Note to Mike Landreth:

After our last combat at Bergstein, Germany, we returned to Joigny, France, a town with which we were familiar.  One of the exercises we went through there was to determine who had enough points to get out and go home.  There were high and low point units, the 517th being a low point unit.  The 82nd was a high point unit, so the 517th troopers who ended up there had high points.  Some of the high point men elected to stay with the 517th.  We were broken up as a combat team shortly after we came back from Germany and merged into the 13th Division where we remained for the rest of the War in Europe and the trip to the States on the way to Japan.  Before the War ended in Europe we were alerted for several highly classified airborne operations as well as a jump across the Rhine at Worms, all of which were cancelled at the last moment because of the rapidly advancing allied forces that overran the objectives.

Ironically, we, as a low point unit headed for Japan, had a higher shipping priority than high point units such as the 82nd.  They dropped the first bomb just before we shipped out of France and the second a few days later.  The War ended as we were on the high seas headed for New York.    

Note to Bobbie Jo Spencer:  Please give your mother our love and support.  She was one of the lovely ladies living in Southern Pines with whom some of the young troopers were privileged to dine when your dad gave us the invitation.  Your father Dick Spencer left his mark on the 517th, including the term Battling Buzzards and the bird as a mascot to go along with it.  And, you will always be remembered as the D Day Baby Dick sweat out along with the August 15th jump into Southern France.   Our hearts go out to all you Spencers.

Howard Hensleigh