Liberty Feature THE PERSEVERANCE OF A POW
Preserving the memory of faith and service in unimaginable circumstances by Bob “BB” Buehn, Captain, USN (Ret)
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Commander James Stockdale
ast year during the “Gathering in the Pines” event at the old Naval Air Station Cecil Field chapel, I was honored to make a few remarks. We were just getting started on what is now the National Prisoner of War/Missing In Action (POW/MIA) Memorial and Museum, so naturally that was the topic. Before the event I wandered through the Memorial Park— Hero’s Walk and Freedom Trees—that has been at Cecil for decades. Just south of the chapel, it was familiar to those of us who served and flew at Cecil Field. The concept for the pathway began with a group of families in 1973 who established the POW/MIA Memorial. Originally the names of 14 Vietnamera Navy pilots—whose status was either POW or MIA—were listed there on individual plaques. The vision of the families was to ensure their loved one’s would NEVER BE FORGOTTEN. Little did the families know this would become the seed of a national memorial, to include all former POWs and the more than 82,000 MIAs still unaccounted for. Cecil Field and the City of Jacksonville are both linked to the issue of POW/MIA. Mary Hoff—the inspiration and driving force behind the iconic POW/MIA flag—lived in Jacksonville. The late Senator John McCain was based at Cecil Field when he was shot down and started his long imprisonment and torture. More recently, CAPT Scott Speicher was stationed at Cecil when he was lost in the first night of strikes in Desert Storm. Over the many years Speicher was missing, his status changed from Killed In Action (KIA) to MIA to POW, and later back to KIA. His body was finally recovered and came home to rest in Jacksonville in 2009, after an 18 year saga. Seeing the names of POWs reminded me of Jim Stockdale. He was flying off USS Oriskany (CV 34) when he was shot down Sept. 9, 1965. He wound up a prisoner at the infamous Hanoi Hilton, where he would stay for the next seven and a half years. Stockdale was the senior Navy officer at Hanoi Hilton. His leadership there was legendary. He was tortured often and his leg was broken twice. Stockdale was finally released with the other POWs in 1973, and continued a distinguished Navy career, attaining the rank of Vice Admiral. I got to know Jim Stockdale in the late nineties when he was retired in Coronado, CA and I was executive officer of USS Constellation (CV 64), moored at North Island, hardly a mile from Stockdale’s home. He and his wife, Sybil, were “patrons” of our ship, which meant they were often aboard
to visit and share meals. They attended our big events in port, like the huge Christmas party. They were brilliant and inspirational people, and also warm and funny. Sybil had a fascinating story, especially concerning the years of her husband’s captivity. After Jim was shot down—and they knew he was a POW— Sybil and the other wives were asked by the military and the government to not make public statements or advocate for their husbands. They were told the North Vietnamese were abiding by the Geneva Conventions and the US government was working to get them released.Over time it became clear this was not true. Later the Stockdales were able to exchange letters and Jim wrote references Sybil would understand to indicate he was being tortured. He used the title of a novel he knew Sybil had read—“Darkness at Noon”—to refer to the weather in Hanoi. The novel was about prison and torture in the Stalinist era, and she got the hidden message. Working with the CIA, she sent coded letters to Jim, and photographs that, when soaked, revealed a small piece of special carbon paper that allowed him to pass messages in invisible ink in his letters. She always worried these secret messages would be discovered and her husband would suffer for it. She began to meet informally with the wives of other POWs and MIAs and eventually they formed a group that is known today as the National League of POW/MIA Families. Sybil was the first national coordinator. The wives tired of their forced silence, first going to Congress for help and finally to the press. Around the same time the Nixon administration also changed their approach, making public demands for humane treatment of POWs. Sybil regularly met with the highest Washington officials, including President Nixon. In 1969 Sybil and a number of other wives went to Paris to meet with North Vietnamese officials. They represented the National League and did not have US government officials with them. Sybil was secretly worried the North Vietnamese knew about her work with the CIA and her clandestine communication with her husband. Upon introduction to Sybil— according to the New York Times—the North Vietnamese said, “Yes Mrs. Stockdale, we know who you are and we know about your organization.” But they never mentioned the secret messages. Even after Jim was released in 1973, Sybil continued her work on behalf of the families of missing Servicemen, writing and speaking in support of the wives and families. It is that spirit of faith, perseverance and service—demonstrated by both Jim and Sybil—that will be preserved at the National POW/MIA Memorial and Museum. LIBERTYLIFEMEDIA.COM | SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 VOL. 1 / ISSUE 6
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