News about James Stockdale

During the Vietnam War, Seaman Apprentice Douglas B. Hegdahl lived in the notorious 'Hanoi Hilton' prison by posing as an ignorant fool, while secretly memorizing the names of 256 American servicemen detained there. The men were smuggled out in Hegdahl's memory to the tune of 'Old MacDonald,' a slew of names that may have saved many lives, and put pressure on the North Vietnamese to release them at the end of the war. Hegdahl, 77, is said to be living in San Diego after an illustrious career as a director of the US Navy SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape) School at Naval Base Coronado.