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Bud Day: Vietnam War POW HeroBy Richard C. Barrett | Vietnam | 12 comments | Print This Post | Email This Post “Bud Day is the toughest man I have ever known. He had an unwavering and unshakeable sense of honor that made him able to withstand physical and mental pressures of an enormous degree.” That’s how U.S. Senator John S. McCain, who had also been a prisoner of war, remembered his former cellmate at the Hanoi Hilton. Subscribe Today
George “Bud” Day considered death a welcome possibility once or twice while he was a POW in North Vietnam. In the end he stared it down, endured the brutality for 67 months and never betrayed his comrades or country while in the anteroom to hell. Day, the only American POW to escape from North Vietnam and make it to South Vietnam, earned the Medal of Honor for his courage during that feat and his ordeal after being recaptured. Of the approximately 1,800 American fliers downed in Vietnam, only about 500 returned. They came home with injuries that still plague them. Day has function in only one of three major nerves in his right arm, and he has hardly any grasp in that hand. There is a continuous sensation in his arm—“like bumping your elbow,” as he describes it. In his left arm two of the three major nerves function, and his upper left leg is in perpetual pain. His wife, Doris, said that when he came home, he was not the husband she remembered. He weighed just 110 pounds and had lost two inches in height. “The whites of his eyes were yellow and his eyes were sunken in. His teeth were cracked and in horrible condition,” she said. Bud Day was a skinny 17-year-old in late 1942 when he quit high school and nagged his parents into letting him join the Marine Corps. Tough as the Marines were, Day had known tougher times. Born on the wrong side of the tracks in Sioux City, Iowa, he grew up during the Depression. His father hustled for jobs for most of Bud’s early life, and hunting and fishing were sometimes the only way to feed the family. The teenage Marine spent nearly 30 months in the South Pacific during World War II. When he was a member of a replacement group in spring 1943, a shipboard injury almost washed him out of the Corps and put him in the hospital in Hawaii for about five months. He finally served in a 5-inch gun and searchlight battery on Johnson Island, near Midway Atoll. “It was the 3rd Defense Battalion,” Day remembered, “and I didn’t get sent back until April 1945, to Honolulu and a guard company.” Back in civilian life, Day attended college on the GI Bill and then went on to earn a law degree. He was admitted to the South Dakota Bar in 1949. After World War II, Day also continued to serve in the Army Reserve. In 1950 he joined the Iowa Air National Guard and received a direct commission as a second lieutenant. Called up for active duty a year later, he volunteered for pilot training. After earning his wings, he flew two air defense tours in the Far East as an F-84 pilot, including radar tracking missions against Soviet radar at Vladivostok Bay and along the Soviet coast. Following promotion to captain in 1955, he decided to make the Air Force a career. Although he had reached the point where he was eligible to retire from the Air Force, Day went to Vietnam as a major, assigned to the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing. On June 25, 1967, he became the first commander of Detachment 1, 416th Tactical Fighter Squadron, stationed at Phu Cat. Day’s unit, with the call sign “Misty,” flew F-100s as fast forward air controllers over North Vietnam and Laos. It was a high-risk, high-stress mission. He remembers that more than 40 percent of the Misty pilots were shot down in the unit’s first six months of operation. On August 26, 1967, Day and Captain Corwin Kippenham were directing a strike on a surface-to-air missile site 20 miles north of the Demilitarized Zone. Day was flying his 65th mission over the North. Kippenham was on his checkout flight, and in the front seat of an F-100F for the first time. Groundfire from a 37mm gun ripped into the aircraft and destroyed the hydraulic controls. The pilots quickly punched out of their crippled plane, but upon ejecting, Day struck the fuselage and broke his left arm in three places, injured his left eye, hurt his back and badly sprained an ankle. Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to
            Tags: Historical Figures, Vietnam War
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12 Comments to “Bud Day: Vietnam War POW Hero”
I’m very impressed with the service of Col Day.
I would like to be in contact with Col. Day, I am a disabled veteran, getting the run around from the VA. i can be contacted at:qsno@juno.com.
