Major George E. Day shot down over North Vietnam - Aug 26, 1967 - HISTORY.com

Col Day is from Sioux City. His cousin Geri Day Iwas my 4th grade teacher and she is close with my whole family. He was the bar. Something to measure your own mettle and worth too. I am not sure i would have the fortitude that he did. The faith he had in God and country is far and away the standard of a true American hero. Great post and morning Mark.

PO3 Brad Smith Lt Col Scott ShuttleworthSGT Gregory Lawritson SGT Jim Arnold SSgt Brian BrakkeCMSgt (Join to see) LTC (Join to see) MSG Frederick Otero SFC Pete Kain SSG David Andrews SCPO Morris Ramsey PO1 William "Chip" Nagel SGT (Join to see) TSgt Joe C. Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. LTC Greg Henning PO2 Rick Fox SGT John " Mac " McConnell Lt Col Charlie Brown Sgt Albert Castro

Great guy and a real hero

I met Colonel Day at a prayer breakfast in 1979. A tremendous speaker and even better example of leadership. Those of us who are retired can also thank Colonel Day for holding the government’s feet to the fire when it comes to keeping it’s promises of health care for life. CHAMPUS was kind of a bad joke among civilian providers and retirees. His class-action lawsuit against the United States of America attempted to provide relief for retired service members and eligible dependents.

From Wikipedia:

in 1996 Day filed a class action lawsuit for breach of contract against the United States government on behalf of military retirees who were stripped of their military medical care benefits at age 65 and told to apply for Medicare. Although winning the case in the district court in 2001, the judgment against the U.S. was overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals in 2002. Congress later redressed this situation by establishing the TRICARE for Life (TFL) program, which restored TRICARE military medical benefits for career military retirees over the age of 65, making the retirees eligible for both programs with Medicare as the primary payer and TRICARE as the secondary payer.