WEBVTT 00:00:15.789 --> 00:00:18.649 From the studios of Ave Maria Radio in Ann Arbor, 00:00:18.890 --> 00:00:21.789 this is Veterans Radio. And now, here's your 00:00:21.789 --> 00:00:26.780 host, Ken Rogge. And good morning and welcome 00:00:26.780 --> 00:00:29.579 into veterans radio I'm really excited about 00:00:29.579 --> 00:00:32.600 today's show and I got some help with the studio 00:00:32.600 --> 00:00:35.619 here Dale Throneberry's Opposite me. Good morning. 00:00:35.700 --> 00:00:38.460 Good morning and welcome and in a control room 00:00:38.460 --> 00:00:42.659 We have in our intrepid Bob Gould screaming eagles 00:00:42.659 --> 00:00:46.520 airborne. Oh There we go. Sounds like he's falling 00:00:46.520 --> 00:00:48.880 out of an airplane jumping out of one. I think 00:00:48.880 --> 00:00:53.799 he did And we have a, like I said, we have a 00:00:53.799 --> 00:00:56.399 great show and I'm really excited about it. We 00:00:56.399 --> 00:00:59.820 have one of America's most decorated officers 00:00:59.820 --> 00:01:03.679 on the show today, Colonel Bud Day, retired United 00:01:03.679 --> 00:01:08.840 States Air Force. And he holds every combat medal 00:01:08.840 --> 00:01:11.459 available from the Medal of Honor on down, which 00:01:11.459 --> 00:01:13.680 is an amazing accomplishment. He's the only officer 00:01:13.680 --> 00:01:17.040 to ever do that. He was in the service for a 00:01:17.040 --> 00:01:20.859 while, too. Well, he was. Yes, he was. But even 00:01:20.859 --> 00:01:22.400 still, it doesn't matter how long he was in, 00:01:22.459 --> 00:01:26.540 just to have all those medals is amazing. Just 00:01:26.540 --> 00:01:30.079 an amazing feat. Well, I'm looking forward to 00:01:30.079 --> 00:01:31.659 talking to him because it's going to be very 00:01:31.659 --> 00:01:34.819 interesting. He's got stories that we won't believe 00:01:34.819 --> 00:01:36.439 and I know our listeners won't believe. I know. 00:01:37.079 --> 00:01:39.659 I read his biography. Wow, that's just awesome. 00:01:40.379 --> 00:01:43.060 and uh... of course we have a special guest today 00:01:43.060 --> 00:01:45.620 and uh... he's going to be calling in about ten 00:01:45.620 --> 00:01:48.120 minutes after nine so uh... daily you get some 00:01:48.120 --> 00:01:50.159 news stories for us we've got all kinds of things 00:01:50.159 --> 00:01:52.299 going on as this as the sun comes out in the 00:01:52.299 --> 00:01:54.379 sun starts to shine and it gets warmer with a 00:01:54.379 --> 00:01:56.939 number of events going on in the local area specially 00:01:56.939 --> 00:01:59.219 uh... in the an arbor area we've got a local 00:01:59.219 --> 00:02:01.359 church sponsored to support our troops sunday 00:02:01.359 --> 00:02:03.900 that's next sunday may twentieth at the saint 00:02:03.900 --> 00:02:06.920 luke lutheran church in whitmore lake and they're 00:02:06.920 --> 00:02:09.180 encouraging all veterans and those on active 00:02:09.180 --> 00:02:11.199 duty invited to attend. There's going to be a 00:02:11.199 --> 00:02:14.180 Boy Scout Honor Guard, a gathering of care packages 00:02:14.180 --> 00:02:16.319 for soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan, and local 00:02:16.319 --> 00:02:18.020 veterans hospitals are going to be featured. 00:02:18.539 --> 00:02:20.159 The guest speaker is going to be one of our good 00:02:20.159 --> 00:02:22.500 friends, John Kinzinger, the past president of 00:02:22.500 --> 00:02:24.560 the Washtenaw County Vietnam Veterans of America. 00:02:25.479 --> 00:02:29.599 I'm a union guy. Chapter 310 and former Michigan 00:02:29.599 --> 00:02:33.120 Veteran of the Year in 2003 -2004. For more information 00:02:33.120 --> 00:02:38.300 on that, call 734 -426 -4006 or you can visit 00:02:38.300 --> 00:02:43.960 www .livingwatermi .org. For more information 00:02:43.960 --> 00:02:47.800 on the St. Luke Lutheran Church, support our 00:02:47.800 --> 00:02:52.030 troops Sunday, next Sunday, May the 20th. Vietnam 00:02:52.030 --> 00:02:54.550 Veterans of America Detroit chapter 9 is hosting 00:02:54.550 --> 00:02:56.990 their annual Armed Forces Day picnic and chapter 00:02:56.990 --> 00:03:00.270 reunion on Saturday, May 19th. That's 12 noon 00:03:00.270 --> 00:03:02.849 and Where are they going to be? They're going 00:03:02.849 --> 00:03:07.110 to be on Woodward and Right by Veterans Park. 00:03:07.110 --> 00:03:11.710 Yeah Woodward and Temple Correct for more information 00:03:11.710 --> 00:03:14.430 on that you can give their chapter president 00:03:14.430 --> 00:03:17.740 Dave Trevino a call at five eight six four four 00:03:17.740 --> 00:03:20.259 five two two zero six so you listen to veterans 00:03:20.259 --> 00:03:22.080 radio next week and then you can go to a picnic 00:03:22.080 --> 00:03:24.439 in downtown detroit which should be really fun 00:03:24.439 --> 00:03:27.340 and then finally uh... thunder rolls in bellville 00:03:27.340 --> 00:03:31.900 michigan their third annual uh... bike ride motorcycle 00:03:31.900 --> 00:03:34.719 ride is going to be on memorial day monday may 00:03:34.719 --> 00:03:37.840 twenty eighth and begins at eleven a m in downtown 00:03:37.840 --> 00:03:40.699 bellville and i think it looks like a great opportunity 00:03:40.699 --> 00:03:43.620 for all you bikers out there And we are going 00:03:43.620 --> 00:03:45.500 to, for more information, you need to contact 00:03:45.500 --> 00:03:51.259 the Brown Family Center at 734 -697 -5090. And 00:03:51.259 --> 00:03:55.620 the Baptist Church on textile in Ypsilanti is 00:03:55.620 --> 00:03:59.159 also having a special service on Sunday the 20th 00:03:59.159 --> 00:04:02.879 at 11 o 'clock. to honor all veterans, police 00:04:02.879 --> 00:04:06.520 officers, firemen, and EMTs, I believe. And we 00:04:06.520 --> 00:04:09.280 will attempt to put all these up on our website 00:04:09.280 --> 00:04:13.240 at veteransradio .net, click on events, and hopefully 00:04:13.240 --> 00:04:15.139 I'll get those up there this afternoon for you. 00:04:15.479 --> 00:04:17.439 We need to get into some news, and a couple of 00:04:17.439 --> 00:04:20.199 big news items really are. Number one is that 00:04:20.199 --> 00:04:22.120 Congressman Phil Harrah, a Democrat of Illinois 00:04:22.120 --> 00:04:23.660 and member of the House Committee on Veterans 00:04:23.660 --> 00:04:27.860 Affairs, has called on the VA Secretary Jim Nicholson 00:04:27.860 --> 00:04:31.060 to resign amid reports that he approved a number 00:04:31.060 --> 00:04:33.620 of bonuses for senior VA personnel shortly after 00:04:33.620 --> 00:04:35.639 their faulty accounting practices resulted in 00:04:35.639 --> 00:04:39.370 a one billion shortfall of the VA. It just never 00:04:39.370 --> 00:04:42.709 seems to go away. According to the Associated 00:04:42.709 --> 00:04:45.970 Press, the bonuses were awarded even after government 00:04:45.970 --> 00:04:48.649 investigators had determined that the VA repeatedly 00:04:48.649 --> 00:04:51.529 miscalculated, if not deliberately misled taxpayers 00:04:51.529 --> 00:04:54.629 with questionable methods used to justify the 00:04:54.629 --> 00:04:56.529 Bush administration's cuts to healthcare amid 00:04:56.529 --> 00:05:01.839 a burgeoning Iraq war. Come on, guys. POW, here's 00:05:01.839 --> 00:05:04.800 a good thing, POW Benefits Act has been introduced 00:05:04.800 --> 00:05:08.160 by Gus Bilirakis, a Republican of Palm Harbor. 00:05:10.369 --> 00:05:13.110 state that's from. But anyway, he has introduced 00:05:13.110 --> 00:05:15.529 the Prisoner of War Benefits Act and what this 00:05:15.529 --> 00:05:17.930 will do is it establishes presumptions of disability 00:05:17.930 --> 00:05:20.709 compensation for several diseases including type 00:05:20.709 --> 00:05:25.269 2 diabetes and osteoporosis for all former POWs 00:05:25.269 --> 00:05:28.189 to claim these disabilities as being service 00:05:28.189 --> 00:05:30.790 connected and will qualify them for disability 00:05:30.790 --> 00:05:34.069 compensation. Good time. Very appropriate. I 00:05:34.069 --> 00:05:36.490 think so. Overdue. I know. How am I doing on 00:05:36.490 --> 00:05:41.329 time? You're doing fine. Okay. Our favorite vehicle 00:05:41.329 --> 00:05:47.290 in the transportation department is the Humvee. 00:05:47.649 --> 00:05:50.290 Well, you know, doors, you know, we've upgraded 00:05:50.290 --> 00:05:52.310 these Humvees with armor and so on and so forth. 