Howard Hensleigh

Dear Claire:.

One objective of the Association is to sponsor events and publications that continue the fellowship we once had as a fighting unit.  There was a desire of the troopers to keep in touch with the band of brothers with whom we fought.  Reunions, the Thunderbolt and more recently Mail Call and the Website have fulfilled this objective.  In fact the last two have increased the communications to a greater extent than ever before and will leave an easily accessible permanent record.

Another objective is to keep alive the memory of the Combat Team, its members and its accomplishments in freeing the world of the type of base abuse to the human soul inflicted by Hitler and his Nazi cohorts.  Had that continued without our effort to stop it, life in our lifetimes would not have been worth living.  We have an obligation to preserve the memory of our fallen troopers, who gave their lives to preserve our way of life.  Anything we can do to further this goal is right up the alley of what the Association and the Auxiliary are about.  As a prime example are furthering our relationships with our friends in Southern France and Belgium who remember first hand what we did to remove the Nazi Yoke from their necks.  They are doing their best to preserve in history the memory of our Combat Team right where our fighting occurred.  Erecting plaques in Sospel and le Muy are jobs to be completed while we have the personnel and funds to do it.

It is great that the Auxiliary has pitched in and taken up the slack that may have occurred without it.  That is what Jan and I had in mind when we pushed the idea that already had a groundswell behind it.