“Freedom is not free.”
—Colonel Walter Hitchcock
On June 14, 2024, Vice Admiral Joseph Scott Mobley, US Navy, retired, passed away.
Were it not for my amazing stepfather, Admiral Greg Johnson (USN, Ret.), I never would have known Mobley’s name. Just a few days after the vice admiral’s death, Greg sent me a summary of Mobley’s military service career written by Samuel Cox, director of the Naval History and Heritage Command. What I read stopped me in my tracks. I was filled with reverence as I reflected upon this one man’s contribution to the trajectory of freedom and the life I enjoy.
When Vice Admiral Mobley retired in June of 2001, he was the last former Vietnam War POW on active duty. I was just two years old on June 24, 1968, the day Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Mobley was shot down over North Vietnam near the Song Ca River. An enemy round had burst inside his cockpit, causing the jet he was flying to “roll out of control and crash in a fireball.” Lieutenant Mobley was able to eject, suffering a broken leg in the process.
Here’s how Samuel Cox described what happened next:
Mobley was immediately captured by the North Vietnamese. He was tied standing to a pillar, beaten, interrogated and displayed for public humiliation and forced to dodge bricks and bamboo sticks for eight or nine hours. He was then put into a cell and after waiting many long agonizing hours for medical attention for his broken leg, he set the bone himself. He endured years of solitary confinement and intermittent torture and interrogation sessions before being released after 1,724 days of North Vietnamese captivity on 4 March 1973.
Upon his return home to America, Joseph Mobley went back into service to his country, assuming a series of distinguished command roles before retiring as a vice admiral nearly thirty years after being released from North Vietnam. Along the way he was awarded the Legion of Merit with Combat “V,” the Distinguished Flying Cross, a Bronze Star with Combat “V” (twice), a Purple Heart (twice), and three Navy Commendation Medals with Combat “V” for service in the Vietnam War. Despite these accolades, few in America know his name today.
Our country and the freedom that comes with living in America would not exist without people like Vice Admiral Mobley. Our current twenty-first-century position of unprecedented enlightenment, comfort, technology, and security is something that has been earned, not given. The American story is filled with people like Joseph Mobley, whose names are unknown to us, and yet, without them, we would not be as free.
There are 195 countries on Earth today, and about 45 percent of them are free. Nearly 40 percent of all humans in 2024 live in countries that are not free. Freedom is not guaranteed, and those of us who enjoy it share a responsibility to honor it and pay it forward.
America stands on the broad shoulders of those who came before us. Whenever I feel like I’m being brave, I pause to reflect on those who were much, much braver, both known and unknown to me.
Thank you, Vice Admiral Mobley, for devoting your life to freedom. Our lives are better because of your sacrifice.
