70 Pleasant St. Cohasset,
MA. 02025 ,781 383 0215 * Mail Call : Ben Barrett Ben517@aol.com
Hello,
Sign up today for National Reunion. Only 44 days until we will be in
St, Louis. This could be the last
Hurrah.
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 www.517prct.org/archives
Ben
Please try to
send in donations 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
Website www.517prct.org
Mail Call Ben517@aol.com
517TH ST. LOUIS REUNION BEGINS:THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 2008 THRU MONDAY, JUNE 30, 2008THE BANQUET WILL BE ON SUNDAY JUNE 29
Information and Registration Forms:
Recent website additions:
Major John "Boom Boom" Alicki, Reg. HQ
Leo Dean's 109th jump at the Palm Springs Reunion
Blue
Book Magazine articles - 1947-1948 
Paras en Provence: Le 517th PRCT Dans Les Alpes
Maritime
from Armes Militaria
Magazine (cover, article)
Darrell Egner
Hi Folks
Just received some alarmingly news from
Donna Lee with the AFR. As of May 12 only 49 rooms have been reserved and
65 people have registered. Last year in Washington at this time 117 Rooms
were booked.
It would be a tremendous help to all of
the people involved to have the proper numbers so the plans can be
finalized. I know that you are all busy and plan to register later but we
would really appreciate it if you would please send your registrations in
ASAP. If you have been reading Mail Calls Ben has been counting down the
days until the reunion. Last count was 45 days.
THE CUT OFF DATE FOR THE HOTEL AND REGISTRATION IS MAY 23, 2008.
Please help all the people that are working so hard to make this Reunion a big
success by signing up today.
As most of you know this Reunion was
located in Mid America to make travel easier and closer to many of you.
St. Louis is a great city and Chris Lindner and her sister Bev have really put
together a great plan. If you read Ben Barrett's comments in the last
Mail Call he eluded to the fact this may be our last
National Reunion. Needless to say Ben
may be right if we don't generate the numbers in St.
Louis.
This isn't the type of letter I
like to write but as your President I would not be doing my job without sounding
off.
Regards,
Darrell Egner
Tom McAvoy
Friend
517- 1944
Manhay Is a Town of Ruins,
Another Victim of the War
By Russ Jones
Stars and Stripes Staff Writer
WITH AMERICAN FORCES IN BELGIUM, Dec. 31—The little Belgian town of Manhay, vital junction on the Liege-Bastogne and Malmedy-Dinant roads, which fell to American troops Friday, is mute witness to the fierceness of the German attempts at breakthrough and the stubborn courage of the Americans in beating them off. No other town along this front shows more clearly the effects of the Gentian ail-out offensive. After TOT—time-on-target, Saturday.
—A fire mission by American artillery, a lank, light in the streets, two infantry battles and bornbing and strafing by P38s. Manhay is a heap of rubble inhabited by troops, cows with gaping wounds and swollen udders from lack of milking, sheep with the wool burned from their backs baahing mournfully, and a three-month-old puppy who frolics among the wreckage, pausing to whine at a crevice in the wall where he can smell rabbit being roasted by men in the basement. On the roads leading to the town, leaning against its buildings and littering its streets are the wrecks of jeeps. Shermans, six-by-sixes and Tigers, Panthers
and Volkswagons. Ammunition in one Sherman still explodes while smoke comes from the turret and the muzzle of its gun glows hot from the fire inside. Although there are scores
of German and American vehicles and many large guns in the town, not one tank, jeep or truck will run and no gun larger than a machine-gun can fire.
No part of Manhay has escaped. Trees are stripped of their branches and their trunks are shattered and even the twigs of the hedges, which murk off the lots, have been ripped and torn. Scattered throughout the town are the bodies of German, American and civilian dead,
lying as they fell.
H and I Companies of the battalion led by Lt. Col. Forest Paxton, of San Francisco, movea into the town after tanks and two battalions of i n f a n t r y had tried and failed. 1 Company, commanded by Capt. James Birder, of South Bend, Ind., led the attack without faltering, even alter a platoon leader and ten men had been killed and 33 wounded by their own artillery falling short. H " Company, under 1/Lt. Richard Jackson, of St. Paul, Minn., moved in alongside. Because the Germans had used American tanks and other U.S. equipment—they even brought in six-by-sixes loaded with American ammunition—Col. Paxton's men attacked and destroyed Shermans and Tigers alike. The Germans added to the destruction by sweeping the town with fjh-mm. fire. They gave the Yanks a helping hand by scoring three direct hits on a Tiger which had resisted a bazooka.
Another Victim of the War
By Russ Jones
Stars and Stripes Staff Writer
WITH AMERICAN FORCES IN BELGIUM, Dec. 31—The little Belgian town of Manhay, vital junction on the Liege-Bastogne and Malmedy-Dinant roads, which fell to American troops Friday, is mute witness to the fierceness of the German attempts at breakthrough and the stubborn courage of the Americans in beating them off. No other town along this front shows more clearly the effects of the Gentian ail-out offensive. After TOT—time-on-target, Saturday.
—A fire mission by American artillery, a lank, light in the streets, two infantry battles and bornbing and strafing by P38s. Manhay is a heap of rubble inhabited by troops, cows with gaping wounds and swollen udders from lack of milking, sheep with the wool burned from their backs baahing mournfully, and a three-month-old puppy who frolics among the wreckage, pausing to whine at a crevice in the wall where he can smell rabbit being roasted by men in the basement. On the roads leading to the town, leaning against its buildings and littering its streets are the wrecks of jeeps. Shermans, six-by-sixes and Tigers, Panthers
and Volkswagons. Ammunition in one Sherman still explodes while smoke comes from the turret and the muzzle of its gun glows hot from the fire inside. Although there are scores
of German and American vehicles and many large guns in the town, not one tank, jeep or truck will run and no gun larger than a machine-gun can fire.
No part of Manhay has escaped. Trees are stripped of their branches and their trunks are shattered and even the twigs of the hedges, which murk off the lots, have been ripped and torn. Scattered throughout the town are the bodies of German, American and civilian dead,
lying as they fell.
H and I Companies of the battalion led by Lt. Col. Forest Paxton, of San Francisco, movea into the town after tanks and two battalions of i n f a n t r y had tried and failed. 1 Company, commanded by Capt. James Birder, of South Bend, Ind., led the attack without faltering, even alter a platoon leader and ten men had been killed and 33 wounded by their own artillery falling short. H " Company, under 1/Lt. Richard Jackson, of St. Paul, Minn., moved in alongside. Because the Germans had used American tanks and other U.S. equipment—they even brought in six-by-sixes loaded with American ammunition—Col. Paxton's men attacked and destroyed Shermans and Tigers alike. The Germans added to the destruction by sweeping the town with fjh-mm. fire. They gave the Yanks a helping hand by scoring three direct hits on a Tiger which had resisted a bazooka.