SHALIMAR — Col. Bud Day, one of the military’s most decorated war heroes and a longtime veteran’s activist, has died at the age of 88.
He passed away Saturday at his home in Shalimar surrounded by family and in the arms of his wife and childhood sweetheart, Doris, after a long battle with cancer.
“He would have died in my arms if I could have picked him up,” Doris Day said Sunday.
Day, a veteran of World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars, spent much of his post-military life advocating for veterans.
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Close friends and associates admire his tireless drive to pursue what he thought was right, whether resisting his interrogators during his almost six years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam or filing a lawsuit against the federal government to try to secure promised health benefits for veterans.
“He was one of those guys, had he lived several thousands of years ago, he would have been one of the Spartans,” said Okaloosa County Judge Patt Maney, a longtime friend and fellow veteran. “He didn’t care what the odds were, he was going to do what he thought was right, and the whole country is better off for it.”
Day, a veteran of the Marines, the Army and the Air Force, received the Medal of Honor, the military’s highest award, for escaping his captors after his plane was shot down in Vietnam in 1967. He was eventually recaptured.
In all, he earned more than 70 medals for his service as a Marine in the Pacific during World War II and then as an Air Force pilot in Korea and Vietnam.
Countless people in the community and across the country herald Day’s achievements, but in life he was more modest about his accomplishments.
“It’s what you are supposed to do,” he said of his military and community service at his 88th birthday party in February. “Courage, dignity — that stands for something.”
It was during his more than 67 months in prisons in Vietnam that Day met Sen. John McCain, a fellow prisoner. They shared a cell for some time and Day helped nurse a badly injured McCain back to health.
The two have remained close.
“I owe my life to Bud, and much of what I know about character and patriotism,” McCain said in a statement released Sunday. “He was the bravest man I ever knew, and his fierce resistance and resolute leadership set the example for us in prison of how to return home with honor ... I will miss him terribly.”
McCain said he will have more to say about Day’s life and his passing later this week.
A funeral is expected to be Thursday at the Emerald Coast Convention Center with a burial at Barrancas National Memorial Cemetery in Pensacola, according to Bill Everitt, regional commander of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, of which Day was a member.
More information should be available Monday.
Day was born in Sioux City, Iowa, on Feb. 24, 1925.
He enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1942 during World War II while he was still in high school.
After the war, he attended college on the GI Bill, earning a bachelor’s and law degrees in four years.
He joined the Army Reserve and then switched to the Air Force where he learned to fly, piloting air defense F-84s in Korea and the fighter-bomber F-100 in Vietnam.
Taken captive
Day’s plane was shot down on Aug. 26, 1967, in Vietnam. He and the other airman on board had to eject.
Day’s arm was broken in three places from the fall and he was temporarily blinded in one eye.
He called in his location, but was quickly captured by a group of armed Vietnamese teenagers.
“Within 10 seconds of that call, there’s a 13-year-old kid with a bolt-action rifle in my face,” he told the Daily News in 2007.
He was taken to a makeshift camp and bound, but was able to escape.
He received the Medal of Honor for the 10 days he evaded his captors in the jungle and for his refusal to give up information that might compromise the safety of other service members or the military’s mission.
He survived during that time on berries and uncooked frogs and used a bamboo log to cross the Ben Hai River.
He eventually was shot twice and recaptured. Completely debilitated, he continued to resist interrogation.
He was held for some time in the infamous Hanoi Hilton prison, which was where he met McCain.
In the prison known as the Plantation, Day shared a cell with Ron Webb, another prisoner who was already there when Day arrived.
“I was there when he was hobbling down the camp,” Webb said at Day’s birthday party earlier this year. “He was badly injured, badly tortured. It was quite a sight to see him.”
Day, then in his 40s and serving as a major, was often the highest-ranking captive in the prisons.
As part of his torture, he was hung by his arms for days, tearing them from their sockets.
He and the other prisoners were nearly starved to death.
He returned to the United States on March 17, 1973, a skeleton of the once-muscular man he had been.
After he returned, he said knowing his wife and the rest of his family would be fine helped him get through his time in the prisons.
“I knew things were OK for Dorie. She’s always had it together,” Day told the Daily News in 2005. “My major thing was doing the right thing for myself. It meant keeping my honor. I wasn’t going to do anything dishonorable.”
Tireless advocate
Day retired from the Air Force in 1977 and he and his family decided to stay in Northwest Florida where he began work as a lawyer.
Maney, who argued cases against Day often in the early years, said he was tenacious and would never give up on a case, no matter how trivial.
He also became a champion for veterans, both of his wars and of more recent conflicts.
One of his most high-profile efforts was his work to secure TRICARE medical benefits for veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam.
Day single-handedly sued the federal government on behalf of two Northwest Florida veterans. The suit sought to restore free health benefits to tens of thousands of military retirees who enlisted between 1941 and 1956.
The case died in 2004 when the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal, but the suit and Day and his plaintiffs’ tireless lobbying on the issue are credited with forcing Congress to pass the TRICARE for Life Act, which made it easier for all military retirees and their families to afford health care.
“The things that allowed him to survive as a POW also gave him the strength to take on the federal government,” Maney said. “That’s a huge undertaking, but he did what he thought was right, he thought veterans deserved better.”
His strong character proved inspirational for countless people in his community and across the country. Many have made the pilgrimage to his home to meet him and pay their respects, Maney said.
His door was always open.
“He was just a quiet, firm, blunt, unassuming, humble, but very determined guy,” Maney said.
When Maney, a retired brigadier general, was injured in a bomb explosion in Afghanistan, Day made the trip to Walter Reed hospital in Washington, D.C., to visit him.
“He bucked you up and got you going again, that’s for sure,” Maney said.
He has been instrumental in veterans initiatives such as the Fisher House for injured or ill service members and the Honor Flights for World War II veterans, said Tom Rice, owner of Magnolia Grill and himself an advocate for veterans.
He continued this work until the last days of his life.
“He always said as long as I’m vertical, I’ll be doing all I can,” Rice said.
He said that dedication, even as he was battling cancer and nearing the end of his life, was inspiring “Long after a lot of us probably would just sit on the couch, he was still firing away and looking out for somebody else,” he said.
Congressman Jeff Miller said in a statement on Sunday that since he first met Day, anytime he hears the word ‘hero’ he thinks of him in his flight jacket with his Medal of Honor fastened high around his neck.
“Though many have bravely served their country before Col. Day, and many continue to honorably serve, few have endured as much as (he has) for honor, duty and love of country,” Miller said in the statement.
“Our community will miss his unwavering perseverance, his limitless patriotism, and his enduring optimism for the future of America,” he continued. “I will miss his friendship.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.