Jerome R. Daly, the helicopter pilot who became a Catholic priest, flew 2,000 hours in three tours. He earned 80 (this is not a typo) citations for bravery, including the Silver Star, three Distinguished Flying Crosses, two Bronze Stars for valor, two Purple Hearts, an Army Commendation Medal, and, most notably, a Distinguished Service Cross.
Combat helicopters played a preeminent role in the Vietnam War. According to a 2018 report by Gary Roush of the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association, over 40,000 men flew about 12,000 helicopters: “Army UH-1’s totaled 10,693,902 flight hours.… It is my opinion that the Huey including the Huey Cobra (AH-1G) which had 1,166,344 flight hours in Vietnam, [had] more combat flight time than any other aircraft in the history of warfare.” Of those men, 2,165 pilots and 2,712 non-pilot crew members were killed in action. (RELATED: May the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post Never Die)
Moments before Gen. Harold K. Johnson (left), U.S. Army chief of staff, on behalf of the president, pins the Distinguished Service Cross on Chief Warrant Officer Jerome R. Daly. Soc Trang Airfield, Aug. 4, 1967 (WGBH Media Library and Archives/National Archives and Record Administration (NARA)) [Watch the ceremony here]
Three helicopters had been shot down in the contested landing zone and all rescue attempts had been thwarted by intense enemy fire from fortified emplacements in a treeline 100 meters from the aircraft. Although it was imperative to rescue the men before nightfall, ground armor reinforcing units were unable to reach the besieged men in time. It was decided that Warrant Officer Daly’s aircraft would place a smoke screen between the insurgents and the rescue aircraft. Although he knew that he would be required to fly less than 100 meters from a treeline which contained incredible Viet Cong firepower, he readily gave his consent to the plan. With the pickup aircraft right behind him, Warrant Officer Daly descended, flew in front of Viet Cong automatic weapons and concealed the rescue operation with thick smoke. Although the pickup operations were expected to last a very short time, the downed men were spread throughout the landing area and more evacuation aircraft were needed. Unhesitatingly, Warrant Officer Daly circled and once again placed a smoke screen while passing through the hail of enemy fire. By the time all of the men had been recovered from the field, he had placed himself before the enemy weapons twelve times. Although he and his crew escaped unscathed, his aircraft was so damaged that it was judged beyond repair.
Forty years later, in 2007, there was a reunion. Daly was reached by phone. He said, among other things, that there were 50 bullet holes in his aircraft, not the legendary 130. Ask yourself, though: Do you pass close to heavy enemy fire 12 times and take only four bullets per pass? And just 50 bullets rendered the aircraft beyond repair?
Image of Daly that accompanied his 1982 induction into the Army Aviation Hall of Fame (Army Aviation Hall of Fame)
After Vietnam, his service included commanding the 4th Battalion, 1st Aviation Brigade. Daly retired in 1982 with the rank of lieutenant colonel. The following year, 1983, he was inducted into the Army Aviation Hall of Fame, Fort Worth. According to the Army Aviation’s biography:
[Daly] was a proven expert in aviation operations, maintenance, and the development of innovative tactics and doctrine and proven hardware systems.
In 1966 at the US Army Aviation Center he was the leading instructor of helicopter gunnery and an expert with M-3 and M-5 weapons systems. There he was not only noted for his fine skills but also for his efforts in modernizing and improving aerial gunnery training.
Daly was born in Oakland, California, in 1931 and grew up in Philadelphia as the middle child of three boys (both of his brothers predeceased him). He graduated from Lower Merion Senior High School (now Lower Merion High School), in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, in 1950.
Daly’s 1950 photo and inscription in Enchiridion, his high school’s yearbook (Enchiridion/Lower Merion High School)
Daly’s biographies uniformly state that he enlisted in the Army in 1949. After high school graduation, he majored in political science and graduated in a class of 188 men in 1954 from St. Joseph’s College (now University) in Philadelphia. He then worked as a volunteer firefighter, a test pilot at Bell Helicopter, and in insurance. When he reenlisted in the Army in 1958, he was 27 years old.
Daly, third row on the far left, poses with teammates for his 1950 yearbook photo (Enchiridion/Lower Merion High School)
Daly, second row, second from the left, played Mr. Loomis in his high school’s performance of January Thaw (Enchiridion/Lower Merion High School)
In an unexplained anomaly, Daly enlisted in the Army in 1949 but, according to school records, attended high school in the years leading to his graduation in 1950. Then he graduated four years later from college in 1954. It would not appear that there was any time to be active in the Army before 1954, except that it might explain why Daly is not listed as having participated in any extracurricular activities during college.
