Slemon Private is named in honour of Air Marshall Charles Roy Slemon, CB, CBE, CD.
Charles Roy Slemon was born in November 1904 in Winnipeg and studied engineering at the University of Manitoba. He was one of the first pilot officers trained in the Royal Canadian Air Force and spent much of the following years flying Vickers Vedettes in support of aerial photography and mapping operations. He was transferred to the operations staff at AFHQ in 1935 and completed Royal Air Force Staff College in 1937.
Slemon was appointed Senior Staff Officer and then Commander of Western Air Command in 1938 followed by a posting overseas to the UK in 1941, then to No. 6 Bomber Group in 1942. In 1945, he was appointed Deputy Air Officer Commander-in-Chief of the RCAF overseas and was notably selected to command the Royal Canadian Air Force effort in the Far East.
Following the Second World War, he served on the Air Council in Ottawa; was appointed Commander Training in September 1949 and served as Chief of the Air Staff from 1953 to 1957. In 1957, he became Deputy Commander-in-Chief, NORAD until his retirement in 1964. Air Marshall Slemon died in Colorado Springs in February 1992.
