Posted on 11/05/2015 10:27:08 PM PST by Brad from Tennessee
Sybil Stockdale is going to be buried Friday at the US Naval Academy at Annapolis, where she’ll rest beside her husband, Vice Admiral James Stockdale. He was one of the greatest heroes in American history — and so was she.
They are a pair to think about in our cynical and feminist age. He led a battered band of brothers to defy a barbaric foe holding them as prisoners of war in the dungeons of Hanoi. For this America would drape him with the Medal of Honor.
On the other side of the world, Sybil Stockdale led an uprising of those prisoners’ wives to spur our own government to fight for them. She represented their cause to the Pentagon, the president, the Congress and envoys of the enemy.
Sybil understood that it would be impossible to support our prisoners (and our GIs) in Vietnam without supporting the war they were fighting. She let no light show between her and America’s government.
Her husband invented the secret code that enabled the prisoners in the “Hanoi Hilton†to tap out the messages to one another that kept their spirits up. She hid within her love letters secret war messages that only he and she could decipher.
After the war, the Stockdales wrote a book called “In Love and War.†It’s a classic American memoir, ranking with the letters that Abigail Adams exchanged with her husband, John, a hero of the Revolution.
The Stockdales had fallen in love while he was at the Naval Academy. After an Army-Navy game, the future admiral asked whether she’d like to go to Annapolis to “look at miniatures†of the academy’s class ring. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
RIP to Mrs. Stockdale.
RIP
Sad to be losing so many patriots these days.
Mrs. Stockdale rest, now. To the Sea.
Rest in peace. She did a lot for our brave beloved POWs
While Adm Stockdale is in good standing with the POWs no the Greeks invented the tap code and Carlyle “ Smitty” Harris brought it. Just for accuracy
Reading his book “When Hell Was In Session” during college instead of studying...who could put it down...changed my life forever. Not a little stupid punk after that.
Cowardly leadership left our men to ROT in the north.
Both DURING and ESPECIALLY AFTER the ‘war’ was over. We got back about ONE THIRD of our men.
The rest..............................................?
This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end - which you can never afford to lose - with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.
Fair winds and following seas. . .
I served in the U.S. Navy when Admiral Stockdale was the commanding officer of the POW’s in Vietnam. His inspiration led me to become and intelligence officer while serving as an enlisted man on the USS CORAL SEA. I have so much admiration for him. I believe that next to President Reagan and perhaps some church leaders, me may be the greatest person to live in my lifetime.
Admiral Stockdale taught us that happiness can be found from within. You can be happy when someone is breaking your legs. He refused to let others dictate when he could be happy and not happy.
When he was trotted out to go on display in a news conference in Vietnam, he asked if he could shave and they gave him a razor and let him go into a latrine.
While in there he used to razor blade to cut up his face so that he would not be part of any plan to embarrass his country.
I have read his books and want everyone to know that they will be blessed if they do also. “In Love and War”, I found what kept both of them going. I love the man and I love his wife.
If I had the wherewithal to make it happen, there would be a statute of him and Sybil in the heart of Washington, D.C.
God bless you.
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