His first appointment was to 20 Squadron to fly the Hunter ground-attack fighter from RAF Tengah in Singapore. This was at the time of the Indonesian Confrontation, when aircraft were maintained at a high state of alert. Regular detachments of Hunters were sent to Labuan Island and to Kuching in Borneo to patrol the Indonesian border.
After qualifying as a pilot attack instructor, in
1969 Day left for Muharraq in Bahrain to join 208 Squadron, also equipped with the Hunter. This was at a time when Britain was beginning to withdraw from the area.
On return to the UK, Day was one of the first pilots to train on the RAF's latest fighter ground attack aircraft, the US-built McDonnel Phantom. He was posted to Germany, where he served on 14 Squadron at RAF Bruggen on the Dutch-German border. New to the Central Region of NATO, the squadron provided a much greater and more diverse capability than its predecessors. In addition to its role with conventional weapons, it was also capable of delivering nuclear bombs and Day and his colleagues spent considerable time on 15-minute "quick reaction alert" in the event of being scrambled.
In September 1972, Day and his navigator were selected to represent RAF Bruggen at a major NATO tactical fighter meet, flown from a Belgian airfield. They achieved the highest individual score in the ground-attack role, which helped ensure that the Second Allied Tactical Air Force (2 ATAF) beat that of 4 ATAF which included the US Air Force and the German Air Force.
After his time in Germany, he left in 1975 for an exchange appointment with the USAF to fly the Phantom with the 550th Tactical Fighter Training Squadron in Arizona. His task was to convert experienced pilots and weapon system operators to the Phantom. His rank of Squadron Leader was alien to his USAF colleagues, so they addressed him with the equivalent USAF rank of major, and from that time he was always known as "The Major."
He returned to Coningsby from the USAF in 1979 and continued to serve on RAF Phantom squadrons until he converted to the Tornado fighter in 1984. These appointments allowed him to continue to fly with the BBMF. He retired in 2004 after 43 years' service in the RAF, having been appointed OBE and awarded the AFC.
In 2023 he was the guest of honour at the annual banquet of the RAF Museum American Foundation, held in Washington and attended by the RAF and USAF's Chiefs of Air Staff. The modest Day spoke of his experiences as Officer Commanding BBMF and the many and varied situations he had to face while displaying the Spitfire.