By MichaelN. Perrt,Sr on Jul 12, 2008 at 9:44 pm
I have followed Col. Day’s life through talks at his church in Shalimar, FL, and through his book. He IS the man you read about in the book-genuine. People with integrity are what give us kids the endurance to wait for our dads to come home from war, and to understand that patriotism, courage, faith are keys to overcoming obstacles, and the reward for our patience. Col. Day is just as genuine today as history records. It is an honor to know someone who does not sacrifice commitment for self.
By L Smith on Aug 6, 2008 at 9:33 pm
I assume thats because you never met Col. Ted W. Guy. Sometimes real hero’s never receive the recognition they deserve.
—————
As Senator Bob Smith stated:
His leadership and guidance helped his fellow POWs survive their ordeal. Many of them referred to themselves as “Hawk’s Heroes” in honor of Ted Guy.
To the code of conduct, Ted added his own personal code that consisted of two points. The first point was to resist until unable to resist any longer before doing anything to embarrass his family or country. The second point was to accept death before losing his honor.
Ted once said “honor is something that once you lose it you become like an insect in the jungle. You prey upon others and others prey upon you until there is nothing left. Once you lose your honor, all the gold in the world is useless in your attempt to regain it.”
Col.. we surely do miss you.
http://www.soft-vision.com/we-remember
By Joe OLiver on Aug 13, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Ted Guy was tortured during January/February 1972 [only 14 months before all of our POWs were returned home]. The torture chamber was filthy. For the first three days and nights Guy was allowed no sleep. He was stripped naked, locked in leg irons, and made to lie on his stomach. A guard stood on the backs of his legs, Cheese kept a foot on his neck, pinning his head to the floor, and another guard flogged him with a rubber hose. The beating lasted a long time. Guy lost control of his bodily functions, he vomited, and when the pain became more than he could bear, he screamed. Rags were crammed into his mouth and the flogging continued.”
“In the long days and nights that followed, torture guards who enjoyed their work took turns inflicting long beatings with their fists … During one stretch Guy was kept kneeling for approximately eighteen hours. His knees were swollen to the extent that he could not pull his trouser legs over them. When he refused to author a confession of crimes, he was made to kneel again, this time atop an iron bar…The torture ended for Guy when after ten days and nights, he produced an acceptable confession, an apology, and an agreement to do anything that was asked of him. Then he was asked to write a letter of ’solidarity’ and encouragement to the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. When he balked at this, he was ordered back onto his knees and offered another round of torture. Unable to tolerate the prospect, he yielded…Although Ted Guy did not receive the most brutal torture dished out by the North Vietnamese – such as that recorded at the Zoo by the Cubans – he withstood brutal torture for much longer than the average at one of the most brutal camps, such as the Briarpatch.” Although not a Medal of Honor winner, it appears that Ted Guy and James Stockdale had parallel experiences in Hanoi.
By Joe OLiver on Aug 13, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Why is there no mention of the 30 odd anti-American films made by McCain?
By Gene Ward on Sep 16, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Hello Gene Ward.
I would like proof to the statement that you said, ‘Why is there no
mention of the 30 odd anti-American films made by McCain?’
I would like proof. How could you dishonor such an amazing man?
What has this country come to?
By Cheyenne W on Nov 15, 2008 at 10:57 pm
If there is anyway to contact Bud Day, i would like that
information too, if possible. He is an american hero to me, and I
would like to tell him so.
By Cheyenne W on Nov 15, 2008 at 11:02 pm
I tryed to go to the Foundations web site to find out more, but it seems that the link or web site is gone. Does anyone know how to find out more or how to get to the web site?
By rorie little on Feb 16, 2009 at 5:12 pm
I must say, I am truely touched and amazed by the strength of these men. I am a 100% disabled veteran with a rare nerve disease. And what they have endured nerve wise very few understand the true depth of pain it can cause. I can’t begin to imagine what they suffered both physically and mentally. They are and always will be my hero’s.
God Bless You,
Robin
By Robin Mueller on Jun 4, 2009 at 1:54 am