Re: Not Ob/Gyn. Great American Dies - No one notices
From: art fougner, md (evsono@pipeline.com)
Fri Jul 22 18:14:51 2005
July 6, 2005
A Hero Passes
Admiral James Stockdale died today at age 81. Most people remember
Stockdale, if at all, for his performance in the 1992 Vice-Presidential
debate with Al Gore and Dan Quayle. At one point Stockdale yielded the
floor, confessing that he was "out of ammunition." Many thought the
aging veteran a bit odd. But he was one of this country's great
military heroes. In his forties, he flew more than 200 missions in
Vietnam before he was finally shot down and captured. He was the
highest ranking Naval officer captured by the North Vietnamese.
Stockdale was imprisoned for more than seven years, four of them in
solitary confinement, two in leg irons. But while he was imprisoned in
the Hanoi Hilton, he became the leader of the American POWs, devised
communications systems, and encouraged resistance to the Communists'
propaganda efforts.
For this he was tortured repeatedly. Stockdale was awared the Medal of
Honor. His citation reads, in part:
Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his
life above and beyond the call of duty while senior naval officer in the
Prisoner of War camps of North Vietnam. Recognized by his captors as
the leader in the Prisoners' of War resistance to interrogation and in
their refusal to participate in propaganda exploitation, Rear Adm.
Stockdale was singled out for interrogation and attendant torture after
he was detected in a covert communications attempt. Sensing the start
of another purge, and aware that his earlier efforts at
self-disfiguration to dissuade his captors from exploiting him for
propaganda purposes had resulted in cruel and agonizing punishment, Rear
Adm. Stockdale resolved to make himself a symbol of resistance
regardless of personal sacrifice. He deliberately inflicted a
near-mortal wound to his person in order to convince his captors of his
willingness to give up his life rather than capitulate. He was
subsequently discovered and revived by the North Vietnamese who,
convinced of his indomitable spirit, abated in their employment of
excessive harassment and torture toward all of the Prisoners of War. By
his heroic action, at great peril to himself, he earned the everlasting
gratitude of his fellow prisoners and of his country.
Admiral Stockdale was a student of Greek philosophy and the author of
four books. He returned to the Republican Party after his
uncharacteristic venture into public life in 1992. Never has anyone
displayed more courage in the service of his country. RIP.
http://www.powerlineblog.com
art
At Fri, 22 Jul 2005, RModugno@aol.com wrote:
>
>A Greatest American Dies and No One Notices: A major missed diagnosis
>By Drs. Michael A. Glueck & Robert J. Cihak
>
>(http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0705/medicine.men072205.php3?printer_frie dly)
>(http://www.jewishworldreview.com/templates/email2.php?article_title=A+Gr atest+American+Dies+and+No+One+Notices:+A+major+missed+diagnosis&article_au h
>or=Drs.+Michael+A.+Glueck+&+Robert+J.+Cihak++&article_date=July+22,+200 &artic
>le_url=http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0705/medicine.men072205.php3&sen úls
>e&ccMe=no) | A great man died on July 5th. None of the obituaries noted t at
>his greatest gift to America was the one we have, so far, refused. A misse
>diagnosis of classic proportions!
>Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale was arguably the most decorated officer in
>Navy history: 26 personal citations, including the Congressional Medal of H nor
> for nearly eight years of heroism as a Vietnam POW. But he was famous most y
>for his decision to become Ross Perot's 1992 vice presidential running mat ,
>and for that disastrous debate when he came across as, at best, a kindly o d
>buffoon who should have brought a back-up hearing aid with him to the
>studio. A few pundits sneered. Most were embarrassed for him and happy to et the
>whole thing drop.
>This is what they didn't tell you.
>In the early 1960s, Stockdale was a hot shot fighter pilot on the fast trac
>to stars. The Navy had slotted him for one of its most coveted assignments,
>command of a fighter squadron at sea. First, however, another plum: a maste 's
> degree in international relations at Stanford University. Then, after
>carrier duty, three years at the Pentagon, to pay the government back for is
>graduate education.
