Jon Stockholm '60 (1938-2019) was a member of the DRFC who played center and was part of both the 1958 tour of England and the 1959 tour of California. Jon passed away in late May and was memorialized with full Navy honors at a family service held on the Navy SEAL base in Coronado California. He was on officer on the first ever Navy SEAL team formed during the Vietnam War and served his country with honor and valor.
The entire DRFC community mourns the passing of Jon and sends our condolences and thanks for his service to the Stockholm family.
Following his graduation from Dartmouth in June 1960, Jon went to the Navy's "Officer Candidate School" in Newport, RI. Once commissioned as an Ensign, he went to the Navy's UDT (Underwater Demolition Team) school in Coronado, CA. He was one of a 24-man frogman unit in Coronado when in 1962 the Navy decided it needed an elite insurgent force. The job of creating SEAL Team 1 was given to one of the senior frogmen in Jon's unit, Lt. David Del Giudice, with instructions to pick 11 of the other 23 frogmen to become the first SEAL unit. Del Guidice not only selected Jon to be one of the SEAL Team 1, but he made Stocks his No. 2 in command . . . and when it came time to sneak a 2-man recon team into Vietnam (the SEAL's very first mission), the skipper picked Jon to go with him. In a video history of the SEAL program put out by the Navy some years ago, Jon is not only referred to in the video, but he appears at times in person. Thanks to Mike Murphy's ('61) research, a YouTube link for the video is indicated below for those of you who want to check it out. And a photo of the memorial service program with Jon's photo is posted below.
This is a very long video history of the Navy's special forces, narrated by Gary Sinese. Jon Stockholm appears in minutes 33 and 35.