70 Pleasant St. Cohasset, MA. 02025 *781 383 0215 * Mail Call : Ben Barrett Ben517@aol.com
Hello,
Paratroopers' Odyssey is available for
$22.50. Send payment to Leo Dean.
You may at times have a problem viewing photos.
However, we place most photos on the website under Training and WWII
Photos .
Please try to send in donations by August 15 to Keep the
517 PRCT Association viable. Suggested amount $30.00 to include
Thunderbolt. Auxiliary members $20.00 Plus $10.00 if you want to
receive the for the Thunderbolt. Send donations to Leo
Dean, 14 Stonehenge Lane, Albany, NY 12203. Make checks
payable to 517prct. Donations
for the Auxiliary should be sent to Karen Frice Wallace
66295 Highway 20 Bend, OR 97701
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
Ben
Website
www.517prct.org
Mail Call Ben517@aol.com
Mail Call Ben517@aol.com
Recent website additions:
2007 Ceremonies in Logbiermé, Belgium
Sgt. Robert J. Miller, I Company (KIA)
Matthew Skovera, HQ Co, 3rd Bn.
PFC Anthony S. Celli, I Co. (KIA)
517 PRCT
Association Officers
| 517th PRCT Auxiliary Mission Statement |
| 517th PRCT Auxiliary Member Application 2007-2008 |
| 517th PRCT Auxiliary Officers and Committee Members 2007-2009 |
Subject: Request for Info on KENNETH BAKER TUCKER - Company "F"
Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2007 20:43:25 +0000
Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2007 20:43:25 +0000
Dear Sirs/Honorable Veterans:
I am DESPERATELY trying to get some information/photos of my Dad
who served with the 517th Parachute Infantry Regimental Combat Team -
Company "F"...
He is very ill and in the nursing home, and I'd like to have some info on
his
service...
His name: Kenneth Baker Tucker - Hometown: Ocilla, Georgia
105 South Irwin Ave.
Ocilla, GA 31774
If anybody could help me out, I'd be much appreciative!
Thanks a million,
GLENN M. TUCKER
Stacey Smart
Hello,
My father, Sam Smart, was a paratrooper with the 517th during WWII. I am trying
to find out more about his history and perhaps speak to people who might have
known him. I have already been thrilled to find photos of him on the website,
www.517prct.org.
I have been in touch with Phil McSpadden and he suggested that I join your email
list. Please let me know how I should go about this, or who else I should
contact.
Thank you!
Stacey Smart
My father, Sam Smart, was a paratrooper with the 517th during WWII. I am trying
to find out more about his history and perhaps speak to people who might have
known him. I have already been thrilled to find photos of him on the website,
www.517prct.org.
I have been in touch with Phil McSpadden and he suggested that I join your email
list. Please let me know how I should go about this, or who else I should
contact.
Thank you!
Stacey Smart
Gene Loup
Thank you to Tom McAvoy for the information about Mr
Desso. Ben, is there a list available of all the
517th troopers who were made POW during the war,
particularly in southern France. I know there weren't
many, so if people could just list a few of them from
memory, that would already be very helpful.
I am also still looking for a veteran from G company
that I could contact to interview about his wartime
souvenirs. I haven't been able to contact a single
survivor from G company! If anybody from mail call
knows any G Co guys, please help me out! I am making
an oral history book with the interviews.
Jean-Loup
Desso. Ben, is there a list available of all the
517th troopers who were made POW during the war,
particularly in southern France. I know there weren't
many, so if people could just list a few of them from
memory, that would already be very helpful.
I am also still looking for a veteran from G company
that I could contact to interview about his wartime
souvenirs. I haven't been able to contact a single
survivor from G company! If anybody from mail call
knows any G Co guys, please help me out! I am making
an oral history book with the interviews.
Jean-Loup
In reference to opinions about soldiers and/or veterans (male or female)
who were part of any American War, Police Action, Skirmish, you name it.
Thank you Paratrooper Tom McAvoy and also to Don Sliker for enlightening me with
your thoughts. I have spoken with some WW II vets in Green Bay and they
tell stories about enlisting, the physicals, and then an officer would enter a
room where long lines of young men were standing and say, "This line go this way
for Infantry, that line go that way for tank training, that line over there for
Air Corp, etc." One elderly soldier friend of mine was told he had a heart
murmur and couldn't see action so he was sent to engineering training and was
part of the first outfit to build the Alaskan Highway. According to Ralph,
they started out with picks and shovels because no heavy equipment made it
yet. I had no idea that there was such a difference in pay but I do recall
one Paratrooper commenting that when he heard he got extra pay for joining the
paratroopers, he jumped at the chance so he could send more money home.
I'm sure there are all kinds of opinions and stories about how soldiers felt
about each other. The movies made us believe that the Navy men were
fighting with the Army men, and the Army men were fighting with the Air Force
pilots, and the Marines fought with everyone. Ha! I am sure alcohol
and bragging had a lot to do with keeping morale up but I'd like to believe that
if Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine soldiers all jumped into the same fox hole
to avoid enemy machine gun fire that they'd be "working together" to figure out
how to take the pill box out.
Wayne Cross
Leo there are men like Barry Bonds who apparently have to inject
testosterone to do what they love and then there are those who come by it
naturally. You are a natural. Dropping out of the Bomb-bay of a
vintage aircraft with no chemical assistance is why most legs are constantly
left puzzled as to why anyone in their right mind would join the
Airborne. With great affection, amazement and respect,
Wayne Cross
Wayne Cross
Hal Beddow
Hi Ben
Please change my email address as I have had a COMPUTER problem.
My new email address is "halairborne@aol.com"..
Now I can receive my Mail Call's.
Thanks for the good things you do.
By now, but look forward to seeing you at mini in January 2008.
Hal
Please change my email address as I have had a COMPUTER problem.
My new email address is "halairborne@aol.com"..
Now I can receive my Mail Call's.
Thanks for the good things you do.
By now, but look forward to seeing you at mini in January 2008.
Hal
Russell Miller
How Close Can You Get? And dinner was already
cooked!
B Company had been in an approach march and attack mode
during the late afternoon of January 15, 1945 in the vicinity of Petit
Thier-Potteau Road, Belgium in one of 517th's continuing engagements of the
Battle of the Bulge. We had support of a number of tanks during the late
afternoon hours but they broke off and went somewhere else for the night.
Our 3rd Platoon took up a perimeter defense position as darkness was falling and
our guys were delighted to locate a nearby small house within our sector which might provide shelter for some of us from the
miserably cold weather during the coming night. Scouts checked out
the place and came back nothing short of ecstatic to report that not only was
the house unoccupied, but that the place was a bit warm with a fireplace
throwing off some heat and that the Germans must have left the house so
hurriedly that several pots of meat stew were still cooking, hanging from a
horizontal iron bar position above the fire below. The food smelled
enticing and we couldn't believe we were getting so lucky. Just at that
moment, however, a runner came from Battalion CP summoning me there where I was
ordered to mount a patrol to determine the location and activity of the German
unit which had just been pushed out of the area B company was now
occupying. Another soldier and I mushed out through the snow,
completed the patrol mission, but by the time we returned to our platoon area
some time later, the food from the stew pots in the fireplace had all
disappeared but there were a number of contented paratroopers zonked out and
snoring on the floor in every bit of space available inside that tiny
house.
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