Dear Ben: 

    Celebrating the 232nd anniversary of the birth of our nation, within days of the St. Louis 517th reunion, underscored in the most personal way the heart, soul and character of those who have made our country the land of the free and home of the brave.  For Alan and me, words are inadequate to express our gratitude to Chris, Bev and all their helpers for the outstanding reunion, to Claire and Helen for their leadership, vision, enthusiasm that will help carry on the history and tradition of the 517, and to you and your son, Bob, for being the glue that binds us daily.

    Most importantly, we would like to say thank you to the leaders and men of the 517th itself, for your courage, commitment, selflessness, and heroism that has allowed us to live in freedom and your commitment to each other that has continued for more than 65 years.  What a special group of human beings.  How blessed we are to know you.  And thank you for the time you spent with Alan and me sharing stories that range from Myrle Traver's mule stories but also your POW experience, to Leo Dean just mentioning that he had been at my Dad and Mama's wedding in Joigny, France on June 23, 1945 with the whole outfit attending in Class A dress. 

    The memories the other participants in this reunion created are still resonating with us and they range from Terri and her boys, the re-enactors, who still send chills up and down our spines as they leapt from the plane, to the meeting of the sons and daughters of 517th members and sharing their family stories -- I am thinking of the remarkable Vanessa with the photo albums and the stories she elicited from the vets, to the MacDonald clan, to the sheer happenstance of meeting Frank Vella, the son of the 517th Regimental surgeon, about whom I had heard from my mother's stories of the war.  My mother, Bettie Jean Merrill, met Dad in '39, when she was a freshman at Kansas State, and Dad was a junior; they reconnected when mother, a Red Cross worker, was transferred from England to Holland after the Bulge. When Dad and Mama married in June of '45, Mama said she didn't have her mother there of whom she could ask the intimate questions about marriage, so she found the doctor who was kind enough to take her on a long walk and explain the "Birds and Bees."  I am making arrangements to get copies of the wedding pictures that I have to give to Pat and Hugh as part of their interview project.

    It was a magnificent reunion.  Thank you again to all of you for making it so.