Shot down on August 26, 1967 during a 500 M.P.H. attack on a missile site, Col. Day was injured with three breaks in his right arm, an injured knee, and a damaged eye. He was captured, tortured, and escaped through the jungle for two weeks, swam the Ben Hai River back into South Vietnam, and came within two miles of the Marine outpost at Con Tien. After encountering North Vietnam soldiers and refusing to surrender, he was shot while trying to escape, recaptured, and transported back north. As a prisoner of war in the Hanoi Hilton, he was hung by his arms for refusing to reply, leaving both arms and hands paralyzed from the hanging, and one arm was rebroken. He endured multiple tortures and continued to refuse to respond as demanded. He was a unit commander during a May 1969 escape, was beaten daily with a fan belt for sixty-six days from 7/7/69 through 9/11/69, refused to yield, and set the example. He was awarded the Medal of Honor and the Air Force Cross for escape, resistance, and leadership, spent thirty-eight months in solitary confinement, and served as senior officer in multiple camps for five years seven months.