WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE — One of five Air Force surviving Medal of Honor winners mixed tough talk for the nation’s foes, past and present, with tales of survival as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
Day served in World War II as a Marine with an artillery unit, later joined the Army Reserve, the Iowa Air National Guard and the Air Force, and fought in both the Korean and Vietnam wars.
His wide-ranging speech, among other points, touched on his commitment to patriotism and his POW survival under the trial of North Vietnamese captors and displeasure with “hippies” and policy makers that placed constraints on warriors during the Vietnam war-era.
“You’re either with this country and you’re with it heart and soul, or you’re not,” he said. “And if you’re not, go someplace else.”
The most decorated Air Force officer, with more than 70 military awards and medals, began his military journey when he dropped out of high school to fight in the Marine Corps in the Pacific.
“The country responded to that as only Americans can respond: heart and soul,” he said. “The spirit was there, 100 percent there and we were going to be victorious.
“If you’re going to fight wars, you’ve got to be the last man standing, because if you are the last standing, you can tell everyone else to sit down,” he said. “Or lay down, and if they don’t do it, you put them down.”
Victory, however, never arrived in Vietnam. “Our problem in Vietnam was we had all these political constraints,” he said.
After so many years in war, he volunteered for duty in Vietnam because communism “was a terrible disease that needed to be eradicated,” he said.
In August 1967, Day’s F-100 Super Sabre was shot down by anti-aircraft fire over North Vietnam, the beginning of five years and seven months in captivity. He endured physical abuse and torture. Shortly after his capture, he escaped for several days, but badly injured and shot, he was recaptured within two miles of a Marine Corps base in South Vietnam.
Day, who was a POW with future Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, then a naval aviator, said American POWs kept a passive resistance because more outspoken acts could mean torture or death. “I didn’t want anybody getting killed for no reason,” he said.
A U.S. bombing campaign brought cheers to men held captive, but he urged his fellow POWs to show restraint to avoid becoming a target of their captors.
“The best thing we had going for us was leadership and good follower-ship,” he said. “It was a massive illustration of what we’re trained to do.”
Shrapnel from the bombs hit the windows where the POWs were held, the ground and ceilings shook and sent a message to their foes, he said.
Day said he favors negotiations when possible, but some things can’t be negotiated, citing the situation in the Middle East. “The bottom line is you need to deal with the reality and the reality is that there’s one thing that solves our problems and that’s force, and you’re part of that,” he told the audience.
Barrie Barber
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