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Bud Day: Vietnam War POW HeroBy Richard C. Barrett | Vietnam | 12 comments | Print This Post | Email This Post Day was no stranger to bailing out and surviving. He held the dubious distinction of being the first jet pilot to survive a chuteless fall. Ten years earlier in Great Britain, he had punched out of a burning jet fighter at 300 feet, too low for his parachute to open. Fortunately, he landed in trees and survived with only a broken leg. Subscribe Today
This time, North Vietnamese militiamen saw Day’s parachute open and waited for him on the ground. Day could see the Jolly Green Giant rescue chopper picking up Kippenham about one-quarter mile away, but he was unable to establish contact on his survival radio. The North Vietnamese stripped the injured pilot of his boots and flight suit and force-marched him to an underground shelter for initial interrogation. When he refused to cooperate, his captors staged a mock execution and then hung him from a rafter by his feet for several pain-filled hours. They then put him in a hole outside the shelter. Confident he was so badly hurt that escape was impossible, a militia youth tied him with a loosely knotted rope. Day laughs when he recounts how poorly bound he was with something resembling clothesline rope. On his fifth night in the camp, while his guard talked with another teenage soldier across the road, Day freed himself, prayed he wouldn’t be spotted, and escaped. The night now became his best friend, but the rocks and undergrowth quickly cut his bare feet to ribbons. During his second night on the run, an American bomb or rocket landed near Day while he was sleeping in thick undergrowth. Left with a concussion, bleeding from his ears and nose, and carrying new fragmentation wounds in his leg, Day still summoned up the will to hobble south, eating berries and frogs and avoiding enemy patrols. When Day struggled across the Ben Hai River into South Vietnam, only about two miles from the Marine base at Con Thien, he became the only POW to make it out of North Vietnam. Sometime between the 12th and 15th day after his escape—Day had begun to lose all track of time—he stumbled toward the sound of helicopters. Marine choppers were extracting infantrymen. But when he got to the landing zone, they had just left. The next morning, still heading south, Day had the bad luck to run into a VC patrol. Shot in the leg and hand, Day limped away toward the jungle, but he was quickly overtaken. Fortunately, this VC unit had a medic with better medical skills than his first captors. The VC patched Day up and fed him to fortify him for the trek back to the camp he had escaped, at first carrying the battered airman on a stretcher. Once he arrived back at his original camp, however, the North Vietnamese tortured him for the “crime” of escaping, rebreaking his arm in the process. Day was then moved north, to a camp near Hanoi that the POWs called Little Las Vegas. Denied medical treatment, he was barely able to care for himself. When he was later transferred to a prison called the Zoo, notorious for bad treatment, he found himself the senior-ranking POW there. Day eventually served time at several sites around Hanoi. He was beaten, starved and tortured continually for being a troublemaker. His body weight at one point fell below 100 pounds. Although he had been punished many times for real and alleged transgressions of his junior-ranking POWs, Day steadfastly refused to give information that would have endangered American aircrews or served as Communist propaganda. He spent more than half his 67-month imprisonment in solitary confinement. Help 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