Retired Vice Adm. James Stockdale deserves a better fate than to be remembered by many just for his role as Ross Perot’s running mate in 1992. Stockdale died Tuesday. He was 81.

During the campaign, the retired military man became a punch line, fueled by his own idiosyncrasies and poor performance during that year’s vice presidential debate.

Perot, of course, did well in Maine, and the third-way momentum he rode has strong roots in the state, evident by the middle-of-the-road policies put into practice by Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both Republicans, and Gov. Baldacci, a Democrat.

Stockdale was out of place in the presidential campaign. He was uncomfortable with the intense public gaze that accompanies a run for the country’s second highest office and sat out the 1996 race when Perot made a second run.

Stockdale’s true legacy was formed years earlier, during his career in the Navy. He earned 26 combat decorations, including the nation’s highest for valor, the Medal of Honor. He flew more than 200 combat missions before being shot down during the Vietnam War. He was held as a prisoner of war by the North Vietnamese for more than seven years and is credited with making conditions for other POWs better with his steadfast determination and resistance against his captors.

He never gave in and never surrendered, almost killing himself rather than allowing his torturers to use him for propaganda. For four years, he was held in solitary confinement.

Adm. Stockdale, who had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, served his country honorably and with great personal sacrifice. That’s how he should be remembered.