S hot down on his third combat tour over North Vietnam, James B. Stockdale was the senior-most navy prisoner of war in Hanoi, where he spent over sev

A Stoic Philosopher in a Hanoi Prison

submited by

Style Pass

2021-07-18 13:30:06

S hot down on his third combat tour over North Vietnam, James B. Stockdale was the senior-most navy prisoner of war in Hanoi, where he spent over seven years — four of them in solitary confinement and two in leg irons — before being released. He was awarded the Medal of Honor, along with 26 other combat decorations, and retired as an educator and author.

The flight in September 1965 was part of his third combat tour of North Vietnam, serving as Wing Commander of the aircraft carrier Oriskany. Despite his misgivings about the purpose of him being in Vietnam, he was a competent and skilled career fighter pilot. Nothing suggested he shouldn’t expect to make it back home that day — let alone that decade.

While trying to aid trapped American soldiers on the ground, he was suddenly falling out of the sky and hurtling towards a small Vietnamese village. His plane was on fire, the control system shot out by North Vietnamese who had used the grounded soldiers as bait, and he didn’t have much choice beyond punching out of the plane.

After ejection, I had about 30 seconds to make my last statement in freedom before I landed in the main street of a little village right ahead. And, so help me, I whispered to myself: “Five years down there, at least. I’m leaving the world of technology and entering the world of Epictetus.”