Ben,
Thanks for forwarding my email address to Mr. Ventura.
As far as attending a reunion...I definitely have the St. Louis dates marked on
my calendar. I plan to reserve a room and hope my Mom is well enough (and
willing) to attend a day or two with me. She lives in an Assisted Living
facility down-the-road in Lebanon, MO.
When I told Mom that I was planning on attending the St. Louis
Reunion she said, "Well, you wouldn't know any of those guys." She just
doesn't realize how this Internet site has extended to all family and friends of
517th soldiers.
I just want to touch base with a few brave men who rubbed
elbows with Uncle Floyd and thank them for all they did so that I am able to sit
here and read about them and learn about their exploits to keep us
free.
Kent
Gene Frice
Ben,
A recent 517 email covered the production
of the 517th Historical
CD and that of the 517th June 2007, Portland
reunion. I however still
receive queries as to the where and when of the
production. So, if you
would please be so kind.
Correspondence
between Bob Dalrymple and Gene Frice re: 517th
Historical CD Disk
production.
Bob,
Good to hear from you. In
reply to your question and to those that
have an interest in the
CD.
The CD you inquired about has been in work for a
year or more. Dr.
Don Adamski (a family friend, fellow National Ski Patrol
buddy and mt
rescue companion, did a historical video on my 80'th birthday.
It was
mostly skiing, bicycle, drinking, fun and games, however he became
interested in the 517 and he included some of that as well as my bio in
the disk).
With his interest in my family and
the 517, (recognizing that he
had no military experience and his
recollection of WWII was only as a
young man) he put his scientific mind to
work. He had attended several
of our meetings (Palm Springs and Portland).
For the next two years he
gathered data on the unit and we very slowly
produced about 10-20
versions of his work. We spent countless hours on
replaying and adding
to the basic theme and correcting untold spelling,
ID's, units, etc
etc. This was a very time consuming task for him
considering both of us
are employed and live 200 miles apart.
In production of the disk, several months ago concluded- enough is
enough. Don then looked at reproduction of the disk. He went to several
sources including Kinko-Fed Ex. They gave a price of 15 dollars each.
The Kinko's staff asked "it's military-what is it? He showed it to them
and they said, "great program."
Several of the crew had been military and
one was airborne. They then
got the price down to $ 6-10 dollars apiece
including label and
mailing. Not bad.
Don then
found putting a durable label on a disk is somewhat of a
problem. With his
detailed scientific mind he tried a dozen commercial
label programs and
other than the Kinko label each ultimately suffered
bad defects, scratches,
smears, staining, etc. So he went to Kinko for
about one dollar each for
labeling.
Next in the history was our hero Wade
Gilbert, who volunteered to
reproduce the labeled disks. The disk was
forwarded to Wade for
reproduction. We estimate the cost of the disk will be
about plus or
minus $ 6-10 dollars. The 517 Historical disk includes video
of the
June 2007, 517 Portland reunion, which was also produced by Dr
Adamski
as well. We are greatly indebted to Dr. Adamsk, and Wade Gilberti
for
their tireless efforts on our behalf.
I am
sorry for the length of time to produce the CD of the 517th,
however
Hollywood Productions are time consuming. I am sure that you
will enjoy the
CD. Do not send money at this time.
Plz send further
mailings to genesir@gmail.com (been having
this problem of
transferring from AOL to gmail for couple of years in
spite of a correct
address published in the roster for over a year ??).
Gene Frice, F Co
517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team
Auxiliary
The 517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team Auxiliary has
three main goals:
1. To secure the history of the 517th.
2. To assist
veterans in attending the Reunions.
3. To defray registrations costs for the
veterans for future Reunions.
The most important thing that we can do for the
517th is to preserve the history of this outstanding unit. We want to do this by
obtaining your oral and written histories,archiving and protecting photographs,
and in time, caring for memorabilia not left to descendents.
The oral and
written histories are so important to the preservation of the 517th.While some
of our 517th men are deceased, there are sure to be stories and memories of
these strong and courageous men that need to be told. Video histories are
wonderful, however taped conversations are important also. We need to get these
stories before it is too late.
We feel that there are children, grandchildren
and other relatives of the 517th that have talents that could be used in keeping
the 517th PRCT alive after our proud and strong men are gone. We are looking for
these talents in building a strong Auxiliary.
Please consider what talent you
have that you can share with us to obtain this goal.
Membership in the
Auxiliary is $30.00 a year or whatever fits your financial
situation, and
goes to support the work of the Auxiliary. We hope that you will find it
important to support the Auxiliary and join in keeping the 517th spirit alive.
We thank you for any talent or effort that you can contribute to this
endeavor.
Helen H. Beddow, President
517th Parachute Regimental Combat
Team Auxiliary
