Sioux City, Iowa — One of the ceremonies on this past week’s Veterans Day honored Iowa military hero George “Bud” Day of Sioux City, and his wife Doris. The event was a ribbon-cutting at the Interpretive Center at the Siouxland Freedom Park in South Sioux City.
Day’s son George Junior was at the ceremony.
Brigadier General Day received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service after being shot down over Vietnam and put in a prison camp. He was tortured, escaped, and was caught and tortured again.
His children grew up without him while he was in the prison camp until the war ended. His daughter Sandra wore his flight jacket to the ceremony and says she didn’t realize for a time what her dad had gone through.
Sandra learned more about what he endured in the North Vietnam prison camp as she took care of her dad.
George Junior graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1985 and went on to become an F-16 pilot. He later flew planes for Southwest Airlines after leaving the military.