00:05:52.470 --> 00:05:54.689 To protect the troops. Right. Well, now those 00:05:54.689 --> 00:05:57.470 doors are jamming shut as a result of an attack 00:05:57.470 --> 00:05:59.810 on an unintended consequence of our up -armoring. 00:06:00.149 --> 00:06:01.990 Due to the jamming problem, records show that 00:06:01.990 --> 00:06:05.009 the Army must fix the doors of some 18 ,000 armored 00:06:05.009 --> 00:06:07.490 Humvees because they can't get the doors open 00:06:07.490 --> 00:06:10.000 when they're attacked. One quick fix has been 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:12.500 to weld hooks on the sides of the Humvee door 00:06:12.500 --> 00:06:14.819 so that another truck can rip them off to get 00:06:14.819 --> 00:06:21.600 the troops out. Oh, no. Yes. The Humvee was a 00:06:21.600 --> 00:06:23.699 good vehicle, a good utility vehicle, but I don't 00:06:23.699 --> 00:06:25.720 think it was ever intended to go into combat. 00:06:26.019 --> 00:06:27.699 No, I don't think so. And the Army plans to spend 00:06:27.699 --> 00:06:31.019 an additional $284 million this year on Humvee 00:06:31.019 --> 00:06:33.399 armor kits to protect our troops from obviously 00:06:33.399 --> 00:06:37.670 from the roadside bombs. You've got to weld a 00:06:37.670 --> 00:06:40.709 hook on the outside of it. That's unbelievable. 00:06:41.970 --> 00:06:43.930 Alright, some good news for all of you out there. 00:06:44.569 --> 00:06:46.649 This is from General Motors. This is something 00:06:46.649 --> 00:06:48.949 that General Motors is doing right. From now 00:06:48.949 --> 00:06:50.990 until the end of May, all active duty military 00:06:50.990 --> 00:06:53.550 and reserves, military retirees and members of 00:06:53.550 --> 00:06:55.589 eligible military households can take advantage 00:06:55.589 --> 00:06:59.170 of a $1 ,000 private offer on select Buick, Pontiac, 00:06:59.449 --> 00:07:01.790 GMC and Chevy models towards a purchase or lease 00:07:01.790 --> 00:07:06.769 of any most new and unused 2006 -2007 cars. This 00:07:06.769 --> 00:07:08.870 offer may be combined with most current incentives 00:07:08.870 --> 00:07:10.829 and may be transferred to members of eligible 00:07:10.829 --> 00:07:13.290 military households. So get on down to your GM 00:07:13.290 --> 00:07:15.589 dealer and see what they can do for you. I think 00:07:15.589 --> 00:07:19.579 that's a great deal. It is. It's a very good 00:07:19.579 --> 00:07:23.160 deal. I think that's about it for today on the 00:07:23.160 --> 00:07:25.839 news. Oh, come on. You've got to have more than 00:07:25.839 --> 00:07:29.100 that. Well, I do, but how much do we want to 00:07:29.100 --> 00:07:30.579 get into? You've got another half a minute. Oh, 00:07:30.660 --> 00:07:32.839 I've got another half a minute? Sure. Well, all 00:07:32.839 --> 00:07:34.699 right. A story that I'm going to be starting 00:07:34.699 --> 00:07:37.120 to do more on is we're finding that a number 00:07:37.120 --> 00:07:39.399 of veterans, or not veterans, but active duty 00:07:39.399 --> 00:07:42.899 military personnel are having... severe reactions 00:07:42.899 --> 00:07:45.040 to some of the vaccines that they've been given 00:07:45.040 --> 00:07:48.699 to go to Iraq and Afghanistan. And in many cases, 00:07:48.839 --> 00:07:50.480 some people have been a number of deaths as a 00:07:50.480 --> 00:07:54.100 result of them, and severe reactions, kidney 00:07:54.100 --> 00:07:56.879 failures, and so on and so forth. And there is 00:07:56.879 --> 00:07:59.720 an ongoing investigation right now looking into 00:07:59.720 --> 00:08:02.980 whether it was one of those things where the 00:08:02.980 --> 00:08:05.199 troops were being given vaccines that they weren't 00:08:05.199 --> 00:08:07.220 aware of and that they were doing a little bit 00:08:07.220 --> 00:08:10.360 of testing on. So stay tuned for that story. 00:08:10.350 --> 00:08:13.029 that's coming from military dot com and let's 00:08:13.029 --> 00:08:15.730 go into our welcome home segment we shall welcome 00:08:15.730 --> 00:08:17.949 home each week on veterans radio we welcome home 00:08:17.949 --> 00:08:19.430 service men and women who have been stationed 00:08:19.430 --> 00:08:21.589 around the world in the service of our country 00:08:21.589 --> 00:08:23.910 number one is that secretary of defense robert 00:08:23.910 --> 00:08:26.569 gates as well as hundreds of families and families, 00:08:26.689 --> 00:08:29.850 friends, and members welcomed home 200 troops 00:08:29.850 --> 00:08:32.149 on May 6th at the Dallas -Fort Worth International 00:08:32.149 --> 00:08:34.889 Airport. These troops are coming home for R &R, 00:08:35.370 --> 00:08:37.090 and I think this is great. This is an event that 00:08:37.090 --> 00:08:40.950 is sponsored by the Welcome Home a Hero. program 00:08:40.950 --> 00:08:42.909 that is going on at the dallas fort worth airport 00:08:42.909 --> 00:08:44.889 and it looks like it's been instigated by the 00:08:44.889 --> 00:08:47.149 vietnam veterans of america chapter ninety down 00:08:47.149 --> 00:08:50.110 there well done guys that they do this to every 00:08:50.110 --> 00:08:52.570 plane that comes into dallas fort worth welcoming 00:08:52.570 --> 00:08:54.990 home the troops for them for their aren't ours 00:08:54.990 --> 00:08:57.610 they have a great u .s. o center that report 00:08:57.610 --> 00:09:00.049 i think i remember going there at one time was 00:09:00.049 --> 00:09:03.669 great This is another example of a, this is a 00:09:03.669 --> 00:09:07.309 Vietnam veteran of America chapter 983 greeted 00:09:07.309 --> 00:09:10.169 104 sailors that were just passing through Rockford, 00:09:10.169 --> 00:09:13.070 Illinois on their way home and refueling their 00:09:13.070 --> 00:09:15.289 aircraft and they had banners and so forth to 00:09:15.289 --> 00:09:18.190 welcome them home. The soldiers of the 175th 00:09:18.190 --> 00:09:19.990 Quartermaster Company were honored in a welcome 00:09:19.990 --> 00:09:22.269 home celebration that was held in Delaware, Ohio. 00:09:22.730 --> 00:09:25.690 And this was put on by the, each veteran coming 00:09:25.690 --> 00:09:28.190 back gets a welcome home warrior citizen's award. 00:09:28.250 --> 00:09:31.570 I think that's terrific. Welcome home. And we're 00:09:31.570 --> 00:09:34.450 back on Veterans Radio. Ken Rogge with Dale Throneberry 00:09:34.450 --> 00:09:37.990 and we're going to be talking today with a retired 00:09:37.990 --> 00:09:42.289 Air Force Colonel by the name of Bud Day, George 00:09:42.289 --> 00:09:46.850 E. Day. very very decorated officer an amazing 00:09:46.850 --> 00:09:50.029 man uh... i read his uh... uh... biography from 00:09:50.029 --> 00:09:53.590 uh... written by robert quorum and uh... robert 00:09:53.590 --> 00:09:55.309 quorum was supposed to be on the show but he's 00:09:55.309 --> 00:09:58.009 out on a book tour i wonder what bookies he's 00:09:58.009 --> 00:10:01.070 told i can't imagine i can't imagine either the 00:10:01.070 --> 00:10:04.169 book is called american patriot and uh... it 00:10:04.169 --> 00:10:07.490 uh... tells the story of uh... of bud day and 00:10:07.490 --> 00:10:10.850 and uh... his uh... his uh... uh... accomplishments 00:10:10.850 --> 00:10:15.070 and and we have uh... but day on the phone good 00:10:15.070 --> 00:10:25.370 morning bud good morning bud but are you there 00:10:25.370 --> 00:10:33.730 hello bud how are you okay we'll give you a minute 00:10:33.730 --> 00:10:36.450 to go get another phone okay can you give me 00:10:36.450 --> 00:10:38.610 a call back so i can answer on a different on 00:10:38.610 --> 00:10:41.379 this uh... Master station is right by the coffee 00:10:41.379 --> 00:10:45.740 pot, which is bubbling now. Oh, okay Pour me 00:10:45.740 --> 00:10:50.860 a cup Okay, we'll call bud back and and get him 00:10:50.860 --> 00:10:56.340 on his other phone and live radio So take a quick 00:10:56.340 --> 00:10:58.580 opportunity here before we we're gonna do this 00:10:58.580 --> 00:10:59.919 at the end of our but we'll do it at this time 00:10:59.919 --> 00:11:01.919 We want to also say, you know Happy Mother's 00:11:01.919 --> 00:11:03.799 Day, of course to all of our military moms and 00:11:03.799 --> 00:11:05.519 all of our real moms because obviously without 00:11:05.519 --> 00:11:08.559 you none of us would be here and uh... we want 00:11:08.559 --> 00:11:10.940 to congratulate the especially the military moms 00:11:10.940 --> 00:11:13.860 for what you're doing for us in our country and 00:11:13.860 --> 00:11:15.759 and uh... we wish you all well in the second 00:11:15.759 --> 00:11:18.460 was that they make uh... eighty week with the 00:11:18.460 --> 00:11:20.659 there was a uh... uh... a woman on the other 00:11:20.659 --> 00:11:26.220 uh... tv the other day is in uh... she's in kuwait 00:11:26.220 --> 00:11:29.960 she's a lieutenant colonel and she has three 00:11:29.960 --> 00:11:32.519 children back here in the states and uh... it's 00:11:32.519 --> 00:11:36.769 just You see that. Your heart goes out to them 00:11:36.769 --> 00:11:40.490 because it's so obviously painful to them to 00:11:40.490 --> 00:11:43.149 be separated from their families. And I think 00:11:43.149 --> 00:11:44.809 the mothers are more important to the kids than 00:11:44.809 --> 00:11:50.500 the fathers. Probably. I mean, begrudgingly, 00:11:50.759 --> 00:11:54.179 yes. Separation wise, I think it's more important 00:11:54.179 --> 00:11:57.700 for the mother to be there than the father. Well, 00:11:57.740 --> 00:11:59.259 we've addressed that issue. I mean, we did a 00:11:59.259 --> 00:12:00.700 program, and for those of you that are interested, 00:12:01.039 --> 00:12:03.379 if you go back into our archives at veteransradio 00:12:03.379 --> 00:12:05.340 .net, there's a program where we talked to military 00:12:05.340 --> 00:12:08.740 moms last year at this time. And I think that 00:12:08.740 --> 00:12:11.259 they'll find it very interesting to see how they 00:12:11.259 --> 00:12:13.779 feel. Yeah about you know being in them, you 00:12:13.779 --> 00:12:15.940 know the dual job that they have between being 00:12:15.940 --> 00:12:17.639 a mom and being in the military Well, we had 00:12:17.639 --> 00:12:20.820 Christine cook on to who has had that experience 00:12:20.820 --> 00:12:23.299 and yes, and I talked with her last week and 00:12:23.299 --> 00:12:26.360 she was she was saying that You know now that 00:12:26.360 --> 00:12:27.820 she's home, you know and seeing her children 00:12:27.820 --> 00:12:29.539 growing she said I can't believe I was gone for 00:12:29.539 --> 00:12:32.399 a whole year and Unfortunately as this thing 00:12:32.399 --> 00:12:34.320 goes on it looks like they're that unit may be 00:12:34.320 --> 00:12:36.759 called up again in a little while You know or 00:12:36.759 --> 00:12:39.559 another year at six months to go back again Wow. 00:12:40.320 --> 00:12:45.600 And they do recur. They keep going back. I think 00:12:45.600 --> 00:12:47.259 Bud is back on the line. Bud, are you there? 00:12:47.419 --> 00:12:49.379 Hi, I'm here. All right. That sounds better. 00:12:49.460 --> 00:12:51.440 How are you this morning? Just fine. How are 00:12:51.440 --> 00:12:53.860 you doing? Good. Welcome to Veterans Radio. We're 00:12:53.860 --> 00:12:58.460 so glad to have you on. Thanks so much. I just 00:12:58.460 --> 00:13:00.679 read, I don't know whether you heard, but I read 00:13:00.679 --> 00:13:04.120 the book by Robert Corm, American patriot. And 00:13:04.120 --> 00:13:06.279 it so happens, it's written about a guy by the 00:13:06.279 --> 00:13:10.139 name of Bud Day. Yes. Have you read the book? 00:13:10.399 --> 00:13:14.360 Yes, I have. I think it's a great book and a 00:13:14.360 --> 00:13:21.919 lot of insight to who Bud Day is and his core 00:13:21.919 --> 00:13:24.659 values and so on. I think it's an amazing book. 00:13:25.320 --> 00:13:28.360 I want to ask you some things about your youth. 00:13:28.539 --> 00:13:31.000 You grew up in Iowa in pre -World War II days. 00:13:31.100 --> 00:13:35.899 What was it like back then? Well, life was really 00:13:35.899 --> 00:13:41.419 pretty off there. We had the, I was born 1925 00:13:41.419 --> 00:13:47.259 and roughly late 1929 the banks failed. 1930 00:13:47.259 --> 00:13:50.639 we had the, and of course from the bank failure 00:13:50.639 --> 00:13:52.679 came the depression and then the death storm 00:13:52.679 --> 00:13:56.779 started in 1930 and we had almost a continual 00:13:56.779 --> 00:14:03.120 drought from 1930 roughly until 1937 varied in 00:14:03.120 --> 00:14:09.590 intensity, 30, 31, 32. 33 were the really, really 00:14:09.590 --> 00:14:16.590 bad years. Dry, drought, all of Arizona, New 00:14:16.590 --> 00:14:20.070 Mexico, southern Kansas was overhead in the air 00:14:20.070 --> 00:14:28.909 all the time. Wow. And what was the patriotism 00:14:28.909 --> 00:14:33.490 like back then? A very patriotic country, despite 00:14:33.490 --> 00:14:37.100 the hardships that were going on. people were 00:14:37.100 --> 00:14:43.620 really quite united. Franklin Roosevelt, when 00:14:43.620 --> 00:14:47.919 he got elected in 1932, had a message of optimism 00:14:47.919 --> 00:14:53.779 and hope. He was an inspiring president in that 00:14:53.779 --> 00:14:55.840 he kept telling everybody things were going to 00:14:55.840 --> 00:14:58.960 get better and he cranked up a lot of make -work 00:14:58.960 --> 00:15:04.659 projects like the PWA, was a public works administration 00:15:04.659 --> 00:15:10.379 and the WPA, the Works Progress Administration, 00:15:11.399 --> 00:15:15.799 and they did flood control, blight sewer systems, 00:15:15.940 --> 00:15:20.960 drainage, clean out forests, and put a lot of 00:15:20.960 --> 00:15:25.879 people to work at a remarkably low wage, like 00:15:25.879 --> 00:15:29.879 roughly a dollar and a half a day. Just think 00:15:29.879 --> 00:15:34.000 about that today All right World War two began 00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:36.740 in 1941 and then you went in the military sometime 00:15:36.740 --> 00:15:40.580 after that. When did you go in? I went in December 00:15:40.580 --> 00:15:50.679 of 1942 I was just 17 in February of 1942 so 00:15:50.679 --> 00:15:52.919 I would have gone in then if my parents would 00:15:52.919 --> 00:15:59.720 have permitted but they continued to Opposed 00:15:59.720 --> 00:16:03.019 me and wasn't until December of that year that 00:16:03.019 --> 00:16:06.740 I was able to wear them down. That's a good way 00:16:06.740 --> 00:16:10.200 of putting it. And you went into the Marine Corps. 00:16:10.460 --> 00:16:15.240 Yes. And you served where? Where did you go in 00:16:15.240 --> 00:16:17.899 the Marine Corps? I served 30 months out in the 00:16:17.899 --> 00:16:20.480 Pacific. As soon as I got out of boot camp, I 00:16:20.480 --> 00:16:26.139 was sent out as a replacement. and headed southwest, 00:16:26.480 --> 00:16:28.460 that's where all the action was. You were on 00:16:28.460 --> 00:16:31.080 Johnston Island, I believe. Yes, I was. Yes, 00:16:31.080 --> 00:16:35.279 so was I, but we had a few years between us. 00:16:35.379 --> 00:16:39.460 I'll be darned. I was there in 1975 and 1976. 00:16:40.100 --> 00:16:42.360 Well, I'll be darned. Well, what happened was, 00:16:42.360 --> 00:16:46.100 you know, the 3rd Defense Battalion had been 00:16:46.100 --> 00:16:49.570 at Lake Island, and when they got overrun, they 00:16:49.570 --> 00:16:52.690 moved the third defense battalion to Johnson. 00:16:53.570 --> 00:16:58.590 So we were maintaining Johnson, Midway, Palmyra, 00:16:59.090 --> 00:17:02.529 Christmas Island. We had forces on all of those 00:17:02.529 --> 00:17:06.910 places because at that time our intel was such 00:17:06.910 --> 00:17:10.109 a low quality that no one had a real clue where 00:17:10.109 --> 00:17:13.450 they were going to strike again. But those were 00:17:13.450 --> 00:17:19.430 all refueling stops. in areas where you could 00:17:19.430 --> 00:17:23.109 recover airplanes, resupply, do that kind of 00:17:23.109 --> 00:17:26.069 stuff. And in fact, the Battle of Kwajalein, 00:17:26.069 --> 00:17:29.509 they launched a lot of airplanes out of Johnson 00:17:29.509 --> 00:17:35.420 Island to go strike Kwaj. We're talking to Colonel 00:17:35.420 --> 00:17:39.859 Bud Day, one of America's most decorated officers, 00:17:40.240 --> 00:17:42.460 who holds all the combat medals available from 00:17:42.460 --> 00:17:44.960 the Medal of Honor on down, and we're pleased 00:17:44.960 --> 00:17:47.700 to have him with us this morning. Following the 00:17:47.700 --> 00:17:49.779 war, you returned to Iowa and got your bachelor's 00:17:49.779 --> 00:17:52.380 and law degrees, and then you joined the Iowa 00:17:52.380 --> 00:17:56.359 National Guard. Why? Oh, I'd been a reservist. 