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American Patriot: The Life and Wars of Colonel Bud Day
Army Lawyer, Dec, 2007 by Kirsten M. Dowdy
A highly relevant topic that Coram glosses over (16) in this biography is Col Day's direct involvement in the changes that were made to the Code of Conduct by President Jimmy Carter in 1977. (17) When asked about this topic, Coram explains that "while interesting, it was not directly relevant to the thrust of Bud Day's story." (18) Colonel Day's devotion to the Code of Conduct is the "thrust of Bud Day's story." (19) Additionally, the changes to the Code of Conduct following Vietnam are extremely relevant to military members today who face the possibility of capture.
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In 1977, Col Day was the Air Force representative on the board assigned with the task of reviewing the Code of Conduct and determining if revisions were needed. (20) One of the main revisions examined by this board was whether the word "only" should be eliminated from Article V's sentence, "I am required to give only name, rank, service number and date of birth." (21) Colonel Day states that the senior military leadership, including him, all recognized the need to delete this word from the Code of Conduct because it was unrealistic. (22) However, the first day that this board met, there was some opposition to this change. There was "a concern that dropping the word 'only' would somehow or another weaken and gut the Code." (23) Colonel Day explains that this concern "was [the] kind of mealy-mouthed stuff which the [Vietnam] POWs listened to without any enthusiasm...." (24) Colonel Day goes on to explain that "within a day or two it became clear that the voters were going to be voting to drop that word ... and the civvie leader really did not intend to get crosswise with [the Vietnam] POWs." (25) The word "only" was in fact dropped from the Code of Conduct. (26)
The majority of Coram's biography is focused around Col Day's commitment to the Code of Conduct. His desire to want to change this Code that he lived by for almost six years in captivity is not a topic that should be ignored in Col Day's biography. Coram left an enormous hole in his book by not addressing Col Day's involvement in and opinion of the 1977 changes to the Code of Conduct.
This book's final weakness involves Coram's numerous contradictions about what type of person Col Day is. Throughout his book, Coram makes statements that insinuate Col Day is a man who always walks the straight and narrow and never breaks the rules. For instance, he writes, "[b]lack and white, right or wrong, good or bad--that's the world of Bud Day." (27) Coram adds that Col Day is "a soft-spoken and kind man, with elaborate, almost Victorian manners." (28) Similarly, Coram describes Col Day and his wife as "slightly prudish," explaining that the officer's club parties were "too wild for them." (29)
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