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ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Retired Navy Vice Adm. James Stockdale, one of the country's most decorated Vietnam war veterans and a one-time vice presidential candidate, was buried Saturday at the Naval Academy.

About 500 people, including several Medal of Honor recipients and former prisoners of war, attended the funeral for Stockdale, who died on July 5 at his home in Coronado, Calif. Stockdale, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, was 81.

For 7 1/2 years, Stockdale was a POW at the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" prison, four of those years spent in solitary confinement; on several occasions, he was singled out for torture.

He received the Medal of Honor in 1976 for his resistance, which included beating himself in the face with a wooden stool so he would be too disfigured for the North Vietnamese to display on television.

"His resistance has become an example, a legend and a model" for young officers, said retired Adm. William J. Crowe Jr., a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a friend of Stockdale's. "His captors soon learned they were dealing with a rather unusual man."

The 12 honorary pall bearers included Arizona Sen. John McCain, also a Naval Academy graduate and POW during the Vietnam War, and Texas billionaire Ross Perot, a third-party presidential candidate who chose Stockdale as his running mate during his run on the White House in 1992.

Stockdale's family recalled him as a warm, caring person. At the grave, after a 21-gun salute, the playing of "Taps," and a fly-over by four F-18 Super Hornet jets in the "missing man" formation, Stockdale's widow, Sybil, leaned forward in her wheelchair and placed a red rose on her husband's cherry casket.

Stockdale studied philosophy at Stanford University after graduating from the Naval Academy in 1947, and he often said that thinking about the writings of the Stoic philosopher Epictetus helped him survive captivity.

After retiring from the Navy, Stockdale served as president of the Military College of South Carolina, also known as the Citadel.

He is also survived by four sons and eight grandchildren.