00:17:56.359 --> 00:18:01.680 I joined the Army Reserve in 1946. I knew we 00:18:01.680 --> 00:18:04.960 were going to war with Russia. It just – I had 00:18:04.960 --> 00:18:07.799 no question in my mind that communism was such 00:18:07.799 --> 00:18:11.700 an overarching evil, had a lot of aspirations 00:18:11.700 --> 00:18:14.900 about running the entire world. They thought 00:18:14.900 --> 00:18:17.000 that system was going to work, and of course, 00:18:17.000 --> 00:18:19.200 they were having a lot of successes. It was working 00:18:19.200 --> 00:18:24.700 in China, was working in that occupied countries 00:18:24.700 --> 00:18:27.240 that they'd overtaken the whole Iron Curtain 00:18:27.240 --> 00:18:31.690 out front of the countries. They had my hopes 00:18:31.690 --> 00:18:35.269 and I was just positive that we were going to 00:18:35.269 --> 00:18:39.450 be in a shooting war with them. So that being 00:18:39.450 --> 00:18:42.250 the case, I felt that this time I was going to 00:18:42.250 --> 00:18:44.549 go as an officer and I was going to stay ready. 00:18:45.089 --> 00:18:47.369 And then you, after you got into the Iowa Guard, 00:18:47.529 --> 00:18:51.349 you switched over to the Air Force. Yes. The 00:18:51.349 --> 00:18:55.690 unit that I was attached to, the 185th Fire Brigade 00:18:55.690 --> 00:18:58.670 in Sioux City, got called up and went to Banger 00:18:58.670 --> 00:19:01.450 and I got called up just about the same time 00:19:01.450 --> 00:19:07.289 so I went to pilot training. And then you stayed 00:19:07.289 --> 00:19:11.250 on active duty after that? That's correct. I 00:19:11.250 --> 00:19:13.829 had the good luck to be one of the very early 00:19:13.829 --> 00:19:16.990 jet pilots. I flew the F -80 and most of the 00:19:16.990 --> 00:19:19.829 succeeding fighters after that. You've had several 00:19:19.829 --> 00:19:22.910 close calls in aircraft. In fact, to the best 00:19:22.910 --> 00:19:25.950 of my knowledge, you're the only person to bail 00:19:25.950 --> 00:19:28.509 out of a jet aircraft and survive without a parachute. 00:19:28.890 --> 00:19:34.109 What happened? The airplane caught fire while 00:19:34.109 --> 00:19:38.490 I was giving a guy a standardization check to 00:19:38.490 --> 00:19:42.670 make sure he could do everything right. So I 00:19:42.670 --> 00:19:47.710 was forced to try to land quickly. Things did 00:19:47.710 --> 00:19:50.430 not work out very well. The fire kept progressing 00:19:50.430 --> 00:19:53.930 up the aft end of the airplane, which I could 00:19:53.930 --> 00:19:57.250 not see. All I could tell was that some lights 00:19:57.250 --> 00:20:01.150 were on. And I tried to land it, and as I got 00:20:01.150 --> 00:20:04.809 close to the ground, the engines started coming 00:20:04.809 --> 00:20:08.910 apart and stick locked up on me. I had no control 00:20:08.910 --> 00:20:12.349 of the elevator at all, and so I had to punch 00:20:12.349 --> 00:20:17.470 it about roughly 300 feet. and I was only doing 00:20:17.470 --> 00:20:21.769 about 170 knots. So the ship did not deploy and 00:20:21.769 --> 00:20:25.549 I went ricocheting into a series of trees and 00:20:25.549 --> 00:20:29.269 luckily I just continued to top trees until my 00:20:29.269 --> 00:20:31.289 ship snagged up and slammed me to the ground. 00:20:32.710 --> 00:20:36.549 Unbelievable. It truly was. You had some other 00:20:36.549 --> 00:20:39.390 close calls. There was one about a T -33 and 00:20:39.390 --> 00:20:43.980 the aft door closing and what was that one? I 00:20:43.980 --> 00:20:46.460 had another fire on takeoff for some reason or 00:20:46.460 --> 00:20:52.859 another. I had a propensity for fires. This was 00:20:52.859 --> 00:20:55.299 a defect in the airplane, the original F -80, 00:20:55.980 --> 00:20:58.779 the kind of a cap that it had on the fuel tank 00:20:58.779 --> 00:21:04.740 was not very sound. When you pressurized the 00:21:04.740 --> 00:21:09.039 drop tanks on the airplane, it created a lot 00:21:09.039 --> 00:21:12.759 of very high pressure in the main fuel tank. 00:21:13.099 --> 00:21:18.259 And this cap lid was not very refined. It was 00:21:18.259 --> 00:21:21.259 sort of like screwing a lid on a fruit jar, except 00:21:21.259 --> 00:21:27.059 not quite that fancy or secure. And so that air 00:21:27.059 --> 00:21:30.839 pressure would force this cap to leak. And the 00:21:30.839 --> 00:21:35.400 leak was right in front of the engine. And the 00:21:35.400 --> 00:21:38.779 engine had a couple of doors on the top of the 00:21:38.779 --> 00:21:42.380 fuselage right behind the fuel tank. So when 00:21:42.380 --> 00:21:44.640 this stuff started to leak, it ran straight into 00:21:44.640 --> 00:21:47.660 the engine and lit the airplane up, and that 00:21:47.660 --> 00:21:50.839 was another miracle. How did you put it out? 00:21:52.720 --> 00:21:57.180 I had thought about that. Don Gentile, a great 00:21:57.180 --> 00:22:00.960 shooter back in World War II, had that same problem, 00:22:01.000 --> 00:22:03.920 and his response was to pull a nose up and try 00:22:03.920 --> 00:22:07.579 to land it. I thought that was the wrong idea, 00:22:07.619 --> 00:22:11.799 so I slammed the nose down. trying to get those 00:22:11.799 --> 00:22:15.539 doors closed and they closed at about 120 knots 00:22:15.539 --> 00:22:20.259 plus. So sure enough that worked. I put it right 00:22:20.259 --> 00:22:22.980 down into the treetops and got the speed as quick 00:22:22.980 --> 00:22:28.400 as I could and as soon as I got to 120 knots 00:22:28.400 --> 00:22:32.880 the fire went out. I had a very ginger landing 00:22:32.880 --> 00:22:36.339 because I had a heavy airplane and didn't know 00:22:36.339 --> 00:22:40.039 exactly what was going to happen. And interestingly 00:22:40.039 --> 00:22:44.779 enough, when we pulled the airplane apart, the 00:22:44.779 --> 00:22:48.160 elevator cables were burned so bad you could 00:22:48.160 --> 00:22:51.359 snap them just with the jerk of the stick. That's 00:22:51.359 --> 00:22:53.680 what they did. They took the stick, gave it a 00:22:53.680 --> 00:22:59.220 jerk, and elevator cables failed. I've got to 00:22:59.220 --> 00:23:09.660 ask you, are you a cat? That's amazing that you 00:23:09.660 --> 00:23:13.160 were able to survive all of those accidents. 00:23:13.359 --> 00:23:20.220 You had others too, didn't you? Yes, I did. The 00:23:20.220 --> 00:23:25.259 last one I had was quite interesting. I was strafing 00:23:25.259 --> 00:23:32.589 with a F -4. automatic target scoring system. 00:23:33.329 --> 00:23:36.230 It was a manufactured thing with a big plate 00:23:36.230 --> 00:23:39.470 on the bottom that caused it to sit flat, and 00:23:39.470 --> 00:23:42.930 it was sort of like a big window. And as the 00:23:42.930 --> 00:23:47.329 bullets would go through this window, it would 00:23:47.329 --> 00:23:53.130 automatically score. But because they had to 00:23:53.130 --> 00:23:55.410 secure the thing and get it level some way, they 00:23:55.410 --> 00:23:58.170 had a huge steel plate that went across the bottom 00:23:58.170 --> 00:24:01.549 of it. Then they buried that and covered it with 00:24:01.549 --> 00:24:06.470 a huge amount of sandbags. And so I rolled in 00:24:06.470 --> 00:24:09.950 and fired. And what I didn't know was that it 00:24:09.950 --> 00:24:12.470 had a huge rainstorm between the last time we'd 00:24:12.470 --> 00:24:15.349 been to the range. These sandbags had gotten 00:24:15.349 --> 00:24:19.690 all shot up. The sand had leaked out. And when 00:24:19.690 --> 00:24:24.250 one of my bullets hit the steel plate, it ricocheted. 00:24:24.750 --> 00:24:30.809 And I took it right... In the eye level, in the 00:24:30.809 --> 00:24:33.309 bulletproof glass right in front of my eyes, 00:24:34.009 --> 00:24:36.549 I still have that windshield. Do you really? 00:24:36.849 --> 00:24:40.809 Yeah, they took it out and gave it to me. Had 00:24:40.809 --> 00:24:43.490 it not been for that bulletproof glass, I'd have 00:24:43.490 --> 00:24:47.009 taken my head right off. Wow. And if it had gone 00:24:47.009 --> 00:24:49.609 just four or five inches either direction to 00:24:49.609 --> 00:24:53.170 the side, that glass was not bulletproof. So 00:24:53.170 --> 00:24:55.700 had it come through there, it would have... Hard 00:24:55.700 --> 00:24:58.619 to say what would happen, but one of the things 00:24:58.619 --> 00:25:02.319 about it showed I was perfectly lined up. I had 00:25:02.319 --> 00:25:05.940 an absolute 100 % perfect alignment on a target. 