WaPo:
George E. “Bud” Day, an Air Force fighter pilot who received the Medal of Honor for his valor during 51 / 2 years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, where he befriended his cellmate, the future Sen. John McCain, died July 27 at his home in Shalimar, Fla. He was 88.
The cause was complications from cancer, said his daughter-in-law Mary Ann Day.
Col. Day was described in news accounts as one of the most highly honored military officers in U.S. history. In addition to the Medal of Honor, he received some 70 military decorations, including the Air Force Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal, the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross and multiple awards of the Bronze Star Medal, the Purple Heart and the Air Medal.
On Aug. 26, 1967, he was a 42-year-old Air Force major and father of four when his supersonic jet fighter came under fire over North Vietnam. Forced to eject, he suffered a broken arm, a knee injury and the loss of sight in one eye. He was swiftly captured, he recalled years later, by adversaries including a teenager armed with a rusty gun.
“I hit the ground real hard,” Col. Day once said, “and when I woke up, they had me.”
After interrogation and torture that included a mock execution and suspension from his feet, Col. Day enticed the guards to “relax their vigilance,” according to his Medal of Honor citation. He escaped his captors and began making his way toward South Vietnam, sustaining himself on little more than berries and uncooked frogs. At one point, he was wounded again by shrapnel.
Despite his injuries, Col. Day arrived at the demilitarized zone. After wandering for a number of days — a consequence of delirium — he spotted helicopters that were evacuating U.S. Marines. He arrived at the landing area just after the helicopters took off, according to an account in the book “Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty.” The next day, he was recaptured by the enemy in an ambush.
The Medal of Honor citation described Col. Day as “totally debilitated and unable to perform even the simplest task for himself” and credited him with answering interrogation questions with false information. He spent five years and nearly seven months in North Vietnamese prisons including Hoa Lo — more commonly known as the Hanoi Hilton — and one dubbed the Plantation.
Besides McCain, his fellow inmates would include James B. Stockdale, the highest-ranking U.S. Navy officer held captive in Vietnam and Ross Perot’s vice presidential running mate in his 1992 campaign.
McCain arrived at the Plantation in December 1967, weeks after his own capture, and was thrown from a stretcher onto the floor in Col. Day’s cell, according to an account in Men’s Vogue. “We were the first Americans he had talked to,” Col. Day wrote years later in “Return With Honor,” one of two memoirs. “We were delighted to have him, and he was more than elated to see us.”
“I was stunned by his condition,” Col. Day recalled, according to the Men’s Vogue account. “My first thought was: They dumped him on me so they can claim we let him die. I did not think he would live through the night.”
~~~ Throughout his imprisonment, Col. Day “continued to offer maximum resistance,” according to the citation for the Medal of Honor, given to him by President Gerald R. Ford in 1976, three years after his release. “His personal bravery in the face of deadly enemy pressure was significant in saving the lives of fellow aviators who were still flying against the enemy.”
SemperFi..brother.