James Leslie King Dayton

 

James "Jim" Leslie King Dayton was born in Hawaii on Feb. 23, 1947.  His parents, Colonel Kenneth and Mrs. Dorthy Dayton were stationed in Hawaii at the time of his birth.  COL Dayton was a career Army officer and as such Jim grew up as an Army "brat".   He attended Alexandra and Arlington, VA public schools, graduated from high school in Florida and attended Richard Bland College in Petersburg, VA before joining the Army.  Jim was known to be a kind and caring individual.  As early as 1958 he joined the First Christian Church in Alexandria and continued to practice his faith throughout his military service. Jim entered the Army, completed basic training and was immediately assigned to the Warrant Officer training program. During a break in training in July of 1967 Jim and his fiancé, Eileen Lucille Dewer were married in Greenville, South Carolina. He then completed his aviation training and on the 26 of September 1967 he received his commission along with the silver wing of an Army Aviator, graduating with his classmates in WORWAC 67-15.  WO Jim Dayton's next assignment was to the 281st Assault Helicopter Company located in Nha Trang, Republic of South Vietnam, where he soon developed into a skilled pilot that could be counted on to perform the most difficult missions and on March 16, 1968 he was awarded the designation of Aircraft Commander with the Gun Ship platoon.  Jim was a skilled gun ship commander and a credit to the "Wolf Pack" Platoon and the "Intruders".  He was at home among his fellow crew members and was respected by his subordinates and his superiors.  He is shown here with his other  281st "Wolf Pack" pilots.                 Back row L- R, Lance Ham, Jim Dayton & Stephen Kay Front row L- R, Harry Whitmore (setting on box), Charles Daniels, Tommy Condrey & Mike Hart.  On May 8, 1968, Jim and his crew were assigned the mission of supporting  the recovery of a Special Forces Long Range Reconnaissance Team (LRRP) that was engaged in a fire fight with a large hostile force and as such were in danger of being captured. When Jim and his crew arrived on the scene their gunship immediately came under intense enemy fire.  As the pickup helicopter approached the Landing zone The crew flew close fire support placing suppressive fire on the hostile forces and at the same time by placing the themselves between the  lightly armed pickup helicopter and the hostile force they were able to draw the ground fire away from the pickup helicopter .  Although drawing heavy fire from the hostile forces on the ground Jim and his crew continued to provide cover for the pickup helicopters until their own helicopter gun ship was hit by a barrage of enemy fire that caused it to explode in mid-air and crash on the bank of the Buong River. The violent midair explosion of the aircraft indicated that it had been hit by a rocket type explosive projectile. Shortly after the incident, recovery personnel landed in the vicinity of the crash, but were unable to find any signs of life. On 12 May a ground patrol located the remains of 4 individuals in the vicinity of the crash site.  However, due to heavy enemy activity the remains could not be recovered. WO1 Dayton,  was one of four men lost when UH-1C, 64-14172 was shot down. Tommy Condrey, pilot, Daniel Jurecko, crew chief, and Robert Jenne, gunner, were all highly respected members of the 281st AHC and they along with Jim  shall always be remembered.  There stories are also on this website. For service to his country and his actions in combat Chief Warrant Officer 3 (Posthumously) James Leslie King Dayton was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (Posthumously), the Air Medal W/16 Oak Leaf clusters, the Purple Heart Medal (Posthumously) and various US and Vietnamese Service awards.                 Photos by John "The Kid" Galkiewicz See John's story about Jimmy at: http://www.angelfire.com/ga3/galkie/marblemt.html For service to his country and his actions in combat, WO James Leslie Dayton was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (Posthumously) the Air Medal w/16 Oak Leaf clusters, the Purple Heart (Posthumously), and other awards for service. WO Dayton was one of a crew of four Intruders who were all lost when UH1-C gunship #64-14172 was shot down: WO George Thomas Condrey, III, Daniel Jurecko, and Robert Jenne. Information compiled by Jim Torbert                                               Joe Bilitzke "WolfPack 34" - 1/68-4/69 I was in Wolfpack putting mini gun underneath them when they got hit. We watched them go down and burn.  Couldn't get the bodies out until a team was put in the next day. Not a whole lot left to recover. DoD showed them as "missing" but we raised hell.  It was changed to KIA so the family could get some closure.