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Roster www.517prct.org/roster.pdf
2007 Palm Springs, CA Mini-Reunion April 15 - 20
Lory
Location:
Posts:
155
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.
Heather Riley
"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.
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 '
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of '
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.