Sid Stockdale's father, Admiral James Stockdale, was shot down during a bombing mission over Vietnam in 1965. Stockdale, then a Naval Aviator, would spend nearly eight years in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" prison, suffering torture and deprivation. He was the highest-ranking Navy officer POW in Vietnam. James Stockdale's wife, Sybil Stockdale, would found the League of Wives, which became the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia. The League became a nati

Naval Aviator Jim Stockdale was being held prisoner in North Vietnam’s infamous “Hanoi Hilton” during the Vietnam War. That’s when his wife, Sybil Stockdale, began meeting at her Coronado home with a small group of wives whose husbands were also POWs. This was the beginning of The League of Wives. They would ultimately build a national League of Families that included the POW/MIA movement. Their efforts helped expose and reduce prisoner torture and contributed to the safe return of 591 Service M