Ben,

This is Anne Valliere, we met at the Parachute jump at the Washington reunion - thank you so much for all your work. I just wanted to tell you that my Uncle Carroll Eckert passed away on Sunday, August 12th at 11:20PM in York, Pennsylvania and will be buried tomorrow, August 20th with graveside rites performed by the York County Veterans Honor Guard at 11AM at the Mount Rose Cemetery, 1502 Mt. Rose Avenue, York, Pennsylvania. Etzweiler Funeral Home, 1111 East Market Street, York is in charge of the arrangements.  www.etzweiler.com 

I can't tell you enough what the Reunion meant to him. I believe, and his son, Scott believes that he stayed alive long enough to go to the Reunion. You could see the happiness in his eyes when he attended the Reunion, even though he had been in the hospital many times over the last few months.  He got to talk to the other veterans and reminisce the war stories with them.

He was so excited that I found that he was mentioned in the book "Paratroopers' Odyssey" on the top of page 80, not by name, but by actions, like so, "One man who had been given up for dead crawled back after dark". Uncle Carroll crawled back after making out he was dead, so the Germans wouldn't finish him off. He crawled back after dark like they said - about 3 miles with wounds to his leg and shoulder. I believe he told me that he was given 8 pints of blood.

He also told me that he was shot and as he was falling to the ground, behind him he saw Lieutenant Ridler get shot in the head. Uncle Carroll said that he should have been gone then, so he was lucky to be alive today. He told me that he never saw so much fire power.

I just want to thank you personally and everyone that he talked to on that day at the Reunion - you all made him feel so good and he was so happy that everyone remembered what the guys had done in World War II.

Thanks again,

His niece,

Anne Eckert Valliere

Barre, Vermont