Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter PilotIn describing his seven and a half years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, the late Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale has said: "In that atmosphere of death and hopelessness, stripped of the niceties, the amenities of civilization, my ideas on life and leadership crystallized." Despite torture, intimidation, and isolation, Stockdale fulfilled his duties as senior officer among the prisoners with intelligence and courage, defining rules of conduct and maintaining morale. He often described the intense pressures of that situation as a "melting" experience, in which preconceived feelings, fears, and bias melt as one comes to realize that, under the gun, you must grow or fail--or, in some cases, grow or die. This collection of his essays and speeches from the 1980s and 1990s reinforces how that experience formed a lifelong basis for his philosophical thought on issues of character, leadership, integrity, personal and public virtue, and ethics. The selections in this volume all reflect, in one way or another, a central theme: how man can rise with dignity to prevail in the face of adversity. |
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... night , there was another call for my squadron to go up into the gulf . I answered the call , was the first plane up there , had the best seat in the house , and watched it all . This time there were two destroyers , Maddox and Joy . At ...
... night . Melville even supplies us with a kind of coda , a sort of general rule of human behavior with which you may ... night , off the pitch of the cape , Captain Claret was hurried forth from his disguises , and , at a manhood ...
... night in a message sent to Washington by Captain John Herrick , the destroyer division commander and senior officer ... night of August 4. It said , " An urgent requirement exists for proof and evidence of a second attack by North ...
Contents
The Role of the Pressure Cooker | 13 |
Prisoner of War | 28 |
Trial by Fire | 44 |
Copyright | |
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