70 Pleasant St. Cohasset, MA. 02025 *781 383 0215 * Mail Call : Ben
Barrett
Ben517@aol.com
Hello,
Happy Thanksgiving
Please let me know if your email is not to be included in Mail Call by
inserting FYEO .
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 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
Ben
Snowbird
mini-reunion
.
Kissimmee,
FL
Jan 20-24, 2008
West Coast
mini
Palm Springs,
CA
April 13-18
2008 ( We will change schedule on website )
517TH ST. LOUIS REUNION BEGINS:
THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 2008 THRU MONDAY, JUNE 30, 2008
THE BANQUET WILL BE ON SUNDAY JUNE 29, 2008.
Darrell Egner
To all Troopers and their Family Members
Ben, thanks for publishing the up date and information on the subject
Reunion. As I haven't heard from Donna Hilliard since the Washington
Reunion I had no idea so few people had signed up for the subject Reunion.
I counted 18 people that did sign up and we usually get around 50 so we better
get on the phone and encourage people to attend. For information
purposes the Hotel does not charge your credit card until you check out. I
feel sure that Donna would be agreeable to collect the $40 registration fee when
you arrive if you don't want to part with your money two months in
advance.
I am rather sure the following people will attend. MCDonald (3),
Lindner (2), Collins (2), Povoch (2). That makes 27 so we will be half way
to our goal.
The following people usually attend and hopefully will again. Johnson
& Daughter (2), Dean (1), Mackenzie (1), Fraser (2), Darden (2). So if
they come all we need is15 more warm bodies.
Please get your Restorations in and recruit more people. Frankly, the
Florida Mini is really one of the fun Reunions and those of us that attend
regularly can't wait for it to roll around.
Darrell Egner
President
Lory Curtis
Ben,
Below are exerts from two letters my Dad sent home to
his mother.
The first is in 1943, at Camp Mackall, North Carolina. The
second is
when the 517th was at Soissons, France close to Reims dated
November
23rd. Hope it brings back some memories. Happy Thanksgiving to
all!
Lory Curtis, son of Bud Curtis, HQ, 1st Bn
Camp Mackall,
North Carolina, Postmarked November 25, 1943
Written in left top corner of
the letter, Wednesday Night, maybe Nov 15
or 20, 1943
Dear
Mom,
Tomorrow I have to go on another field problem with the
communications
platoon and the fellows in Demolitions and Intelligence
Platoons are
going to jump tomorrow and as soon as it can be arranged I will
be
making another jump right away soon now. I hope I will be as lucky
as
the other times. Yes you have to be rugged. I will be
spending
Thanksgiving in a foxhole eating “K” rations.
Thursday, November 23, 1944, Soissons France
Thanksgiving Day
Dear
Mom,
Oh yes, today is Thanksgiving isn’t it? We have a regular
field
kitchen now, and from what they tell me, I gather we are going to have
a
pretty good chow today with turkey and all the trimmings. It
seems
funny after so long of cooking your own food, to have someone else do
it
now, and sweating out a chow line again.
Sheila Goodman Shultz
Ben I hope you have a nice Thanksgiving too. Thank you for
keeping the memories alive. Every time I get one of your mail calls I think
of my Dad. Howard B. Goodman of Service Company. I sent his picture
but maybe I did not send it in the correct format. Would you please let me
know so that it can be displayed along with those of all the other heroes who
served our country.
Sheila Goodman Shultz Reno Nevada
Corey Mace ( Liberty Jump Team )
Hello,
Just wanted to wish everyone in the 517th PRCT family a very
Happy Thanksgiving. I'll be taking a moment to give thanks to those who
fought and sacrificed for our freedoms. God bless all of you and your
families during the holidays.
Corey Mace
Kent Immerfall
From Kenton Floyd Immerfall:
Wanted all of the brave men, family, and friends of the 517th,
as well as related service outfits, to know how much you are appreciated and
thought of at this time of the year. Each of us has our own memories of
what Being Thankful truly means. Whether it be as a young person
at grandma's house and all of the memorable smells and sights that direct us
back to that time so long ago, or maybe it is being able to sit, alone, in a
warm home and look out the window at a bird in a tree. To understand the
meaning of Freedom, each of us needs to be Thankful for those who helped make
this "freedom" possible. Thank you 517th!
Watching a veteran yesterday on TV as he talked about serving
in Europe in WWII allowed my thoughts to drift away to what all of you brave
soldiers experienced when you were overseas. This "older" soldier was
sitting in an easy chair with his veteran's cloth cap proudly displayed on
his balding head and he talked about his memories of Thanksgiving when he and
his buddies were on the front lines. He talked about looking forward to
"meat" (turkey) for the first time in 10 months. Then he told how all of
the soldiers in his outfit "chose" to forego the Thanksgiving turkey meal and
allow all the children of the surrounding villages to have the American
soldier's meat-meal instead. The aging veteran broke down as he tried to
explain how it made him feel good that he could help out the children being
liberated.
Many sacrifices were made by men and women like the soldier I
saw yesterday on TV. For this, and for so many other non-reported stories
of the past, I am truly Thankful! God Bless You All!
