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Stockdale leadership winners credit sailors

Not only are both 2009 winners of the Stockdale Award now serving in Iraq, but they know each other there.

“He’s a rock star,” said Capt. William Parker, the Atlantic Fleet winner, of Cmdr. Robert Baughman, winner for Pacific Fleet.

When it was his turn to speak during the Pentagon ceremony, Baughman replied, “It’s great to work with you in Baghdad — most of the time.”

Parker, a surface warfare officer, is on a one-year tour as the chief of campaign plans at Multi-National Force-Iraq. Baughman, an explosive ordnance disposal officer, is deputy commander of Joint Task Force Troy, which is organized against roadside bombs.

Baughman has the distinction of being the first EOD officer to win the award since it was first presented in 1981. He won for his command of EOD Mobile Unit 5.

Known officially as the Vice Adm. James Bond Stockdale Leadership Award, the annual distinction is awarded to an operational commanding officer below the rank of captain from each coast who sets an “inspirational” personal example. Candidates are nominated by peers who are also eligible for the award.

Stockdale, a naval aviator who was shot down over Vietnam in 1965, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his leadership of other prisoners of war during his seven years of captivity. He also wore 26 personal combat decorations. He died in 2005.

In his remarks during the Nov. 3 ceremony, Adm. Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations called Stockdale “an icon in our Navy.”

Of the 2009 winners he said, “They are the leaders our sailors deserve.”

Parker was given the award for his time as commanding officer of the destroyer Donald Cook. In that position, Parker instituted an in-port four-day work week.

“I know all the SWOs were watching while you did that,” Roughead said.

Both Baughman and Parker deferred to the sailors in their command for the award.

“I had such an incredible team, so it was easy,” Baughman said after the ceremony, noting that humility counts in a leader.

He took being the first EOD officer winner as a reflection on the whole community.

“It’s really the collective effort of everybody out there,” he said. “It’s great to see them get some recognition.”

Parker said afterward that he learned leadership early in his career from a chief petty officer named Bob Bundy.

“He was about taking care of your sailors, that you know the technical details and always do the right thing,” Parker said, “and it will always work out.”

Both winners were in the U.S. for only a few days to attend the ceremony before heading back to Iraq.

Previous Stockdale winners include current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen; Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert; and the current director of submarine warfare, Rear Adm. Cecil Haney, who attended the ceremony.