George E. (Bud) Day

Bud Day enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in December, 1942, and spent 30 months in the South Pacific during World War II. After the war, Day joined the U.S. Army Reserve. He was appointed a 2d Lt in the Iowa Air National Guard and went on active duty in the U.S. Air Force on March 15, 1951. Lieutenant Day completed pilot training and was awarded his pilot wings at Webb AFB, Texas. He then served as an F-84 Thunderjet pilot with the 559th Strategic Fighter Squadron of the 12th Strategic Fighter Wing at Bergstrom AFB, Texas, with deployments to Omisawa, Japan, in support of the Korean War. His next assignment was as an F-84 and F-100 Super Sabre pilot with the 55th Fighter Bomber Squadron of the 20th Fighter Bomber Wing and later on the wing staff at RAF Wethersfield, England. During his service in England, he became the first person ever to live through a no-chute bailout from a jet fighter. Capt. Day attended Armed Forces Staff College for Counterinsurgency Indoctrination training at Norfolk, Virginia, and then served as an Air Force Advisor to the New York Air National Guard at Niagara Falls Municipal Airport, New York, from January 1964 to April 1967. Maj. Day then deployed to Southeast Asia, serving first as an F-100 Assistant Operations Officer at Tuy Hoa AB, South Vietnam, before organizing and serving as the first commander of the Misty Super FACs at Phu Cat AB, South Vietnam, from June 1967 until he was forced to eject over North Vietnam and taken as a Prisoner of War on August 26, 1967. He managed to escape from his captors and made it into South Vietnam before being recaptured and taken to Hanoi.