From: Ben517@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2006 9:07 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: MAIL CALL NO. 1225 517TH PRCT-[-NOVEMBER 29, 2006
70  Pleasant St. Cohasset, MA.02025  *781 383 0215 * Mail Call : Ben Barrett  Ben517@aol.com
 
MAIL CALL   http://bands.army.mil/music/bugle/calls/mailcall.mp3< Click on
 
 Hello,
 
Please let me know if you want to receive Mail Calls or if you have a problem receiving them. You can always read Mail Calls by clicking on www.517prct.org/archives
 
Washington Reunion. Arrival Wednesday June 27. Banquet Sunday July 1. Depart Monday July 2
 
Ben
                                     
Website                                   www.517prct.org                                                        
Mail Call                                  Ben 517@AOL.COM

Mail Call Archives                 
www.517prct.org/archives
Roster                                     www.517prct.org/roster.pdf

Reunions           Florida Snowbird Mini-Reunion      January 21 - 25
 2007                  Palm Springs, CA Mini-Reunion    April 15 - 20
                            Washington, DC  National              June 27 - July 2

 Click on http://517prct.org/auxiliary/ to find the mission of the Auxiliary and an enrollment form

Babbie Boyle
 
Hi Ben,
Bill decided today that he will be unable to make the mini after all --t oo many meds problems plus his
getting around is harder and harder. I am sure it was a decision he hated to make. I as usual was looking
forward to seeing you and others, having breakfast together etc., I will really miss every body.
A kiss for Fran, I was really fond of her.
Babbie

Morris McDowell
Hey Bob, & Ben,
 
You don't need to put this on the net, but I wanted to let you know I am having prostate cancer surgery tomorrow, so remember me. I talked to Fred Harmon Saturday, & his Nephew has moved in with him to help Fred some. But he is doing pretty well I think. Keep up the good work, Best Regards, Morris McDowell

Lory Curtis
 
I had sent in a message with the letter my Dad had written home on Thanksgiving during the war for everyone to read, but it kept coming back.  Don't understand it.  Anyway, the Curtis family is doing great.  Working on the details for coming to D.C. for the reunion.  My Dad is excited about coming. 

Lory

Bob Barrett
Dad,

 In doing a general search of the internet for 517th, I ran across this posting on miltaryphotos.net, posted back in July 2004.  I don’t remember ever seeing this before. I don’t know who this is.

 Bob

Location: Rochester

Posts: 155

 My Grandpa was a corporal with the 596th Combat Engineer Coy. attached to the 517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team in WWII. He saw action in Italy, Southern France, Belgium and Germany. The 517th was never really attached to any division although by the end of the war I think it was part of the 82nd. My grandpa would usually tell me stories of his time during training. One story was one of the guys in the company was a joker and threw a dummy hand grenade into the officers mess. The call 'GRENADE' went out and guys were jumping out of the mess all over the place. One of the NCO's broke his arm. Another guy got plastered drunk and stole a 2 ton truck from the motor pool and drove it out of the base with the MP's in pursuit only to loose the MP's and return it without getting caught. He doesn't talk much about his combat stories. He's starting to open up about his experiences finding and clearing mines under fire. One I remember was when his company and elements of the 517th ran into those huge Jagdtiger tanks on their way into Germany. I remember him telling me he and the other guys crapped their pants when they saw those tanks. He's in his 80's now and has recently survived a big heart attack in classic paratrooper style. Once a para always a para.

 I don’t remember ever seeing this before.


Heather Riley

Hi All,
I thought this was pretty good.  I am still laid up with my knees and eye. Eye surgery has been put off to Dec.20.  This is really bad, but nothing that can be done. I need to  get back to work
Best to all,
Heather
                                               ***********
Heather is the daughter if Ian Cowan B Co.-Ben

The year may have been 1907, but the speaker knew what he was talking about !!!!!!!!! 
 

Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907.

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."


Theodore Roosevelt 1907 


Bob Barrett

In another internet search, I ran across another 517th entry.  In the Tennessee state archives, they have a set of records filed as the “Sallie Gray Brown papers” (Mrs. Charles B. Brown) of Gallitan, Tennessee.  She was an active member of the USO and corresponded with many soldiers in WWII, most who trained in the Gallatin area.  One soldier mentioned is Pvt. Harold M. Smith of B Co., 517th PIR.

 The listing doesn’t say anything about the letters themselves, but I thought I would point this out, in case anyone is ever doing some historical research.

 www.tennessee.gov/tsla/history/manuscripts/findingaids/ths723.pdf


Jay Sutcliff


The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.

Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.


My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know,
Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.

My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.

A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

"What are you doing?" I asked w ithout fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"

For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..
To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."

"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.

My Gramps died at ' Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ' Nam ',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.

I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure g ot her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.

I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.

I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."


"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?

It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."
Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.

To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.

Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."

PLEASE, would you do me the kind favor of sending this to as many people as you can? Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to our U.S. service men and women for our being able to celebrate these festivities. Let's try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who
sacrificed themselves for us.