StarNewsOnline.com: The Voice of Southeastern North Carolina:
"In the 1992 presidential election, (James) Stockdale became independent candidate Perot's vice presidential running mate, initially as a stand-in on the ticket but later as the candidate.
Stockdale gave a stumbling performance in the nationally televised vice-presidential debate against Dan Quayle and Al Gore and later said he didn't feel comfortable in the public eye.
"Who am I? Why am I here?" he asked rhetorically in his opening statement. Toward the end, he asked the moderator to repeat a question, saying, "I didn't have my hearing aid turned on."
During the Vietnam War, Stockdale was a Navy fighter pilot based on the USS Oriskany and flew 201 missions before he was shot down on Sept. 9, 1965. He became the highest-ranking naval officer captured during the war, the Navy said.
Stockdale was taken to Hoa Lo Prison, known as the "Hanoi Hilton." His shoulders were wrenched from their sockets, his leg had been shattered by angry villagers and a torturer, and his back was broken. But he refused to capitulate.
Rather than allow himself to be used in a propaganda film, Stockdale smashed his face into a pulp with a mahogany stool.
"My only hope was to disfigure myself," Stockdale wrote in his 1984 autobiography "In Love and War." The ploy worked, but he spent the next two years in leg irons."
A true American Hero, I'm proud I voted for him in '92.
U2 used the "Who Am I? Why Am I Here?" quote during the Zoo TV concerts at the time. It fit perfectly with the "media blender" that was Zoo TV, where Politics mixed with Supermodels, TV evengelists, and Lou Reed and we were all walking blind like Dante's Inferno.
"Who Am I? Why Am I Here?", "Can't We All Just Get Along", "Wouldn't Be Prudent at This Juncture", "What you people need to understand...", "On Your Knees, Boy", "Read My Lips...No New Taxes", "I have caused pain in our marriage"....1992 was full of great quotes, these are just off the top of my head.
Thanks Admiral Stockdale, you are a true American Hero"