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Episode 2796 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about George “Bud” Day and his Congressional Medal of Honor award honors. The featured story comes from the taraross website and was titled: Proud to be an American, Medal of Honor Monday: George “Bud” Day. It was submitted by Tara Ross. She is a retired lawyer and the author of several books about the Electoral College.
Ross reported that at about this time in 1925, a hero is born. George “Bud” Day served in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. He served as a Marine, a soldier, and an Air Force pilot. He remains one of America’s most highly decorated officers.
He is also a recipient of the Medal of Honor, awarded for his bravery as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
When Day was captured, he was a 42-year-old Air Force Major and the commander of a squadron of F-100s known as the Misty forward air controllers. A mission on August 26, 1967, would change Day’s life.
“It was a really hairy mission,” he later described, “because you spent a lot of hours, a lot of time, fairly low to the ground at high speed getting shot at. And so I lost 42 percent of my airplanes in the first six months we operated. And I was one of those, I might add.”
Day said this about service to country: “We’ve been so fortunate by the accident of birth to be Americans. And, having had that good fortune, our primary duty is to make sure that this country survives and that we stay free. That ought to be the primary objective of every American, every day, for the rest of their life.”
Listen to episode 2796 and discover more about George “Bud” Day and his Congressional Medal of Honor award.