00:25:07.140 --> 00:25:10.539 Did you fly in Korea? Mm -hmm. What did you fly 00:25:10.539 --> 00:25:16.000 over there? Fly the F -84. As bombing missions 00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:20.559 or...? We were doing a lot of stuff. Primarily 00:25:20.559 --> 00:25:25.200 we were doing... Amazingly, with the 84, we were 00:25:25.200 --> 00:25:28.759 doing air defense. We were also doing tracking 00:25:28.759 --> 00:25:33.380 missions to divert the Russians up to the north 00:25:33.380 --> 00:25:37.420 and tie down a bunch of their air force. And 00:25:37.420 --> 00:25:40.420 these were missions where we'd take off, fly 00:25:40.420 --> 00:25:43.980 up to high altitude, point ourselves at some 00:25:43.980 --> 00:25:49.019 major port place in Russia, let down, and their 00:25:49.019 --> 00:25:53.019 radars would track us. Then we had some Elan 00:25:53.019 --> 00:25:57.099 airplanes out there that would listen to the 00:25:57.099 --> 00:26:02.019 radio traffic and intercept the radar beams that 00:26:02.019 --> 00:26:07.779 were coming out of Russia and Manchuria. And 00:26:07.779 --> 00:26:10.160 so they would scramble airplanes to intercept 00:26:10.160 --> 00:26:13.500 us and then we would continue, depending on what 00:26:13.500 --> 00:26:18.319 was going on, either right into the periphery 00:26:18.319 --> 00:26:23.920 of Russia or right up to the shores. So those 00:26:23.920 --> 00:26:27.400 were real fascinating missions because there 00:26:27.400 --> 00:26:29.799 were also several other kinds of airplanes doing 00:26:29.799 --> 00:26:32.680 the same thing at the same time, and we wound 00:26:32.680 --> 00:26:35.940 up keeping a huge amount of the Russian Air Force 00:26:35.940 --> 00:26:40.940 out of Korea. And we sat nuclear alert there 00:26:40.940 --> 00:26:45.559 also where we had some, at those days, small 00:26:45.559 --> 00:26:48.259 atomic bombs about the size of those that leveled 00:26:48.259 --> 00:26:51.490 Hiroshima. And so we're setting an alert, an 00:26:51.490 --> 00:26:56.089 event that Russians should really get berserk. 00:26:57.170 --> 00:27:00.589 Well, you've had a full life before you went 00:27:00.589 --> 00:27:03.950 to Vietnam. So we want to pick up on Vietnam. 00:27:04.730 --> 00:27:07.349 When we get back, we're going to take a short 00:27:07.349 --> 00:27:09.170 break here. And we're going to have a segment 00:27:09.170 --> 00:27:10.990 on that you might be interested in. It's called 00:27:10.990 --> 00:27:14.730 the Medal of Honor. And each week we highlight. 00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:17.720 Medal of Honor recipient and his accomplishments 00:27:17.720 --> 00:27:24.000 We're talking to Colonel Bud Day America's Living 00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:27.180 most decorated war hero who holds every combat 00:27:27.180 --> 00:27:29.859 medal available and we're going to be right back 00:27:29.859 --> 00:27:33.019 in Just a few moments. You're listening to veterans 00:27:33.019 --> 00:27:36.920 radio The Medal of Honor is the highest award 00:27:36.920 --> 00:27:39.019 for valor in combat given a member of the Armed 00:27:39.019 --> 00:27:41.299 Forces of the United States There had been over 00:27:41.299 --> 00:27:44.380 3 ,400 recipients of the nation's highest award 00:27:44.730 --> 00:27:47.829 This is one of them. Torpedo men second class 00:27:47.829 --> 00:27:50.630 Henry Brault closed a hatch on his sunken submarine, 00:27:51.009 --> 00:27:54.490 trapping him and a shipmate. Details after this. 00:27:55.609 --> 00:27:59.029 On the morning of 28 October 1923, the U .S. 00:27:59.349 --> 00:28:02.109 Submarine 05 collided with a steamship and sank 00:28:02.109 --> 00:28:04.950 in less than a minute. When the collision occurred, 00:28:05.230 --> 00:28:07.970 Brault was in the torpedo room. Upon reaching 00:28:07.970 --> 00:28:10.690 the hatch, he saw that the boat was rapidly sinking. 00:28:11.410 --> 00:28:13.349 Instead of jumping overboard to save his own 00:28:13.349 --> 00:28:15.799 life, He returned to the torpedo room to the 00:28:15.799 --> 00:28:18.460 rescue of a shipmate whom he knew was trapped 00:28:18.460 --> 00:28:21.339 in the boat, closing the torpedo room hatch on 00:28:21.339 --> 00:28:24.000 himself. Brault and Brown remained trapped in 00:28:24.000 --> 00:28:26.339 this compartment until rescued by the salvage 00:28:26.339 --> 00:28:30.420 party 31 hours later. The Medal of Honor was 00:28:30.420 --> 00:28:32.339 presented by President Coolidge at the White 00:28:32.339 --> 00:28:36.539 House on 8 March 1924. The Medal of Honor series 00:28:36.539 --> 00:28:39.650 is a production of Veterans Radio. Ed, we're 00:28:39.650 --> 00:28:42.029 back on Veterans Radio Talk. I think we've lost 00:28:42.029 --> 00:28:44.769 him. Let's get him back on the line. We've been 00:28:44.769 --> 00:28:48.230 talking with Colonel Bud Day, one of America's 00:28:48.230 --> 00:28:52.470 most decorated war heroes, who holds every combat 00:28:52.470 --> 00:28:57.289 medal available. Can you imagine that? No. I'm 00:28:57.289 --> 00:29:00.029 just amazed. I want to know how many flying hours 00:29:00.029 --> 00:29:01.910 he had. I'd be interested in finding out what 00:29:01.910 --> 00:29:05.250 medals that he received during World War II. 00:29:05.690 --> 00:29:08.450 Not just as a Marine. He didn't receive any in 00:29:08.450 --> 00:29:10.789 World War II. Because he was making up for lost 00:29:10.789 --> 00:29:13.950 time, I guess, at some point along the way. As 00:29:13.950 --> 00:29:17.890 a matter of fact, he didn't even get his good 00:29:17.890 --> 00:29:20.690 conduct medal. He was a little bit of a bad boy. 00:29:21.150 --> 00:29:23.289 Oh, is he back on the line? Colonel Day, are 00:29:23.289 --> 00:29:26.269 you back? I'm back. All right, great. We lost 00:29:26.269 --> 00:29:28.569 you there for a minute. Yeah, I think his phone 00:29:28.569 --> 00:29:31.029 went dead. I picked up a different phone. Oh, 00:29:31.029 --> 00:29:35.259 okay. All right. Did you hear the whole Medal 00:29:35.259 --> 00:29:38.299 of Honor story? I heard most of it. Okay, good. 00:29:40.160 --> 00:29:45.140 Just a little side note. Your story was the second 00:29:45.140 --> 00:29:47.599 segment that we did when we started this show 00:29:47.599 --> 00:29:52.079 three years ago. Oh, God. And the first one that 00:29:52.079 --> 00:29:54.599 we did was just a kind of introduction to what 00:29:54.599 --> 00:29:57.019 the Medal of Honor series was all about. And 00:29:57.019 --> 00:30:00.329 yours was the second one that we did. So, we 00:30:00.329 --> 00:30:03.529 have Colonel Day back on the air and we're talking 00:30:03.529 --> 00:30:07.470 with him about his experiences and my cohort 00:30:07.470 --> 00:30:09.769 here, Dale Throneberry, has some questions for 00:30:09.769 --> 00:30:13.369 you, sir. Okay. Yes, sir. I flew helicopters 00:30:13.369 --> 00:30:16.109 in the Vietnam Air and I was just curious about 00:30:16.109 --> 00:30:21.630 how many flying hours do you have? Hello? Yeah, 00:30:21.630 --> 00:30:25.529 I'm still here. Yeah, okay. I have about... Somewhere 00:30:25.529 --> 00:30:29.049 between 8 ,000 and 9 ,000 hours. At the time 00:30:29.049 --> 00:30:35.950 that I got shot down, I had 4 ,800 hours of single 00:30:35.950 --> 00:30:38.670 -engine fighter time and about a total of around 00:30:38.670 --> 00:30:42.789 5 ,000 hours. Wow. That's a lot of flying. As 00:30:42.789 --> 00:30:46.490 a pilot, I know that almost all of us have lives 00:30:46.490 --> 00:30:50.730 like cats. Just learning about your stories, 00:30:51.029 --> 00:30:53.450 you haven't reached the end yet, which is good. 00:30:55.020 --> 00:30:57.940 You know, last year at this time we had Don Shepard 00:30:57.940 --> 00:31:02.119 on our show talking about the Misties. Tell us 00:31:02.119 --> 00:31:05.500 about the Misties. Well, we cranked up in the 00:31:05.500 --> 00:31:12.539 spring of 1967 to try to replace the slow -flying 00:31:12.539 --> 00:31:15.859 O -1 FACs that were flying up in North Vietnam. 