Re: Vice Admiral James Stockdale Leadership Award

Date: February 25, 2004

"The Source for Navy News

Nominations Being Accepted for Vice Adm. James Stockdale Leadership Award
Story Number: NNS040225-01

From Chief of Naval Personnel Public Affairs

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- Commanding officers of afloat units are being encouraged to submit their nominations for the 2004 Vice Adm. James B. Stockdale Leadership Award. The deadline for submission is July 1.

The annual award, named in honor of this legendary naval officer, recognizes two commanding officers who demonstrate superior leadership and conspicuous contributions to the improvement of Navy leadership while in command of a single ship, submarine or aircraft squadron. One each is selected from the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets.

“Command itself is a sacred opportunity that few will experience. Being recognized in that role by the Stockdale Award speaks well for the recipient, especially since the award is determined by their fellow commanders,” said retired Vice Adm. Phil Quast, an inaugural winner of the award in 1981. “The Stockdale award not only recognizes leaders, it expects that the recipients will set the bar for leadership standards for command.”

Shot down on his second combat tour over North Vietnam, Stockdale became the highest-ranking U.S. prisoner of war in North Vietnam during the war. He was held in the infamous Hanoi Hilton prison for eight years, where he was tortured 15 times, kept in leg irons for two years, and in solitary confinement for four years. For his leadership and extraordinary bravery while in captivity, he was awarded the Medal of Honor.

Stockdale’s was a career spent almost entirely at sea. Over the span of a 37-year career, his shore duty consisted of only three years as a test pilot and test pilot instructor at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md.; two years as a graduate student at Stanford University; one year in the Pentagon; and two years as President of the Naval War College in Newport, R.I.

He had the distinction upon retirement of being the only three star flag officer in the Navy’s history to wear both aviator wings and the Medal of Honor.

“In order to do something,” he once said, “you must be something.”

Only those commanding officers in command at any time between June 1, 2003, and May 31, 2004, and who are themselves eligible for the award, may nominate a peer.

NAVADMIN 038/04 contains more information about the nomination process. "