Naval Academy to honor vice admiral with statue

Published October 29, 2008 4:00am ET



The U.S. Naval Academy will dedicate a bronze statue Friday in honor of academy graduate and retired Vice Adm. James Stockdale, a former prisoner of war. Stockdale graduated in 1947 and entered the Navy’s test pilot school.

While flying a mission over North Vietnam in 1965, Stockdale’s jet was struck by enemy fire.

He was captured and held in a POW camp in Hao Lo, known as the Hanoi Hilton, for seven years, according to a news release.

He won the Medal of Honor and has a Navy award named after him and the academy’s ethical leadership center named after him. He died in 2005. –  Jason Flanagan