00:31:16.640 --> 00:31:20.119 They'd moved the missiles down into central North 00:31:20.119 --> 00:31:23.970 Vietnam and wound up shooting down. one of two 00:31:23.970 --> 00:31:28.269 O1s that were doing forward air control work 00:31:28.269 --> 00:31:31.890 up there. Forward air control work being finding 00:31:31.890 --> 00:31:35.069 targets, getting some fighters armed up with 00:31:35.069 --> 00:31:38.329 bombs and rockets and so forth and shoot up the 00:31:38.329 --> 00:31:42.509 targets. So it became clear that the slow flyers 00:31:42.509 --> 00:31:45.750 could not continue because of the surface to 00:31:45.750 --> 00:31:50.049 air missile threat. So someone conceived the 00:31:50.049 --> 00:31:55.930 idea of flying a fast -backed airplane. We picked 00:31:55.930 --> 00:31:59.069 a 100 for several reasons. It was available, 00:32:00.289 --> 00:32:04.289 was the best visibility and longest legs. Put 00:32:04.289 --> 00:32:09.230 it to work and began really our major effort 00:32:09.230 --> 00:32:14.829 was a mixture between SAM suppression, surface 00:32:14.829 --> 00:32:18.950 killing the missiles and trying to stop the flow 00:32:18.950 --> 00:32:23.819 of fuel. arms and supplies down the Ho Chi Minh 00:32:23.819 --> 00:32:28.420 trail. So we got into that with the vigor and 00:32:28.420 --> 00:32:30.920 it started working out pretty well. Initially 00:32:30.920 --> 00:32:34.880 we were not too sure about how well we were going 00:32:34.880 --> 00:32:37.079 to be able to find things in that jungle mess, 00:32:37.299 --> 00:32:40.240 but it got better as we got a little more experience. 00:32:41.160 --> 00:32:44.900 You were shot down on August 26, 1967. What happened? 00:32:47.180 --> 00:32:50.200 Just going in to take a look at a surface air 00:32:50.200 --> 00:32:54.460 missile site, this would have been the further 00:32:54.460 --> 00:32:59.460 most south site that had ever been identified. 00:32:59.859 --> 00:33:02.279 It would have actually only been about 30 miles 00:33:02.279 --> 00:33:08.579 or so from the demilitarized zone. I really thought 00:33:08.579 --> 00:33:12.220 in my heart of hearts that it was a flak trap. 00:33:15.150 --> 00:33:17.529 pumped on in there to take a look at it. I had 00:33:17.529 --> 00:33:21.349 a young kid from Iowa, Corrin Kippenham, in the 00:33:21.349 --> 00:33:25.990 front seat. I was checking him out. If we had 00:33:25.990 --> 00:33:28.069 gotten through that right okay, he was going 00:33:28.069 --> 00:33:30.910 to move up to the front seat. He was an old one 00:33:30.910 --> 00:33:34.410 back, one of several that we'd gotten to teach 00:33:34.410 --> 00:33:38.769 us how to do that. It turned out that the site, 00:33:39.230 --> 00:33:42.769 first time we flew over it, took a huge amount 00:33:42.769 --> 00:33:47.180 of ground fire. either a flank trap or a good 00:33:47.180 --> 00:33:54.119 site. We went back over into Thailand, caught 00:33:54.119 --> 00:33:57.500 a tanker, pumped back up on gas, came back into 00:33:57.500 --> 00:34:00.740 North Vietnam across the corner, Cambodia and 00:34:00.740 --> 00:34:04.460 Laos, and as soon as we popped up over the karst, 00:34:05.359 --> 00:34:08.860 got about four, five miles from the target. They 00:34:08.860 --> 00:34:12.340 opened up on us again. Sun had moved. I could 00:34:12.340 --> 00:34:15.860 see the shadow of a missile. I could see the 00:34:15.860 --> 00:34:19.159 corner of a radar van this time, and just as 00:34:19.159 --> 00:34:23.260 we got almost straight over the target, we took 00:34:23.260 --> 00:34:26.519 a really bad hit in the aft section, shot the 00:34:26.519 --> 00:34:29.840 controls out, let the burner, got the nose up. 00:34:29.860 --> 00:34:34.340 We were doing about 540 or so, and as I got the 00:34:34.340 --> 00:34:38.159 nose up going through about 4 ,500 feet, the 00:34:38.159 --> 00:34:41.079 controls failed, and the airplane tried to do 00:34:41.079 --> 00:34:44.500 an outside loop. If you imagine looking at the 00:34:44.500 --> 00:34:48.019 moon and then going up and trying to circle back 00:34:48.019 --> 00:34:50.179 underneath the bottom of the moon, that was a 00:34:50.179 --> 00:34:53.539 path of trajectory we were on. I couldn't control 00:34:53.539 --> 00:34:56.139 the airplane, so I told Kipper, punch it out, 00:34:56.699 --> 00:35:01.119 punch this out. I busted my arm in three places, 00:35:01.880 --> 00:35:06.019 injured my left knee, and damaged my eye when 00:35:06.019 --> 00:35:10.559 my boxing mask did not separate right. So when 00:35:10.559 --> 00:35:13.000 I hit the ground I was busted up and injured 00:35:13.000 --> 00:35:17.440 and not in good shape to be captured. Young kid 00:35:17.440 --> 00:35:20.639 within just a minute or two showed up. I had 00:35:20.639 --> 00:35:26.940 gotten a call off to Airborne Triple ABC who 00:35:26.940 --> 00:35:30.719 were the people that were aware of where we were 00:35:30.719 --> 00:35:33.559 a lot of the time. Told them I got shot down. 00:35:33.739 --> 00:35:37.159 Told them I'd seen kippers shoot. That part was 00:35:37.159 --> 00:35:40.599 okay and just about that. time I got through 00:35:40.599 --> 00:35:43.260 talking this kid popped through the brush with 00:35:43.260 --> 00:35:47.199 a real old Russian rifle probably about 13 years 00:35:47.199 --> 00:35:53.219 old and captured me. You escaped a week later 00:35:53.219 --> 00:35:55.559 and you spent three weeks in the jungles we got 00:35:55.559 --> 00:35:58.340 recaptured and then you spent five and a half 00:35:58.340 --> 00:36:00.800 years as a guest of the NVA in the Hanoi Hilton. 00:36:01.119 --> 00:36:03.940 Yes sir. Is it safe to say you didn't have room 00:36:03.940 --> 00:36:09.500 service? That is safe to say. How were you treated 00:36:09.500 --> 00:36:15.420 up there? Well, it was really barbaric. Their 00:36:15.420 --> 00:36:21.139 theory was that we were criminals. The dingbat 00:36:21.139 --> 00:36:24.539 left here in this country were telling them that 00:36:24.539 --> 00:36:27.039 we were criminals. They were claiming this was 00:36:27.039 --> 00:36:31.179 an illegal, immoral war. The Vietnamese were 00:36:31.179 --> 00:36:35.860 echoing that. Fonda and Hayden and all of those 00:36:35.860 --> 00:36:40.269 that I wore. types of the veterans against the 00:36:40.269 --> 00:36:46.250 war were telling some outrageous lying stories 00:36:46.250 --> 00:36:50.190 about what was going on with the communists and 00:36:50.190 --> 00:36:53.389 how we were being treated and claimed that we 00:36:53.389 --> 00:36:56.590 were being treated well. So the bottom line was 00:36:56.590 --> 00:37:01.090 the food was just barely left to keep you alive. 00:37:01.210 --> 00:37:03.389 You could plan on losing about a third of your 00:37:03.389 --> 00:37:07.719 body weight within about three months. There 00:37:07.719 --> 00:37:12.840 was basically close to zero medical care. The 00:37:12.840 --> 00:37:17.900 rooms were very tiny, filthy, and no effort to 00:37:17.900 --> 00:37:24.099 let you be clean, stay clean. They propagandized 00:37:24.099 --> 00:37:30.000 us roughly 12 hours a day. We heard from every 00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.900 nut dingbat that ever got on the radio back in 00:37:34.900 --> 00:37:38.000 those years against the war, heard from a lot 00:37:38.000 --> 00:37:42.320 of people in different countries who were also 00:37:42.320 --> 00:37:45.619 telling us the war was illegal and immoral. And 00:37:45.619 --> 00:37:48.800 there was a lot of torture to get you to try 00:37:48.800 --> 00:37:55.380 to make radio releases right to the president, 00:37:55.519 --> 00:38:00.199 right to Congress, back up these anti -war groups 00:38:00.199 --> 00:38:04.760 like Fonda and that group. Vietnam veterans against 00:38:04.760 --> 00:38:06.699 the war. They were perpetually trying to get 00:38:06.699 --> 00:38:11.260 us to do propaganda for them. So a lot of torture 00:38:11.260 --> 00:38:16.360 that went with that. Just by way of illustration, 00:38:16.400 --> 00:38:19.340 I was beat with a fan belt right after an escape 00:38:19.340 --> 00:38:24.280 from I think it was July 6th to October 14th. 00:38:24.380 --> 00:38:27.980 I took initially about the first two and a half 00:38:27.980 --> 00:38:31.690 days or so. I took over 300 strokes with the 00:38:31.690 --> 00:38:38.829 fan belt across my south end. It just turned 00:38:38.829 --> 00:38:42.469 me into a bloody mess and had big holes in my 00:38:42.469 --> 00:38:45.469 knees from kneeling and the back of my ankles 00:38:45.469 --> 00:38:49.190 were all cut from light irons. So when they got 00:38:49.190 --> 00:38:54.309 through it, I was bleeding out both ends. Frankly, 00:38:54.449 --> 00:38:56.710 I hoped they would kill me because it was so 00:38:56.710 --> 00:39:01.579 awful. every day I went over there, it was just 00:39:01.579 --> 00:39:05.500 more of the same. So that was kind of typical 00:39:05.500 --> 00:39:10.300 of our treatment and this was why we were so 00:39:10.300 --> 00:39:16.739 upset when John Kerry was over negotiating with 00:39:16.739 --> 00:39:23.659 the Vietnamese delegation in the 1970s because 00:39:23.659 --> 00:39:27.659 it prolonged our our imprisonment, caused several 00:39:27.659 --> 00:39:30.039 of our people to get killed, and caused the death 00:39:30.039 --> 00:39:33.320 of literally hundreds, maybe thousands of people 00:39:33.320 --> 00:39:39.900 on the battlefield. That's terrible. Yeah, the 00:39:39.900 --> 00:39:43.179 anti -war people's message was just hang in there. 