December, 1944

---

 

President Darrell Egner

 

 

To all Troopers, friends and families

 

As most of you know from reading the Thunderbolt and Mail Call our foreign friends have been wonderful to all of you that have traveled to France and Belgian.  From what I hear they drop whatever they are doing and escort and tour the 517 members to what ever sites we want to see.  In other words they go all out to make sure all 517 members are treated royally.  We owe these people a great deal for keeping our history alive.  They are passing our deeds and history on to the youth in their countries that were not even born when we were there.  They do this so there young people will also appreciate what the 517 did during the Big War.

 

By now your wondering what is Darrell up to this time.  In a few days I will be sending out an invitation to our overseas friends to attend our St. Louis Reunion.  By no means do I think we will raise enough money to cover half their expenses but we sure can try. Their brief time they spend at our Reunion is a small price to pay for what they have done and continue to do for the 517.

 

I am asking all of you to please send whatever you can afford to Leo Dean at 14 Stonehenge La.  Albany, NY 12203 marked VISITOR'S FUND.  This money will help defray some of their costs to attend the St. Louis Reunion in June 2008.  I hate to admit it but years ago I felt this was a waste of money and did not contribute.  After hearing what these folks do for the 517 and our folks that made it to their country I changed my mind.  We couldn't buy this kind of loyalty and support.

 

Just a reminder, Ben needs more E-mails for Mail Call.  I once asked him how does he do so much and keep up with it.  His answer went something like this, "It keeps my mind off the un-pleasant things and it keeps me young".  What would we do without him?

 

The following are the dates for the up coming Reunions.

 

Kissimmee        Florida Mini        January 20 - 24, 2008

 

West Coast Party      Palm Springs, CA   April 13 - 18, 2008

 

St. Louis Reunion        St. Louis, MO        June 26 - 30,2008

 

Hope to see all of you at the above reunions and thanks.

 

Darrell Egner

President

---

Jerry Wofford

Hi Ben I am the nephew of one of your fellow troopers from Regimental Hq.517th PIR Pfc George  Cavnar. I have a couple of photos that I will mail to you if you can give me an address. He suffers from Macular Degeneration and the V A has provided him with a machine that allows him to read "Mail Call".  I copy each Mail Call and send it to him once a month. He really gets excited about reading Mail Call.  He made it to the DC reunion this year and is looking forward to attending the St Louis get together as well. He has always been an optimistic person and continues to be.
I get Mail Call from the mail call archives currently, can you add my name to the daily list?                                                                      

Thanks Jerry Wofford

Dear Ben: 

A great write up on Mel Biddle, but we weren't in Reims, France sitting around listening to Berlin Sally waiting to go home.  (Maybe you could say we were always waiting to get the war won and go home, but I'm not sure you call the attacks we engaged in "waiting".) 

Accurately, we were recovering from a long forty and eight train ride from southern to northern France preparing for our winter offensive, which was planned for after Christmas.  Our weapons might not have been in the best of shape after almost 100 days on the lines in S. France, but we sure as the devil had not turned them in. 

As we all know the Germans beat us to the punch by attacking December 16, 1944.  We were on the defensive for a few days but it was not long before we embarked on our winter offensive that turned the Bulge inside out.  Mel did his part in that operation.

Its good to be home for Christmas.  Howard Hensleigh