Jean Claude Guiet was born in Belfort, France. Shortly after, he moved to the US with his family: he spent his school years there and summers in France. In 1940 he was recruited by the OSS (the precursor of the CIA). After training at Fort Bragg he parachuted into France with Violette Szabo with instructions to prevent the 2nd SS Panzer Division from reinforcing Normandy before D-Day. As D-Day approached, he was a witness to the first daylight drop of supplies: a staggering 860 containers from 72 B-17s. After the liberation of Paris Jean was sent to Indochina to organise and train tribes in the jungles of the Far East to fight the Japanese. After the war he worked for the CIA in Washington. It's quite a story, told in his own words. AUTHOR: Jean Claude Guiet was an American citizen. Following the war he worked for the CIA throughout the 1950s ? the files are still classified. After that he worked for Honeywell Inc and became active in the Civil Rights Movement and a protestor against the Vietnam War ?because I know the facts and the truth.' He died in Durango in 2013. His memoirs were preserved by his daughter Claudia Holzer. SELLING POINTS: ? The Story of Violette Szabo's wireless operator ? "We were too busy to mourn for long about Corinne's (Szabo's) capture and disappearance. She was not forgotten, just completely out of our reach. New drop zones were being surveyed, and used. New groups were being contacted and incorporated under our guidance." ? Told in the author's own self-deprecating and elegant style 40 b/w illustrations
