From: Ben517@aol.com
Sent: Saturday, September 06, 2008 4:06 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: MAIL CALL NO. 1616 -517TH PRCT-SEPT 6, 2008
Pat Seitz
 
Dear Ben and Bob:  Thank you again for making sense out of the photos.  In answer to your two questions:  Your #19 is a photo of the Catholic Chaplain who married Dad and Mom on the steps of the church.  His name is Joseph A. Francoeur.  Your #16 is the picture of my mother, Bettie,  in Holland in January 1945.  Why she is pictured totting a weapon I don't know, but she wrote on the back of the picture, "Just after making a batch of donuts!"  Lastly, the photo with Dad and Tom Cross and a third man, the third man is Dave Armstrong, who ultimately ended up being a battalion commander.  Dad says that he has an interesting story -- he was a West Point graduate, got kicked out of the Army, came back on his own as an enlisted man, and was promoted to Second Lt. and the rest is history.

517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team

Lt. Col. Dick Seitz
Seitz Wartime Romance Photos

To view photos, click on the thumbnails

1. Looking down on wedding reception attendees June 23, 1945, Joigny, France

2. Betty Jean Merrill in her Red Cross uniform shortly before her wedding.

3. Dick and Betty Seitz cutting wedding cake June 23, 1945, Joigny, France

4. The honor guard and mingling guests on church steps after wedding

June 23, 1945

5. Bride (Betty Merrill) and groom (Dick Seitz) as they exit church

6. Betty cutting cake

7. Dick and Betty at wedding reception June 23, 1945

Joigny, France

8. Dad (Dick Seitz) and Mama (Betty Merrill) in Mama's commandeered German staff BMW

9. Parachute decoration at the wedding reception

June 23, 1945

10. "Festooned" honeymoon car surrounded by 517th men and Maid of Honor, Alice Gould

11. Wedding party - Tom Cross (Best Man), Alice Gould (Maid of Honor), Dad, Mama, and Col. Graves, who gave the bride away

12. Dick Seitz in front of 2nd BN Command Post

13. Dick Seitz in Italy 1944

14. The honor guard and mingling guests on church steps after wedding

June 23, 1945

 

15. Wedding party (Tom Cross, Alice Gould, Dad, Mama, and Col. Graves) and guests

16. ??

 

17. Honeymoon Hotel. 70 kms south of Joigny, France

18. Wedding present photo to Mama from the 2nd Battalion

19. Wedding church

 

20. Joigny and its bridge

21. Arial shot of Joigny

22. Wedding church

23. Dad (Dick Seitz) center, Tom Cross on Dad's left, and ?

24. Mama (Betty Merrill) in Holland in Feb 1945

25. Mama (Betty Merrill) Early 1945

26. Mama and three guys on the border of Germany spring 1945

27. Mama (Betty Merrill) at the time of Photo #24

28. Mama (Betty Merrill) in German staff BMW commandeered for the American Red Cross

 

 

Missing photos:

 

15??  Mama (Betty Merrill) in Holland, Jan 1945, just after making a batch of donuts

 

18??. Wedding Chaplain

 

517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team

Lt. Col. Dick Seitz
Seitz/Merrill Wartime Newspaper Articles

To view photos, click on the thumbnails

1. Sept 19, 1945 article on loss of purse with marriage license and its recovery

2.  Mama's orders to return to the US, July 1945

3. Red Cross notice of Civilian Ribbon awarded to Mama

4. Ellis Review clipping on Seitz/Merrill wedding

5. Mama's certificate of identity issued to non-combatant, 4/6/1944

6. First page of 13th Airborne's press release on Seitz/Merrill wedding

7. Second page of 13th Airborne's press release on Seitz/Merrill wedding

8. Topeka Journal clipping on Seitz/Merrill wedding

9. October 1943 newspaper photo of Dad, Tom Cross, Col. Walsh

10. Middle third of article w/ headline "Second Bn. First in Life of Seitz".  See #11 below for rest.

11.  Rest of article w/ headline "Second Bn. First in Life of Seitz". See #7.

12. Various clippings about Dad, ranging from age 22, to 1947 to 1950

13. Sept 19, 1945 article on loss of purse with marriage license and its recovery

14. November 1950 article on Dad

15. On left, 1st part of article Mama wrote on a wartime experience ; on right, wedding clippings

16.  Rest of article on Mama's wartime experience 

17.  Article w/photo of Red Cross workers, including Mama, before deploying

  

Lost marriage license

  

Received August 2008 from Pat and Alan Seitz