stockdale.html

[ColbertWatcher]

3. But, he was Perot's running-mate because of his military service. n/t

[BigDaddy44]

2. James Stockdale was a true American hero.

Its a shame that the last memory most Americans have of him is being 3rd banana in the 1992 Vice Presidential debate as Ross Perot's running mate.

[ColbertWatcher]

4. True. n/t

[DAGDA56]

5. that, and the complete meltdown he suffered in one of the debates...

[ColbertWatcher]

6. There was only one debate, IIRC...

...and he actually explained it:

"It was terribly frustrating because I remember I started with, "Who am I? Why am I here?" and I never got back to that because there was never an opportunity for me to explain my life to people. It was so different from Quayle and Gore. The four years in solitary confinement in Vietnam, 7½ years in prisons, drop the first bomb that started the...American bombing raid in the North Vietnam. We blew the oil storage tanks of them off the map. And I never—I couldn't approach—I don't say it just to brag, but, I mean, my sensitivities are completely different."

--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stockdale#Vice-Presidential_candidacy">Wikip*dia

[ColbertWatcher]

7. Mother's Day kick for Sybil. n/t