Name: WO1 James Leslie Dayton
Status: Body Not Recovered from an incident on 05/08/1968 while performing the duty of Pilot.
Age at death: 21.2
Date of Birth: 02/23/1947
Home City: Granite City, IL
Service: AV branch of the reserve component of the U.S. Army.
Unit: 281 AHC
Major organization: 1st Aviation Brigade
Flight class: 67-15
Service: AV branch of the U.S. Army.
The Wall location: 57E-001
Short Summary: Hit by RPG leaving nothing to recover during LRRP insertion in A Shau Valley during project Delta. See Condrey.
Aircraft: UH-1C tail number 64-14172
Call sign: WOLFPACK
Service number: W3157527
Country: South Vietnam
MOS: 062B = Helicopter Pilot, Utility and Light Cargo Single Rotor
Primary cause: SVN-BNR RPG
Major attributing cause: aircraft connected not at sea
Compliment cause: weapons
Vehicle involved: helicopter
Position in vehicle: aircraft commander
"Official" listing: helicopter air casualty - other aircrew
Location: Quang Nam Province I Corps.
Additional information about this casualty:
The following is from Wolfpack 35 (James H. Horn?) to update James Leslie Dayton's information:
Dayton was flying a UH-1H instead of a C model as reported elsewhere. The H model was set up as a gunship by putting a 50 cal in 1 door and a 40 mm duster in the other door. The rest of the informaiton about being hit by a hand held RPG round was correct. Because of the resulting explosion, there was nothing left to recover of the four bodies.
Reason: aircraft lost or crashed
Casualty type: Hostile - killed
married male U.S. citizen
Race: Caucasian
Religion: Protestant - no denominational preference
Burial information: MARIETTA NATIONAL CEMETERY, MARIETTA, GA (IMO)
The following information secondary, but may help in explaining this incident.
Category of casualty as defined by the Army: battle dead Category of personnel: active duty Army Military class: warrant officer
This record was last updated on 06/25/1999
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Date posted on this site: 11/13/2023
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