Daly attended St. Joseph’s College in 1954 (Graetonian Yearbook 1954)
After Daly’s death, a group of cloistered nuns, the Poor Clares of Alexandria, Virginia, contacted Msgr. John C. Cregan, who would be giving the sermon at Fr. Daly’s funeral Mass. Msgr. Cregan was himself a military veteran and had been a close friend of Daly’s since their seminary days but had never heard the story the Poor Clares told him. It seems that on Dec. 12, 1987, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Daly, who had recently retired from the military, had been traveling with a group on a pilgrimage to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico. He went for a stroll outside his hotel in the evening and was abducted by three men at gunpoint who beat him on his head and knees. Reaching a deserted area, they stopped the car. As they yanked him from the car, he prayed out loud, “Our Lady of Guadalupe, protect me!” The men reacted by returning his wallet intact, telling him he was crazy, and driving off, leaving him stranded.
The next day, Daly was at the basilica giving thanks for his safety when he heard the same words spoken by Our Lady of Guadalupe to Juan Diego in 1531: “Where are you going?” He immediately thought of becoming a monk.
Daly, second from right, was ordained in 1987 in the diocese of Arlington (Arlington Catholic Herald)
When he was on retreat at Madonna House, Combermere, Ontario, Daly told the foundress, Catherine Doherty (1896–1985), the author of the spiritual classic Poustinia whose life is being investigated for canonization, of his interest in becoming a monk, and she replied that he had led soldiers for decades. He would have much to offer the Church in active ministry, not in baking bread.
At the age of 51, he entered Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, and was ordained a priest in the Catholic Diocese of Arlington in 1987. He served as parochial vicar of St. Ambrose Church in Annandale from 1987 to 1991 and St. Leo the Great in Fairfax from 1991 to 1994. From 1994 to 2000, he was pastor of St. John the Beloved in McLean — where I met him — and then of St. Michael in Annandale until his retirement in 2004.
Daly receives the laying on of hands (Arlington Catholic Herald)
Daly receives the rite of Ordination in 1987 in the diocese of Arlington (Arlington Catholic Herald)
Three distinct memories come to mind of Fr. Daly when he served as pastor of my parish, St. John the Beloved. For one, we asked him to join the Knights of Columbus as the chaplain to the new council at the parish. Fr. Daly declined; he said he belonged to the Army and the priesthood, and that was enough for him.
He would routinely vacation in Ireland and, without fail, would include an Irish comical story in every Sunday sermon. He never made any attempt to connect the story to the sermon. He included the story just to keep everyone alert.
In his funeral sermon, Msgr. Cregan recalled that Fr. Daly’s life as a priest was well-ordered. Perhaps one example is the “midnight” Mass he celebrated on New Year’s Eve in 1999. Fr. Daly decided to celebrate it by starting not at midnight to mark the new year but at 11:30 p.m. It was thought by some that, when the clock struck Jan. 1, 2000 (“Y2K”), computers worldwide would crash and civilization change drastically for the worse. Shortly before midnight, he consecrated the Host. Then, according to the Catholic rite, he elevated the Host above his head. The timing was perfect; as he did so, the church bells struck midnight. If the world was going to change at midnight, his parishioners would be adoring the Lord Jesus in the Host.
Official diocesan photo of Fr. Daly (Arlington Catholic Herald)
Fr. Daly had bought a property in Ireland intending to retire there, but, when he retired from active ministry, he sold it and continued his ministry for nearly 20 more years, serving the people of St. Raymond of Peñafort in Springfield, Virginia, and his neighbors in the Fairfax Army Retirement Community in Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
The Vietnam helicopter and crewmember monument at the Arlington National Cemetery
Five years ago, on April 18, 2018, Fr. Jerome R. Daly, former combat helicopter pilot, gave the invocation at the dedication of the Vietnam Helicopter and Crewmember Monument, located in Section 35 of Arlington National Cemetery near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Fr. Daly died quietly in his home earlier this year on Jan. 14, 2023. Because of the long delay expected in having his remains interred at Arlington National Cemetery, he chose to have them interred in a section for priests at Fairfax Memorial Park in Fairfax, Virginia.
