From: Ben517@aol.com
Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2007 9:04 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: MAIL CALL NO. 1413 517TH PRCT =OCTOBER 14, 2007
 
70  Pleasant St. Cohasset, MA. 02025  *781 383 0215 * Mail Call : Ben Barrett  Ben517@aol.com
 
Hello,
 
I have below a message written by Ben Stein that was forwarded to me by Myrle Traver.  Myrle was a POW and Dick Seitz sent me  a letter  he received from Myrle  about two years ago and we have it on the website. It is a most interesting letter and I hope all will read it. Click on.
The Schmidt Bergstein Attack - Jan-Feb 1945 by Myrle Travers, F Co.
 
Lila and Donna  please send us the date of the Kissimmee banquet. Bruce Broudy and others need to know in order to make flight arrangements. Jan. 23 or 24?
 
 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


Phil McSpadden
 
Sam Smart was assigned to Headquarters Battery, 460th PFA.  If any of you from Hqs Btry remember him, please contact his daughter at : Stacey.Smart @yale.edu.  She is seeking any info you may have.
 
Ben, when I open up my computer each AM, Mail Call is the first thing I look at.  It is always great to hear from everyone, even though most of the comments are from people I never knew....but we are all "family" and you never get tired of hearing from family....well, most of the time!!  Thanks to you and Bob for all the time and effort you put in to bringing us all together.  phil mc spadden

Morris McDowell
 

Subject: Belgium Trip.

Bob/Ben,

Beverly I had a fantastic trip to Belgium in late September. Irma & Arnold Targnion were most gracious hosts. We were in Belgium and Germany for 7 days. We visited most of the cities where the 517th fought including Bergstein Germany. We saw the field where Col. Boyle was wounded, the Mont De Fosse at Trois Ponts where the 2nd battalion fought, & the place where my Cousin was killed. Eddy Munford & Eddy Lamberty were also very helpful during our visit. I felt like taking off my shoes when walking on the different 517 battlegrounds.  I hope I can return and spend more time in the lovely villages.

Also: I wanted to let everyone know that Fred Harmon is back in the hospital with a very bad intestinal infection. The things the 517th did in Europe was truly amazing. With GREAT RESPECT to the 517th, Morris McDowell

We have photos of Morris and Bob Dodds from their Belgium trip on the website  at 2007 Ceremonies in Logbiermé, Belgium - Ben


Lucky Hiers

Ben, I suspect there is a list of POWs ... but I was with two guys who were taken captive while I played dead and managed to get back to our line.  I wasn't as familiar with the trooper we called "Buxton," but the other was a close friend and I saw him after the war was over.  His name was Ovid Kirby and I visited his family in Iowa long after the war.
Lucky
Bob Dalrmple
 
Dear Gene, I, for one, am deeply indebted to you Karen, Don Adamski , and Mt  Wade for your untiring efforts to produce that DVD .  I will await my copy anxiously.  Although I haven't sent in my payment.  I will soon.  Many, many thanks.  Bob Dalrymple

Merle Traver
 
The following was written by Ben  Stein and recited by him on  CBS Sunday Morning  Commentary.


My  confession:

I am a  Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish.  And  it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are:   Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me.  I  don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it.  It shows that we are  all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year.  It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger  scene on display at a key  intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a crèche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians.  I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period.  I have no idea where the  concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country.  I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did  the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to  worship God as we understand Him?   I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too.  But there are a lot of us who are wondering  where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this happen?" (regarding Katrina)  Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response.
She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are,
but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.  And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out.  How can we expect God to give us His  blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc.  I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare  (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.
Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The
Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide).  We said an expert should know what he's talking about.  And we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out.  I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell.  Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord,  people think twice about sharing.  Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely  through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending  it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did.  But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.  My Best Regards.
Honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein