Boom Boom, all heartfelt best wishes for the 91st and many, many more. You are truly a great American, a great paratrooper. a loyal 517ther and a great human being. Airborne all the way! Dick Seitz

Darrell Egner To all our Foreign Friends "Invitation"

First of all I would like to thank each and everyone of you for keeping the memory of the 517 PRCT alive. Next I would like to say thanks for the way all of you have graciously made our visiting troopers so welcome in your country. You took your valuable time to escort us around to the various sites we desired to see. And treated us like we were royalty. Also your E-mails and pictures are much appreciated. We owe you a great deal for keeping our history alive.

As a small token of our appreciation we would like to invite you to our national Reunion in St. Louis, Missouri. The dates are June 26 - 30, 2008. St. Louis is almost in the middle of the United States You would be staying at the beautiful Sheraton Westport Hotel. They provide free transpiration from the Airport to the Hotel. We will comp your Hotel room between the above dates and also your Registration fee. St. Louis is a beautiful city and it would take weeks to see all the sites.

I'm sure I forgot some of our friends from over the pond. If I did please let me know and I will extend this Invitation to them as well. My E-mail address is BIGDEGNER@AOL.COM. If you are able to attend please let me know. We will make the Hotel Reservations a take care of the Registration.

Hope to hear from you and thanks again for all you do to keep our history alive.

Regards,

Darrell Egner

President 517

Bob Cooper

Hi Ben

Pretty good program

They announced it at my Legion Post after the Colts lost to the Chargers this afternoon

From: arnold.targnion@belgacom.net
To: Bigdegner@aol.com

Thank you very much for your kind mail and invitation to the National Reunion in St Louis. We shall try to attend this event, we miss really our friends of the 517th Group. It is a great honor for us to meet them and spend a few days with the heroes who liberated us from the enemy. We shall never forget the sacrifices of those young boys. I shall write more later because we need informations for the trip and the family events. Best regards and thanks a lot. irma and Arnold Targnion, Trois-Ponts - Belgium

Tom McAvoy

To John Buchalski, Friend , I was 51 years getting my disability from my injuries on the jump into France in 1944, The V.A. actually laughed at me when I applied for it (broken back 5 places, in a body cast for 4 months) convalescence for 5 months) and they had the gall to tell me they did not believe I had ever been in an Airplane let alone jump out of one?? I don't understand the callousness from the very people that are suppose to help us promising to but never show up when the time comes such as our elected Senators, The V.A. has a free hand to do what ever they want to the disabled Veterans and no one can touch them. I had the Red Cross try and help me Then the V.F.W. nothing, then the D.A.V. and the Purple Heart people finally I got my disability 51 years is a life time. I wonder where the back pay is for there clumsy mistake. They have a policy that unless you are missing an Arm , A Leg , or an Eye you are not really injured, And they will bend over backward to keep a disability under 50% so they do not have to allow monies for a wife and children Tom*

Heather Riley

This is INCREDIBLE ! The picture was taken in 1918. It is 18,000 men preparing for war

in a training camp at Camp Dodge in Iowa.

A gift from our grandfathers. ..