Remembering the crew of R5695-EMC and JAMES LOUIS GUICHARD

BORN AUGUST 21, 1921

DIED NOVEMBER 22, 1942 ON A BOMBING MISSION TO GERMANY

DEARBORN, MICHIGAN, USA

38 YEARS OLD

James L. Guichard, born 21 August 1904 at Pinconning Bay, Michigan, was the oldest of the R5695C crew. On his Royal Canadian Air Force attestation application, James wrote his year of birth as 1909 making him five years younger than his real age! The enlisting officer, thinking James was 31, noted the applicant was at the edge of the cut off for age. James never let it be known he was really thirty-six. He was the son of George Louis Guichard, a Presbyterian minister, and Carolyn Mae Henderson. He had three older sisters, Melite, Maude, and Naomi and one younger brother, Charles Edward. Before enlisting, James graduated from Washington & Jefferson College in Pennsylvania 1927-1931 with a major in Philosophy. Returning home, he entered the insurance business working for Aetna Life & Casualty in Detroit. His sports were basketball and (American) football.

On his Royal Canadian Air Force application, he wrote “Due to the fact the US is not at war I wish that my making this application be kept confidential.”  The USA threatened grave consequences for men joining the Canadian forces. Despite this, James enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in Windsor, Ontario on 11 January 1941, joining 9,000 other Americans who joined the RCAF. He was sent to Air Observers School where he achieved “above average” reviews. In remarks, he was noted to have “very wide business experience” and a “very well-paying position.”  The description continued “he’s a very serious-minded person, absolutely dependable, very anxious to get overseas. Frank, neat. A really outstanding man who is commission material.”

James indicated that his fiancée, Helene C. Stieler of Detroit, was the beneficiary of his service estates.

Remembering the crew of R5695-EMC and JACK SLATER

 BORN APRIL 1921

DIED NOVEMBER 22, 1942 ON A BOMBING MISSION TO GERMANY

HYDE, CHESHIRE, ENGLAND

21 YEARS OLD

Little information is known about Jack Slater. His parents were William Slater and Elizabeth Radcliffe. He had an older brother, Harry, and a sister, Joyce.

In a group service photo, Jack stands in the third row back and on the extreme right with his hands behind his back. He stands slightly apart from the other airmen. Jack Slater, an air gunner, perished young and without the opportunity to leave his mark on the world he helped save from Nazi terror. In his twenty-one years, Jack’s deeds and dedication to duty impacted the world in ways he would never have known.

Jack, like so many other young men and woman without descendants and large families, may be overlooked in the annals of time and the genealogical records in paper archives. It is fitting that now, eighty years after his sacrifice, and in the years to come, Jack be remembered by the family of man and citizens of free nations for his extreme sacrifice.