From: Ben517@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, November 22, 2007 7:06 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: MAIL CALL NO. 1436, 517TH PRCT- NOVEMBER 22,2007
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
 
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

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.
 

Recent website additions:

paras en Provence: Le 517th PRCT Dans Les Alpes Maritime
       from Armes Militaria Magazine (cover, article)

Hal Jeffcoat - Baseball in Wartime

Flave J. Carpenter, I Company - bio

58 photos of D and H Company men


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!
 
Kenton Immerfall