Bill came to us after a stint at the University of Maryland where his athletic accomplishments later led to his election to their Hall of Fame.
His days at West Point were highlighted by remarkable athletic success, limited only because of his previous collegiate participation, a few serious skirmishes with the academic departments and a total involvement in the day-to-day horseplay that brightened our existence.
From the evidence we have of his shortened life after we scattered in May 1942, Bill Guckeyson grew in the same talents and character that had made him a class favorite. Verifying that assertiveness, fearlessness and modesty can characterize the same man, he put together that kind of success with his plane “Contrary Mary” in the 375th Fighter Squadron until late May 1944.
In June, he began his primary flight training at Pine Bluff, Arkansas. There he met and courted Mary Petticrew. After basic training at Randolph Field and Advanced at McAllen, Texas, he went to Richmond, Virginia Army Air Base in April 1943. There he and Mary were married. Their brief time together was one of sincere affection and great closeness.
In June, Bill was stationed at Langley Air Force Base, then for a short period at an installation near Millville, New Jersey, and next to a staging area near Washington, DC. In November, he left New York for England.
In the spring of 1944, a news release in the Washington Star featured the fifth victory of the “Chevy Chase Thunderbolt pilot and former University of Maryland football star.” Two of his first four had resulted from air engagements, and two involved destroying planes on the ground. In describing the fifth victory, the news release stated that Captain Guckeyson...was flying at 20,000 feet when he spotted a twin-engine Junkers 88 far below. He and his wing man spiraled down onto its tail...How we who knew him could have evoked that deep laugh of his by teasing him about the heroism of pouncing from the heights on that poor scared kid in the Junkers and shooting down a sitting duck!
Direct testimony as to what and who Bill continued to be came to us from two sources in Britain. A fellow pilot in the squadron wrote to Mary in 1945, “He was about the most regular and most capable pilot in the 361st Fighter Group, and that’s no exaggeration. I know for a fact that he often led the whole squadron...His photo was in a prominent place in the pilots’ room at Little Waldon; that and one other were the largest in the room. Everyone looked up to him.”
Even more revealing, a member of the village he often visited wrote, “What we want to tell you is how greatly he was liked and respected in the village, especially by the children who all loved him. When he went through the village street, the little ones all wanted to go with him, and he used to walk along holding one by each hand and followed by others, all laughing together at the things he told them.”
He took all his imitation of the God of “compassion and love,” (Psalm 103) when he flew out in his shiny new P-51 for his last run on 21 May 1944. We will remember no one in our Class with deeper regard, affection...just plain joy.
—Jim Studer and friends