00:39:43.719 --> 00:39:46.559 The Americans will wear out. If you just keep 00:39:46.559 --> 00:39:50.039 fighting, eventually the anti -war types will 00:39:50.039 --> 00:39:55.380 win the day. And as you know, Finally, Congress, 00:39:56.280 --> 00:40:01.320 particularly the Senate, cut the money off. Colonel, 00:40:01.460 --> 00:40:02.900 I've got to catch you off. We have to take a 00:40:02.900 --> 00:40:05.079 short break and we're going to come back and 00:40:05.079 --> 00:40:06.599 we're going to talk a little bit more about your 00:40:06.599 --> 00:40:09.480 imprisonment and your after -prisonment actions. 00:40:10.139 --> 00:40:15.659 You're listening to Veterans Radio. And we're 00:40:15.659 --> 00:40:17.880 back on Veterans Radio talking with Colonel Bud 00:40:17.880 --> 00:40:20.940 Day, a Medal of Honor recipient and our guest 00:40:20.940 --> 00:40:25.059 for the entire hour. Bud, throughout your imprisonment, 00:40:25.179 --> 00:40:27.719 you never cracked. You never gave the NVA any 00:40:27.719 --> 00:40:30.460 information. How did you hold out for that long? 00:40:31.519 --> 00:40:35.860 Well, basically when you get down to saying I 00:40:35.860 --> 00:40:38.679 never gave them any information, the bottom line 00:40:38.679 --> 00:40:41.179 is I never gave them any information of any value. 00:40:41.860 --> 00:40:45.179 The bottom line is that a determined torturer 00:40:45.179 --> 00:40:48.670 can make you say some stuff. you'll hear some 00:40:48.670 --> 00:40:51.130 noises come out of your body when somebody tries 00:40:51.130 --> 00:40:54.329 to tear your arms off and say on that rope track 00:40:54.329 --> 00:40:57.130 that you had no idea those noises were in you. 00:40:57.750 --> 00:41:01.329 So you get to the point where you begin to deal 00:41:01.329 --> 00:41:07.190 with them, basically have some kind of discussions 00:41:07.190 --> 00:41:10.170 with them, but the bottom line is on all the 00:41:10.170 --> 00:41:12.429 issues such as making propaganda for them or 00:41:12.429 --> 00:41:15.289 all of those things, that part you refuse to 00:41:15.289 --> 00:41:19.480 cooperate with. So I refused to cooperate, and 00:41:19.480 --> 00:41:22.920 it cost me dearly. They wiped my arms out, and 00:41:22.920 --> 00:41:24.639 when I came out of jail, my hands and fingers 00:41:24.639 --> 00:41:29.099 were all rolled up, and had re -broken my arm. 00:41:29.159 --> 00:41:31.079 They'd hung me. They'd done that whipping that 00:41:31.079 --> 00:41:36.440 I told you about. So it was a high price to pay, 00:41:36.800 --> 00:41:40.659 but worthwhile. You had a mantra that you had 00:41:40.659 --> 00:41:42.860 kept in your mind when you were in the camp. 00:41:42.860 --> 00:41:46.289 What was that? It was return with honor. And 00:41:46.289 --> 00:41:50.010 where did that come from? It was the bottom of 00:41:50.010 --> 00:41:53.929 the 31st Fighter Wing. It was also kind of a 00:41:53.929 --> 00:41:59.090 family thing. My wife's family were Norwegians. 00:41:59.630 --> 00:42:02.289 They were occupied by the Germans back during 00:42:02.289 --> 00:42:06.010 World War II. All of the men in the family, the 00:42:06.010 --> 00:42:09.289 young men, were either in a German prison camp 00:42:09.289 --> 00:42:12.579 or out in the woods. in the underground, in the 00:42:12.579 --> 00:42:15.280 resistance movement where they were sabotaging 00:42:15.280 --> 00:42:19.860 and doing destructive stuff with the German supply 00:42:19.860 --> 00:42:22.960 lines and roads and so on and eventually the 00:42:22.960 --> 00:42:27.719 heavy water project. So the bottom line was that 00:42:27.719 --> 00:42:30.860 I had to perform certainly as well as they did. 00:42:31.639 --> 00:42:34.239 I had also been a little bit involved with the 00:42:34.239 --> 00:42:38.300 code of conduct that had come out of Korea and 00:42:38.300 --> 00:42:41.219 there was a lot of criticism about performance 00:42:41.219 --> 00:42:45.920 of prisoners in Korea, which much of it was unjustified, 00:42:46.519 --> 00:42:48.800 although I didn't know that at the time that 00:42:48.800 --> 00:42:51.019 I went off to Vietnam, because that issue had 00:42:51.019 --> 00:42:55.659 never been really cleared up. There were supposedly 00:42:55.659 --> 00:42:58.039 some things that had happened in Korea that were 00:42:58.039 --> 00:43:01.099 just unacceptable, and I'd made up my mind I 00:43:01.099 --> 00:43:03.639 wasn't going to be a part of that, and if I had 00:43:03.639 --> 00:43:05.380 a command, nothing like that was going to happen 00:43:05.380 --> 00:43:08.739 in my command, and whatever the case was. I was 00:43:08.739 --> 00:43:10.480 going to come out there with my head up or I 00:43:10.480 --> 00:43:14.199 was not going to come back. The POWs held regular 00:43:14.199 --> 00:43:16.840 worship services in the camp. How did the NVA 00:43:16.840 --> 00:43:21.780 react? They were really upset about that because, 00:43:22.059 --> 00:43:24.840 you know, in the communist system, when the communist 00:43:24.840 --> 00:43:28.360 cadre got up to talk, everybody listened and 00:43:28.360 --> 00:43:32.059 everybody did something. So they instantly assumed 00:43:32.059 --> 00:43:35.760 that because we had someone standing up in front 00:43:35.760 --> 00:43:39.920 of the group and talking, preaching that we must 00:43:39.920 --> 00:43:43.659 be trying to crank up some kind of a revolt, 00:43:44.659 --> 00:43:50.260 escape, something. And so they were really opposed 00:43:50.260 --> 00:43:52.480 to that. We told them it was just going to be 00:43:52.480 --> 00:43:54.800 a church service, but they don't know what church 00:43:54.800 --> 00:43:58.000 services are because there is no church in a 00:43:58.000 --> 00:44:01.159 communist country. So despite the fact, you know, 00:44:01.159 --> 00:44:05.159 that they issue those platitudes about treating 00:44:05.159 --> 00:44:08.500 people well and so on. They had no religious 00:44:08.500 --> 00:44:12.159 background at all, so when we started having 00:44:12.159 --> 00:44:16.099 the church service they got really upset and 00:44:16.099 --> 00:44:18.280 told us that had to stop and we were going to 00:44:18.280 --> 00:44:20.519 have to do a lot of different things. We had 00:44:20.519 --> 00:44:22.519 a different idea about what was going to happen. 00:44:23.619 --> 00:44:28.000 So we cranked up the church service and they 00:44:28.000 --> 00:44:32.699 busted in the doors and grabbed Robbie Reisner 00:44:32.699 --> 00:44:34.739 who was the preacher and the people who were 00:44:34.739 --> 00:44:37.900 in the choir. started him out of the room and 00:44:37.900 --> 00:44:41.039 I got up in the center of a concrete thing and 00:44:41.039 --> 00:44:44.760 started singing the Star Spangled Banner. And 00:44:44.760 --> 00:44:47.280 this just really triggered him off and all the 00:44:47.280 --> 00:44:49.239 other rooms picked it up. At that time there 00:44:49.239 --> 00:44:53.860 were about 350 prisoners in the downtown Hanoi 00:44:53.860 --> 00:44:57.599 Hilton complex. So every room started picking 00:44:57.599 --> 00:45:00.139 us up. Every room started singing with us and 00:45:00.139 --> 00:45:03.679 so we sang the Star Spangled Banner. God bless 00:45:03.679 --> 00:45:07.039 america my country tis of the california here 00:45:07.039 --> 00:45:10.699 i have eyes of texas you name it we gave all 00:45:10.699 --> 00:45:13.840 very quickly tell us the story about the flag 00:45:13.840 --> 00:45:20.780 yes one of my people had manufactured a guy really 00:45:20.780 --> 00:45:23.940 great young navy lieutenant commander named mike 00:45:23.940 --> 00:45:29.900 christian from alabama had Stolen some little 00:45:29.900 --> 00:45:35.119 piece of semi -red cloth and he had gotten some 00:45:35.119 --> 00:45:40.099 pieces of semelan white thread out of a blanket. 