Ed Dayley’s Vietnam Experiences

DURING ED'S FIRST TOUR, Ed was stationed with the 9th Aviation Battalion, 9th Infantry Division at Bearcat, RVN (near Bien Hoa) 15 miles East of Saigon in the jungle From May 1967 to April 1968.

Bearcat was about 15 miles SE of Saigon

As a chief warrant officer, Ed was a gunship pilot, a property book officer, and as one of only four pilots certified to fly the OH23, he also flew reconnaissance flights occasionally. 

His introduction to the unit was very stressful. The pilot, who picked up Ed from division headquarters, introduced him around and showed him where to live was killed within a week of when Ed arrived. He had told Ed that whenever someone left the unit, you helped yourself to the stuff they left behind; Ed as the newest got all this pilot’s old stuff as they shipped him home in a casket.

The pilot had been shot in the head while flying at a low level. Since there were only 15 pilots in the unit, Ed felt the odds of coming home were not good. However, that pilot was the only one in their unit who died during Ed's tour.

Living conditions were pretty rough at Bearcat. They had just cleared out a bare spot in the jungle, and the dust was awful in the summer and the mud was worse in the monsoon season. The troops lived in large tents and slept in cots covered with mosquito netting.

Ed's living conditions were at least in a building, (Quonset hut) but after he became property book officer and moved to Battalion Headquarters, his living conditions became even better. But it seemed the dust still got into every crack and made everything so sandy that it was unbearable.

On one of Ed's assignments, Ed bartered for two rolls of Naugahyde vinyl and papered his room with it to make it air-tight. It was hotter then because the air couldn't blow through his room, but at least everything wasn't sandy and gritty. Later on in his tour, he was able to barter for an air conditioner for his room and he had it pretty good.

The only shower was a 250- gallon tank of water on a frame where you could open up the spout and wash under. There was an immersion heater you could light to heat it, but some-one had to turn it on; if no one turned it on by 3:00 pm, you did not have hot water when you got back to camp.

The heater was difficult to light and you often burned your face and eyebrows off when it was lit. One battalion officer whose office was near the tank would climb up and light it and he was everyone's friend for doing this.