James Stockdale
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James Bond Stockdale was a U.S. Navy vice admiral, aviator, and Stoic philosopher who received the Medal of Honor in 1976 for his leadership as a POW for more than seven years during the Vietnam War.
Official portrait, c. 1979
Stockdale exiting his A-4 Skyhawk attack jet weeks before becoming a POW
United States President Gerald Ford presents the Medal of Honor to Stockdale at the White House on March 4, 1976.
Stockdale as president of the Naval War College in 1979
Hỏa Lò Prison
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Hỏa Lò Prison was a prison in Hanoi originally used by the French colonists in Indochina for political prisoners, and later by North Vietnam for U.S. prisoners of war during the Vietnam War. During th
James Stockdale
…completely disabled. He parachuted into a small village, where he was severely beaten and taken prisoner. Stockdale was held as a prisoner of war in the Hỏa Lò Prison (the "Hanoi Hilton") for the next 7+1⁄2 years. As the senior naval officer, he was one of the primary organizers of prisoner resistance. Tortured…
The Hanoi Hilton in a 1970 aerial surveillance photo
The French name "Maison Centrale" above the gate of Hỏa Lò
Museum reconstruction of First Indochina War prisoners in Hỏa Lò
The "Little Vegas" area built for American POWs in 1967, shown in a final inspection in 1973 shortly before the Americans' release