American Hero

Charles · Jul 6, 2005

SAN DIEGO — Retired Vice Adm. James Stockdale, Ross Perot's 1992 presidential running mate who received the Medal of Honor after enduring 7 1/2 years in a North Vietnamese prison, died Tuesday. He was 81.
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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,161649,00.html

Admiral Stockdale credited his liberal arts education as one of the most important factors to his survival as a POW.

Charles · Jul 6, 2005

A refuge in adversity

The intrinsic value of a liberal arts education is stressed over and again in Captivity: the Extreme Circumstance, which is a Navy Nonresident Training Course I recently completed. A couple of quotes:

"Upon return, a newly released prisoner [of war] commented to a chaplain, "These guys that had had some liberal arts really had it." By this he meant that there were lessons to be learned from the humanities that were not available anywhere else. After all, why would someone tap a question through the wall about Hamlet, AND BE WILLING TO WAIT 30 days for the answer? "There must have been some reason, other than boredom.""

Cadenhead, Julia T., CAPT CHC, USN, ed., Captivity: The extreme Circumstance, United States Navy, 2001.

"Generally speaking, I think education is a tremendous defense; the broader, the better. After I was shot down, my wife, Sybil, found a clipping glued in front of my collegiate dictionary: "Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity." She certainly agrees with me on that. Most of us prisoners found that the so-called practical academic exercises in how to do things, which I'm told are proliferating, were useless. I'm not saying that we should base education on training people to be in prison, but I am saying that in stress situations, the fundamentals, the hardcore classical subjects are what serve best."

Stockdale, J.B., The World Of Epictetus, The Atlantic Monthly, 1978; quoted in Cadenhead, Julia T., CAPT CHC, USN, ed., Captivity: The extreme Circumstance, United States Navy, 2001.

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http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=47117#post47117

uncle janko · Jul 6, 2005

Inspirational. Thanks, Charles. Epictetus, for crying out loud! S.T.T.L./R.I.P.

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