This Military Service Page was created/owned by
SSgt Robert Bruce McClelland, Jr.
to remember
Davis, Clayton Eugene, Lt Col USAF(Ret).
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Contact Info
Home Town Montpelier, Vermont
Last Address Shalimar, Florida
Date of Passing Mar 09, 1991
Location of Interment Barrancas National Cemetery (VA) - Pensacola, Florida
During WWII, he destroyed 5 enemy aircraft in aerial combat, as well as 4 more on the ground before he had to bail out over enemy territory Aug 17, 1944; but he was able to evade the enemy and get back to Allied lines.
He also served in the Korean and Vietnam wars.
His DSC citation: Awarded for actions during World War II
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to Captain (Air Corps) Clayton E. Davis (ASN: 0-666887), United States Army Air Forces, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy while serving as Pilot of a P-51 Fighter Airplane in the 487th Fighter Squadron, 352d Fighter Group, EIGHTH Air Force, in aerial combat against enemy forces on 8 May 1944. On this date Captain Davis led a flight of fighter airplanes in an attack against fifteen enemy fighters and in the ensuing engagement destroyed one enemy airplane and assisted in the destruction of another. Captain Davis then joined two friendly fighters and was almost immediately attacked from above by twenty or more enemy fighters, one of which he destroyed. Alone at a very lone altitude and with only one gun firing, Captain Davis courageously attacked an destroyed an enemy fighter over an airdrome in the face of intense anti-aircraft fire. The heroic and fearless behavior of Captain Davis in the face of odds and grave danger reflect highest credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of the United States.
General Orders: Headquarters, U.S. Strategic Forces in Europe, General Orders No. 44 (July 22, 1944)
Vietnam War/Counteroffensive Phase VI Campaign (1968-69)
From Month/Year
November / 1968
To Month/Year
February / 1969
Description This period was from February 23-June 8, 1969.
On February 23. 1969. the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese launched mortar and rocket attacks on Saigon, Da Nang, Hue. Bien Hoa Air Base, and other key targets throughout South Vietnam. In this offensive. Communist forces relied heavily on the use of stand-off fire- power in hit-and-run attacks, since, in the previous year’s offensives. Allied ground operations and air interdiction efforts had countered the Communists‘ logistical capacity to wage conventional battles. By March 30 the Allies had blunted the hit-and-run attacks. and the enemy withdrew into Cambodian and Laotian sanctuaries to restock their munitions and weapons inventories.
Later in the spring. on May 12. the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese launched a second phase. consisting of more than 200 attacks in South Vietnam, the heaviest assault since the 1968 Tet Offensive. An intense battle in the A Shau Valley required USAF close air support and tactical airlift of supplies and reinforcements until May 20, when the U.S. Army captured Ap Bia Mountain, thus enabling Allied aircraft to land in the A Shau Valley without receiving mortar fire. Another significant battle occurred at Ben Het Defense Camp, located about 260 miles northeast of Saigon, where the Cambodian/Laotian borders join the boundary of South Vietnam. Here, the USAF employed AC-47 and AC-I19 gunships at night and tactical air and B-52 strikes during the day in support of the defenders. Fighter aircraft laid down suppressive fire to permit C-7s to drop supplies to the besieged forces. By the end of June the Allies had forced the enemy's withdrawal.
Throughout this campaign, the USAF joined the Vietnamese Air Force and the other U.S. services in close air support of Allied forces throughout South Vietnam and in a continuing interdiction campaign. COMMANDO HUNT I, along South Vietnam's borders with Laos and Cambodia. In Laos Air Force pilots joined Navy aviators to hit targets along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, where North Vietnam. no longer having to protect its lines of communication and storage areas north of the demilitarized zone, had shifted more antiaircraft defenses. The USAF consequently relied heavily on high-flying B-52s and such fast tactical aircraft as F-4s and F-105: for most missions over the trail. AC-130 gunships, though flying less than 4 percent of the missions in Laos, nevertheless accounted in the spring of 1969 for 44 percent of the trucks claimed damaged or destroyed.
In northeastern Laos AC-47 gunships provided close air support to Royal Laotian and irregular forces battling North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao troops. On March 2. 1969. the Royal Laotian forces abandoned Na Khang under cover of USAF aircraft. Then on the 12th the USAF deployed AC-47s to Udorn, a Royal Thai Air Force Base 40 miles south of Vientiane, Laos, to defend forward Royal Laotian air bases. The USAF and the Royal Laotian Air Force on March 23 began a new Laotian counteroffensive with air attacks on targets in the Xiangkhoang area of the Plain of Jars, 100 miles northeast of Vientiane. Two weeks later, on April 7, Laotian troops entered Xiangkhoang virtually unopposed. With Laotian positions temporarily safe. the USAF AC-47s returned to South Vietnam on June 9.
American involvement in Southeast Asia expanded on March 18. 1969, when the United States began B-52 night attacks on Communist sanctuaries in Cambodia. About the same time, however, the U.S. began to reequip South Vietnam's forces in preparation for eventual withdrawal of all American forces. On April 19 the U.S. transferred to the VNAF its first jet aircraft. Shortly afterwards, on June 8, President Richard M. Nixon announced that during July and August 1969 the United States would withdraw 25.000 of its 540,000 troops in South Vietnam, even though no progress had been made in the Paris peace talks.
