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July 5, 2005
Rest In Peace Admiral Stockdale
Admiral James Stockdale passed away today at the age of 81.
Most people will remember Admiral Stockdale as Ross Perot's running mate in 1992. But they should also remember Admiral Stockdale for being the highest ranking Naval officer held as a POW during the Vietnam War, for surviving seven and a half years of brutal torture that left his body nearly broken for life, four years of that in solitary confinement, for severely wounding himself to prevent the North Vietnamese for using him as propaganda, for nearly killing himself to show his captors that he would never capitulate to torture, and for earning the Medal of Honor and four Silver Stars among his many citations.
I wish you fair winds and following seas Admiral.
JEFF ADDS: In 1992, I left OU to come to Dallas to be with Stephanie. I took a temp job while I was looking for real work, and the temp company immediately sent me to a phone bank that Ross Perot had established. This was just after Perot's appearance on Larry King, when Perot Systems' phone lines had been overwhelmed and they needed some way to handle the incoming calls. A day or two later, someone came into the room (Mike Poss maybe? I can't remember) and asked if anyone there had computer experience, as they needed to set up a database to track and categorize the calls, because their paper system was being overwhelmed. Since I had computer experience, I stepped up, and worked on first the call database, then later on the FEC reporting systems as a member of the Perot campaign's national staff. (Off topic: best moment was being told by the FEC that we were filing our reports too promptly and too completely for them to process.)
During the early days of the campaign - before it was a campaign, really, when Perot was just trying to find places to stick people, I ended up on the same floor as Perot's office, not far down the hall, for a few weeks. I only met Admiral Stockdale once, and that was before he was named as Perot's vice-presidential pick. He was a truly amazing man: intelligent, well-spoken, humble to a fault, and genuinely funny. I can see where his embarrassing debate performance came from - it's hard to be a real person in the midst of politicians, where truth is irrelevant and no man's honor or reputation is safe from the opposing vultures; how can an honest and humble man compete in a contest of first impressions with two men perfectly comfortable with lying and dissembling and slyly undermining because they honestly feel that it's their right to wield power over the rest of us?
The Admiral is a true American hero, and deserves all the glory and accolades that this nation can bestow upon its best. Wizbang has the MoH citation.
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