American Patriot: The Life And Wars Of Colonel Bud Day

Synopsis

"In 1942 George "Bud" Day, then a scrawny seventeen-year-old, defied his parents' wishes and went to his local post office to enlist in the Marine Corps. He was 5'2" and tipped the scales at just 116 pounds - 4 pounds under the minimum weight requirement - but the recruiter grudgingly granted him a special waiver and swore him into the Corps. And so began one of the most distinguished and remarkable military careers in American history." "During the span of his service to his country, through World War II, Korea, and then Vietnam, Day received every available combat medal and escaped death on no fewer than seven occasions. No pilot was more skilled or accomplished than Day, particularly in Vietnam, where the unit he led was renowned for its daring and successful missions into enemy airspace to destroy SAM sites and rescue downed comrades. But on his sixty-seventh raid, Day's F-100F jet was shot down over North Vietnam. He managed to escape from the enemy forces that discovered him, and after an epic three-week ordeal, he made it to South Vietnam. Just a few miles away from safety and freedom, however, he was recaptured and taken to the infamous Hanoi Hilton, where he quickly became one of the leaders of the Americans held there. Those Americans included such extraordinary figures as James Stockdale, Robbie Risner, Orson Swindle, and John McCain. And it was Bud Day who helped his fellow soldiers survive in the most horrible conditions imaginable, who never broke under torture, who never let them forget that they were Americans." "But Bud Day's story didn't end when he came home from Vietnam. In fact, in some ways, it was just beginning. He became a passionate advocate for veterans' rights, a hero to those who had served their country so bravely and selflessly. And when the Clinton administration cut veterans' medical benefits, Bud Day knew that - however weary his bones, however aged his comra