Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Girard, John Frederick 1918
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Ionia Daily Sentinel, 22 Nov 1918

Capt. John F. Girard’s Death Confirmed By Official Message
Young Ionia Officer Who Advanced From Private to Captain of Company D.

Confirmation of the death of Capt. John Girard, killed in action on Oct. 5, and
first published in a letter from Sergt. Kieth Talcott, of Saranac, in the
Sentinel, was received this morning in a telegram from the war department to his
parents, Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Girard, West Washington street.

The telegram is as follows: 
“Mrs. Catherine Girard, 439 W. Washington street.
“Deeply regret to inform you that Capt. John Frederick Girard, infantry, is
officially reported as killed in action Oct. 5.”

From this notice it appears that Lieut. Girard had won his promotion by his
gallant conduct in previous fighting and that as a captain he met his death as
he went over the top with his company on the morning of Oct. 5, but five days
after he had returned to his command convalescent from severe wounds received
north of Chateau Thierry.

The name of Capt. Girard is one which will always be associated with Ionia’s
part in the great war in any history of the war to be written.  He was the only
Ionia officer to be killed in action on the field of battle while leading his
troops against the hun, the only Ionia officer in fact to lose his life in the
great war.  The history of his service will always be one of the bright pages in
the books of deeds of Ionia soldiers.

He was 24 years of age at the time of his death and his connection with the
Ionia company began in 1913 when on Jan. 20 he enlisted in Co. E.  During the
life of Company E. he took a great interest in the work and although of quiet
disposition, he advanced through the ranks of corporal and sergeant and became a
lieutenant upon the reorganization of the company.  He was made first lieutenant
of Co. D before the company left for Camp MacArthur and as such he went to
France.  He had been through the copper country strike and through the Mexican
campaign on the border and went into the Big Adventure of the world war full of
enthusiasm for his work.

In the piping times of peace the true valor of a soldier cannot be displayed. 
There was never anything of the showy or sensational in the military life of
Capt. Girard.  His work had always been done quietly in accordance with his
disposition.  But behind the quiet exterior and the boyish manner lay the
sterner stuff of which heroes are made.

From the time he entered the military service until a bullet laid him low north
of the Marne there had never been a period of separation from his work.  He was
always there, always on the job.  He left here with his command and he was with
it at Camp Merriett and when it landed in France.  He was with it through all
the changes between the port of landing and the front line of trenches and he
was with it when it went over the top and into the bitter fighting when the
Teuton armies first felt the thrust of cold steel from American troops in Alsace
Lorraine.  He was with his command when it was transferred to the Marne and with
it through the heroic struggles which hurled the hun back from Paris and began
the high defeat which finally ended in the surrender of the greatest military
power the world has ever known.  

So far but little has been told of the battles through which Company D has
passed in France.  But what has drifted through has told a story of bravery and
courage not excelled by any American troops.  Marines and regulars have no
brighter pages in their history than have the National Guard boys from Ionia and
elsewhere, who but a very few years ago were dubbed “tin soldiers” and laughed
at when they smilingly departed for the bloodless battlefields of Ludington and
Grayling.  

There was needed but the opportunity for these “tin soldiers” to show the real
metal of which they were made.  It was one of the most fortunate things
connected with Capt. Girard’s life and death, that he was permitted to complete
his military career as he had begun it with the National Guards from his own
own.  It was a fortunate thing also that the National Guard has been permitted
to retain the services of such gallant soldiers as he has been and have been the
men under his command.

The story of his wounding at the Marne has been incompletely told, and of the
long period of recovery in French hospitals.  Not yet have the letters been
received which tell of his return to his company and of his presence there on
the morning of October 5, but five days after he arrived.  The letter of Sergt.
Talcott relates that he was in command of his company in the absence of the
captain.  But undoubtedly if he was not then a captain his commission as such
was in the making, having been won by gallantry in action in previous fighting.

Then he went over the top once more with his old comrades.  Sergt. Talcott says
that he was struck just after he had gone over.  He was not given the
opportunity of reaching the enemy lines again.  But he was on his way into the
storm of bullets when death met him.

There have been numerous references to Capt. Girard in the letters written by
his comrades.  Without exception they speak of his gallantry and his courage,
his American sand and his daring.  Sad as is the news of his death to his
family, there is the consoling knowledge that his deeds and his name will be
remembered by a grateful world and nation long after the names of others have
been hidden by the dusts of time.  It is the memory of such sacrifices that give
the greatest lustre to the story of the past.

Besides his father and mother, Capt. Girard leaves a brother, Tom, now in
Detroit with the Dodge Ordnance company.  He was born in Ionia and went through
the eleventh grade of the Ionia schools.  He worked at the Ypsilanti Reed at the
time of his departure.


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