00:45:41.079 --> 00:45:43.880 Another guy had manufactured a nail out of a 00:45:43.880 --> 00:45:49.320 piece of wire and Mike made this flag. So he 00:45:49.320 --> 00:45:54.659 sewed it inside of his little kind of a t -shirt. 00:45:54.679 --> 00:45:58.699 They were sort of a heavy cloth thing. He sewed 00:45:58.699 --> 00:46:05.440 it inside the sleeve of his jacket. And every 00:46:05.440 --> 00:46:09.119 day when the guards were sleeping in the afternoon, 00:46:09.159 --> 00:46:11.659 they'd take a nap after they ate. We would get 00:46:11.659 --> 00:46:14.860 that flag out, put it up in the center of the 00:46:14.860 --> 00:46:19.280 room, face to the west, and say the Pledge of 00:46:19.280 --> 00:46:23.159 Allegiance to the United States. It was a very 00:46:23.159 --> 00:46:26.519 uplifting thing, one of those ways that sounds 00:46:26.519 --> 00:46:31.880 kind of not so big a deal. when I'm talking about 00:46:31.880 --> 00:46:34.500 on this phone, but it was a very important morale 00:46:34.500 --> 00:46:40.079 issue. I wanted every day to make sure that everybody 00:46:40.079 --> 00:46:43.820 understood that we were still Americans. So we 00:46:43.820 --> 00:46:46.579 were still connected at the umbilical cord with 00:46:46.579 --> 00:46:50.019 our country. And there wasn't a better way of 00:46:50.019 --> 00:46:53.179 doing that than to say the Pledge of Allegiance 00:46:53.179 --> 00:46:58.239 or sing the Star Spangled Banner. So we did that. 00:46:59.480 --> 00:47:04.179 As a result of that, one day on a room inspection, 00:47:04.920 --> 00:47:09.440 the V found that flag. So they took Mike out 00:47:09.440 --> 00:47:12.260 and just broke him up. They just really pounded 00:47:12.260 --> 00:47:14.699 him up. He came back and he was all dinged up. 00:47:15.880 --> 00:47:18.739 I think he had a busted rib and several big bruises 00:47:18.739 --> 00:47:20.940 on his face and a lot of black and blue marks. 00:47:22.280 --> 00:47:28.579 So we still had the needle. And that night... 00:47:29.000 --> 00:47:34.960 after he kind of he was gone for about 16 hours 00:47:34.960 --> 00:47:36.820 they took him out the afternoon we didn't get 00:47:36.820 --> 00:47:41.500 him back till late the next day and so that night 00:47:41.500 --> 00:47:45.139 he was down on the end of the room and I looked 00:47:45.139 --> 00:47:47.940 down there and here he is he's got another rag 00:47:47.940 --> 00:47:51.780 and a piece of white thread and he saw another 00:47:51.780 --> 00:47:57.820 flag. Wow that's amazing. What was the Fink release 00:47:57.820 --> 00:48:06.059 program? We had about, I think it was a total 00:48:06.059 --> 00:48:10.360 of 12 prisoners who got released early. It started 00:48:10.360 --> 00:48:16.119 in February of 1968. Three guys got released. 00:48:16.960 --> 00:48:19.880 They were all people who had never been tortured, 00:48:20.019 --> 00:48:23.659 who had no visible bone breaks, anything like 00:48:23.659 --> 00:48:26.920 that. People who had not lost a lot of weight 00:48:26.920 --> 00:48:33.449 yet. And also it involved some people who didn't 00:48:33.449 --> 00:48:40.150 have a hundred percent, what's the word I'm looking 00:48:40.150 --> 00:48:45.110 for, personal conviction. And so the Vietnamese 00:48:45.110 --> 00:48:48.710 started kind of dangling this release and the 00:48:48.710 --> 00:48:53.630 idea from their standpoint was it could not violate 00:48:53.630 --> 00:48:55.530 the code of conduct because they were just putting 00:48:55.530 --> 00:49:00.239 them out of the country. And so that's a compelling 00:49:00.239 --> 00:49:04.639 argument if you are not too motivated to do what 00:49:04.639 --> 00:49:08.000 you're supposed to do. So they got three guys 00:49:08.000 --> 00:49:13.420 to go home, and Jim Stockdale, who was the rankin' 00:49:13.559 --> 00:49:17.960 Navy guy over in the Hilton, called that the 00:49:17.960 --> 00:49:22.619 Fink release. Fink obviously has its obvious 00:49:22.619 --> 00:49:25.480 meaning. You're not much of a, not a very good 00:49:25.480 --> 00:49:32.730 human. And so that started and then it continued. 00:49:34.150 --> 00:49:36.429 The first group of people went out, didn't really 00:49:36.429 --> 00:49:41.389 say anything anti -American, but the second group 00:49:41.389 --> 00:49:44.429 did and they started talking about the war being 00:49:44.429 --> 00:49:48.289 illegal and immoral and so on and as a result 00:49:48.289 --> 00:49:52.889 got released early. So that confirmed what Stockdale 00:49:52.889 --> 00:49:56.969 had. commented calling it the Finc release because 00:49:56.969 --> 00:49:59.389 they're obviously you were doing something to 00:49:59.389 --> 00:50:01.969 get out of there that no one else is doing you 00:50:01.969 --> 00:50:05.909 know if I'm getting tortured to make Tapes or 00:50:05.909 --> 00:50:08.789 do something right to press or whatever it is 00:50:08.789 --> 00:50:12.469 and somebody goes home Saying the Vietnamese 00:50:12.469 --> 00:50:16.130 are treating us. Well One of us has got to be 00:50:16.130 --> 00:50:21.110 lying so the guy who went home early and claimed 00:50:21.110 --> 00:50:25.909 that he'd been treated well, obviously he was 00:50:25.909 --> 00:50:28.150 lying, and he'd done something, he'd sold a little 00:50:28.150 --> 00:50:30.809 piece of his soul to get out of there. So that 00:50:30.809 --> 00:50:33.510 was a bad program, and unfortunately we had 12 00:50:33.510 --> 00:50:36.929 guys who got involved in that. Then we had about 00:50:36.929 --> 00:50:41.469 three or four senior, pretty senior guys of Marine, 00:50:43.190 --> 00:50:47.690 Navy Commander, and Navy Lieutenant Commander, 00:50:47.849 --> 00:50:50.969 and another guy who were actually doing propaganda 00:50:50.969 --> 00:50:54.869 for the Gooks. Gerdo, we've got just about a 00:50:54.869 --> 00:50:59.389 minute left, so I want to quickly go into your 00:50:59.389 --> 00:51:01.690 actions after you retired. You took on another 00:51:01.690 --> 00:51:05.110 battle, and that was the health care for life 00:51:05.110 --> 00:51:09.909 for military retirees. Yes, the Clinton administration 00:51:09.909 --> 00:51:14.750 kicked the World War II Korean retired military 00:51:14.750 --> 00:51:19.070 veterans out of the hospital at age 65. They 00:51:19.070 --> 00:51:23.070 had promised us as part of our enlistment contract, 00:51:23.349 --> 00:51:25.849 free lifetime medical care for ourselves and 00:51:25.849 --> 00:51:31.150 our family along with our pension. So they just 00:51:31.150 --> 00:51:34.150 retracted a huge amount of our military benefits. 00:51:35.130 --> 00:51:39.889 I sued them. Janet Reno was the Attorney General. 00:51:40.489 --> 00:51:45.630 So I sued her and pursued that to a victory in 00:51:45.630 --> 00:51:49.130 the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. We had 00:51:49.130 --> 00:51:52.760 a bill in the House and Senate. John McCain sponsored 00:51:52.760 --> 00:51:54.920 our bill in the Senate. Who is your very, very 00:51:54.920 --> 00:51:58.380 good friend. Yes. And Ronnie Shouse from Mississippi 00:51:58.380 --> 00:52:02.260 sponsored the House bill. We got it passed before 00:52:02.260 --> 00:52:04.800 I got the actual order out of the Federal Circuit 00:52:04.800 --> 00:52:08.000 Court of Appeals where I'd won that case. And 00:52:08.000 --> 00:52:10.699 so it's called Tricare for Life and restored 00:52:10.699 --> 00:52:14.119 really about 95 % of those benefits that the 00:52:14.119 --> 00:52:16.469 administration took away from us. Thank you very 00:52:16.469 --> 00:52:19.530 much, Colonel. We have to get out of here. I 00:52:19.530 --> 00:52:21.389 want to thank you for being on Veterans Radio. 00:52:22.030 --> 00:52:26.230 You've got a fascinating life, and we wish you 00:52:26.230 --> 00:52:28.929 many, many years ahead. God bless you all, and 00:52:28.929 --> 00:52:30.829 keep doing what you're doing. Thank you, sir. 00:52:31.030 --> 00:52:34.369 Bye -bye. Bye -bye. Colonel Bud Day, America's 00:52:34.369 --> 00:52:38.809 most decorated living war hero, holds every medal 00:52:38.809 --> 00:52:41.530 from the Medal of Honor on down. This, we got 00:52:41.530 --> 00:52:43.289 to go. You're on Veterans Radio. Goodbye.