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Sybil Stockdale

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Sybil Stockdale was the wife of an American Vietnam War Navy pilot who became a prisoner of war, Sybil Stockdale then became a co-founder, and then later served as the national coordinator of the National League of Families,[1] [2] a nonprofit organization that worked on behalf of american Vietnam-era Missing in Action and Prisoner of War Families. In her capacity as national coordinator for the League, she also served as its liaison to the White house and the Department of Defense.[3] [2]

Mrs. Stockdale is credited with helping to better publicize the mistreatment of US prisoners by North Vietnam and for helping to improve American policies concerning the treatment and handling of POW families.[4] [2] Stockdale is the recipient of the U.S. Navy Department's Distinguished Public Service Award. [5] She is the only wife of an active-duty officer ever to have been so honored.[6]

Stockdale is also the co-author, along with her late husband, of the book "In Love and War: the Story of a Family's Ordeal and Sacrifice During the Vietnam War".[7]

Her husband, James Bond Stockdale, after his release at the end of the war, was promoted to Vice Admiral and by the time of his death in 2005 was one of the United States' most honored and decorated military veterans in the post-WWII era. He was present at the August 4, 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Incident, spent 7-1/2 years under torture as a POW in North Vietnam, later headed The Citadel, and eventually ran for Vice-President of the United States with Ross Perot heading the ticket.

The Vietnam War years

Husbands Capture in Vietnam / Pentagon "Keep quiet" Policy

When Sybil Stockdale's husband James was shot down in 1965 over North Vietnam, the US government had a "keep-quiet" policy, asking relatives of POWs to not raise a fuss about mistreatment of prisoners.[8] [2] The official reason was not that the prisoners were not being tortured, but bad publicity might result in worse treatment.[2][9]

Founding of the National League of Families

Over the next several years, Sybil found herself more and more disenchanted with the pretense that prisoners like her husband were treated fairly; James had been tortured, had inflicted serious wounds on himself to convince his captors they couldn't break or use him, and had spent years in solitary confinement.[2]

In the summer of 1966, Sybil along with other members of a San Diego POW / MIA support group and another group in Hampton Virginia, decided to go national, and formed the National League of Families of American Prisoners Missing in Southeast Asia.[2] Sybil was the first national coordinator.[2]

Within a year she was sitting in the office of the Secretary Of Defense Melvin Laird discussing policy.[2] The Nixon Administration had ended the "keep quiet" policy and allegations of torture of US prisoners became fully public, with Sybil a forceful spokeswoman.[2]

Book co-authored with husband James

Sybil Stockdale co-wrote a book with her husband James, who also wrote a number of books on his own. In Love and War: the Story of a Family's Ordeal and Sacrifice During the Vietnam War[10] was the most popular book written by either of the Stockdales.

In the book James and Sybil Stockdale wrote alternating chapters describing their experiences of the Vietnam war, James wrote of his experiences as a POW, and Sybil wrote of her experiences as the wife of a POW, dealing with the stress and waiting at home and her journey cutting through Washington red tape and publicizing the plight of American POWs in Vietnam.[11]

Christening of USS Stockdale (DDG 106)

On May 10, 2008, Sybil Stockdale attended a christening ceremony at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine for the USS Stockdale, the 30th Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer, and the 56th ship of the class.

Four Medal of Honor recipients and seven former prisoners of war attended the ceremony that marked a milestone in construction of the 9,200-ton ship named for her late husband.

Early Life

Stockdale holds a degree from Mount Holyoke College.

See Also

Notes

  1. ^ Stockdale, James (1990) [1984]. In Love and War: the Story of a Family's Ordeal and Sacrifice During the Vietnam War. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0870213083. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Grubb, Evelyn (1 September 2008). You Are Not Forgotten: A Family's Quest for Truth and the Founding of the National League of Families. St. Petersburg, FL: Vandamere Press. ISBN 978-0918339713. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ Stockdale, James (1990) [1984]. In Love and War: the Story of a Family's Ordeal and Sacrifice During the Vietnam War. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0870213083. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ Stockdale, James (1990) [1984]. In Love and War: the Story of a Family's Ordeal and Sacrifice During the Vietnam War. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0870213083. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ "An Indomitable Spirit", James Stockdale Biography, Museum of Living History, Academy of Achievement, Washington D.C., http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/sto0bio-1
  6. ^ "An Indomitable Spirit", James Stockdale Biography, Museum of Living History, Academy of Achievement, Washington D.C., http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/sto0bio-1
  7. ^ Stockdale, James (1990) [1984]. In Love and War: the Story of a Family's Ordeal and Sacrifice During the Vietnam War. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0870213083. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ Stockdale, James (1990) [1984]. In Love and War: the Story of a Family's Ordeal and Sacrifice During the Vietnam War. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0870213083. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ Stockdale, James (1990) [1984]. In Love and War: the Story of a Family's Ordeal and Sacrifice During the Vietnam War. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0870213083. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ Stockdale, James (1990) [1984]. In Love and War: the Story of a Family's Ordeal and Sacrifice During the Vietnam War. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0870213083. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ Stockdale, James (1990) [1984]. In Love and War: the Story of a Family's Ordeal and Sacrifice During the Vietnam War. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0870213083. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

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