Interestingly, Stockdale always maintained that during the incident’s key “engagement,” he saw no enemy vessels. The Johnson Administration invoked these occurrences to justify a massive American military response. In August 1964, Stockdale’s squadron played a role in the Gulf of Tonkin incident, which involved North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. September 1965: Jim Stockdale on the flight deck of USS Oriskany, one week before he was shot down in Vietnam. Promotions followed, and by the mid-1960s, Stockdale was at the very pinnacle of his career and profession, commanding a fighter squadron. He amassed more than a thousand hours in the F-8U Crusader, then the Navy’s hottest fighter. In January 1954, James Stockdale was accepted into the United States Naval Test Pilot School at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River base in Southern Maryland and then completed his training.Īt Patuxent, Stockdale was a standout. James Stockdale is in the front row 3rd from the left. 1954: Test Pilot Training Class 14 in Patuxent River, Maryland. Along with 17 others - including future astronaut John Glenn - he made the cut. In 1954, Stockdale applied for Test Pilot School at Patuxent River, Maryland. Stockdale flew almost every propeller-driven aircraft in the Navy’s inventory, but he yearned for greater challenges. Stockdale, at the age of three wearing a sailor suit, with his father at home in Abingdon, Illinois. Soon after graduating in 1946, Stockdale reported to Pensacola for flight training. He was appointed to the Naval Academy in the middle of World War II. He lettered in football, basketball and track, won a regional piano competition, and graduated second in his high school class. James Bond Stockdale was born and raised in Abingdon, Illinois.
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