George E "Bud" Day USAF

[noprobs]

Col Bud Day is most famous for his Vietnam exploits, especially his time as a PoW and his subsequent work representing the interests of veterans.

However, I am looking for information on an earlier flying incident. In 1956, he was flying from RAF Weathersfield when he had to abandon his aircraft. This incident has been described as "the first successful no-parachute escape from a jet aircraft". This sounds implausible, so does anyone know if this is a mis-reporting, or what actually happened?

[Army Mover]

From:

http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/d/d051.htm

"Bud was recalled by the USAF as a Second Lieutenant in 1951 and he attended jet pilot training followed by two tours in Korea and four years flying fighters in England (He made Air Force history with the first no-chute bailout from an F-84-F in 1957!)"

He is a MoH winner and former P.O.W. resident at the infamous Barn in the Zoo in North Vietnam, so the majority of the internet coverage is about that. More recently he has been campaigning about the U.S. Government reneging on benefits for retired U.S. servicemen.

From the internet reports, he's still about. Why don't you try and contact him ???

He is an ex-Marine, which may account for him jumping without a chute from a jet! :E

[ChristopherRobin]

read that link - inspirational.

[pshakey]

He pinned my wings on. His son (George Jnr) was on my flying trg course, and went on to fly F16s in the USAF.

A real gent, with an amazing story to tell. His book 'Return with Honor' tells it all and is well worth a read. None of us would want to live through his experiences, and he thoroughly deserved his Congressional Medal of Honor.

[MajorMadMax]

noprobs

Any luck in finding any info on this 'no-chute' bailout? I am interested...

Cheers! M2

[Archimedes]

M2,

Have a look here (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=157273). In essence, it would appear that the suggestion is that he ejected, 'chute failed to open, landed in trees, walked away... I've included the above link to the history forum since it has a couple of additional links included that might throw light on the topic.

[MajorMadMax]

Coo, thanks! :ok:

You'd think there would be more on the Internet concerning it. Must've been one hell of a ride down!

Cheers! M2