>Stanford was wonderful, but Stockdale was bored. One day, he encountered
>Philip Rhinelander, a former Navy officer, at that time chair of the Philos phy
>Department. Rhinelander talked him in to auditing some philosophy lectures.
>Stockdale fell in love. Soon he was staying up all night, reading philosoph ,
>especially the great Stoics, Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus.
>But his fascination also wearied him. It was: Hey, I'm Technological Man. I
>fly jets. I play golf. I drink martinis. I know how to work the system. Wha
>does this have to do with me?
>He got his answer, he later wrote, the day in 1965 he was shot down, when h
>left behind the world of technology and entered the world of Epictetus. Aft r
>a welcoming beating by a crowd of North Vietnamese and three days in the
>back of a truck, he arrived at the Hanoi Hilton, with a broken back, one b oken
>leg, and a bullet in the other. He demanded medical attention and was told
>"You have a medical problem and you have a political problem. In this coun ry,
>we take care of political problems first."
>
> (https://www.kerenyehoshuavyisroel.com/keren/jwr/donate.cfm)
>
>Stockdale quickly realized that he and his comrades were not POWs in the
>normal sense. They were political prisoners, to be exploited for their
>propaganda value and as bargaining chips; the communists called the America s "our
>pearls." To break organized resistance and get "confessions" and the rest, the
>North Vietnamese used a variety of techniques, including isolation, forbid ing
>the prisoners to communicate, and tortures carefully designed to risk
>neither death nor permanent disfigurement.
>Slowly, Stockdale came to realize that their traditional and presumed sourc s
> of resistance — military law and codes, professionalism, American
>patriotism, machismo, religious faith — although valuable, weren't enough.
>In the torture room, the torturer wins. The Americans had to create somethi g
> strong enough to enable them to resist together, which meant surrendering s
> little as possible. Stockdale found the way to do that in the ancient text
>he'd studied. He became, he later wrote, "the lawgiver of an autonomous
>colony of Americans who happened to be located in a Hanoi prison."
>This colony created an entire civilization, based on two great Stoic
>premises. The first is that, whatever else you surrender, never surrender y ur
>spirit: in Stoic terminology, your will. The second was that, although you re an
>autonomous being no matter what your circumstances, what you do in the worl
>still matters.
>Over time, they learned to communicate by tapping in code on the walls, and
>"tap code" became an evolving language. They crafted a legal system,
>specifying how much torture to take before making concessions and requirin members to
>be absolutely honest about their failures. (There was another commandment:
>forgive). They developed their own culture, compiled and memorized their ow
>history, established their traditions. They lost many battles. But never ga e
>the communists what they wanted most: a mass of isolated, desperate men,
>willing to obey their captors.
>When Stockdale returned home, his son urged him to write about "where you'v
>really been." For over twenty years, he did so, in a memoir co-authored wit
>his wife, Sybil, "In Love and War," and in two volumes of essays, "A Vietn m
>Experience" and "Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter Pilot." They never
>received a fraction of the attention they deserved. Americans usually love a hero.
>Sadly we were not prepared to heed a philosopher of courage and the
>uncomfortable lessons he might teach.
>
>Admiral Stockdale loved to point out that he never did that Pentagon tour,
>and that his service record contained a notation that the government had
>derived no benefit from his graduate education.
>Do read his books, America. Maybe that way, the government will get its
>money's worth.
>Editor's Note: Michael Arnold Glueck III, M.D., penned this week's
>commentary. You may contact Dr. Glueck at _drglueck@adelphia.com_
>(mailto:drglueck@adelphia.com)
>*************************************************************************** **
>***=20
>*************************************************************************** **
>Robert Modugno MD MBA FACOG
>Marietta, GA
--
art fougner, md
"If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else."
Lawrence Peter Berra
