From: Ben517@aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2007 7:37 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: MAIL CALL NO. 1411 517TH PRCT- 0CTOBER 9, 2007
 

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


Subject: Request for Info on KENNETH BAKER TUCKER - Company "F"
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

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
 
jean-loup@gassend.com

Kenton Immerfall
 
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

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

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. 

eBay

Rick Sweet sent you this eBay item

Hi Ben, I saw this item on eBay and thought youor someone might be interested. $400.00 for a 517th patch !! Hope your health is kicking butt. Rick Sweet
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160166294574&ssPageName=ADME:B:EF:US:2
WW 2, 517th PARACHUTE INFANTRY REGIMENT - POCKET PATCH
Current bid: US $400.00 (0 bids)
Shipping: US $1.50
End date: Oct-14-07 18:31:04 PDT
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http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160166294574&ssPageName=ADME:B:EF:US:1
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Item URL: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160166294574&ssPageName=ADME:B:EF:US:11
Description: This is a WW 2, embroidered on blue twill material, Pocket Patch of the 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment. It has a cheesecloth backing. This unit was... See more
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