517th Annual Florida Mini-Reunion January 17,18,19, 20, 2009
Banquet on the 20th (Tuesday) and Departing on the 21st (Wednesday)
Hosted by: Leila Webb, Location: Ramada Hotel & Inn Gateway
7470 Highway 192 West
Kissimmee, Florida 34747
Tele: 1(800)327-9170 FAX 1(407)396-4320
web site: WWW.ramadagateway.com
Contact: Leila Webb, Helen Beddow and Lou Darden
4155 Kissimmee Park Road
St. Cloud, Florida 34772
Tele:(407)892-3595
Room Rate
-$65.00
Registration Fee -$40.00
Corey Mace
Just read your excellent E-mail in Mail Call. Please
know the members of the 517 feel like your part of the 517 with your great jumps
in Washington and in St. Louis and your displays in the Hospitably Rooms.
All of us enjoyed talking to all the members of your group. They are a
great bunch of young men.
I want to express my thanks for your group
coming through for us in St .Louis. A very short time before the Banquet
with 210 people in the room I received word that the Honor Guard would not be
able to attend. I talked to you and asked if your group would consider
performing this honor. With a little arm twisting you agreeded to do the
job. As I remember none of your fine young men had never done this in the
past. With a little practice in the lobby your Guys came through and did a
wonderful job and saved the day.
Please continue to attempt to raise
money from both sides of the pond. We are holding the Florida Mini in
January and I expect we will have 5 members of the board in attendance. At
the Men's Meeting I will get a feel from those in attendance if we should canvas
the entire board to see if the 517 PRCT can come up with some funds from our
treasury. Needless to say the figure I hear of $100,000 to finance the
trip means that you are going to have to work very hard to accomplish this
goal. I feel that some of our foreign friends will help but it will
probably take a sizeable contribution from a Corporation. With our new
President who knows what will happen.
Good luck, and I will keep you
informed regarding fund raising.
Regards,
Darrell
Egner
President 517 PRCT
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2487638612433437293&q=Vetera
Tom McAvoy
First of all
thanks for the great pictures pictures you put in Mail Call. Your memory
is pretty good. I remember Sgt. Backus and his first name was George not
Ed. He was a Staff Sgt. in Hq 2nd Batt and was listed in the Christmas
booklet we received in 1944. I am quite sure he was not Cadre. I
remember him as a very nice guy and low key. Chris Lindner has made quite
a search to find him but no luck. I asked Dorothy Mackenzie if she knew
him as he and Jim were good friends. Haven't heard back from her.
517th PRCT Veterans, Friends, & Family
Members,
The Warbird Digest magazine has published their Nov/Dec issue,
#23 and it contains a very nice article on the 517th PRCT, C47 Black Sparrow,
and Commemorative Airborne Jump Team. Staff members from the magazine were
on hand at this years National Reunuion in St. Louis and took many amazing
photos of all three entities involved with the article.
Please get
your copy now before they're gone. Go to the Warbird Digest website http://www.warbirddigest.com/ and
click on the bottom area where it says "Find WD On Newstands". This
will enable you to pick your state and find a bookstore in your area that
carries the magazine. You can also order this issue directly from Warbird
Digest.
Hope you enjoy the article and the pictures.
Corey
Mace
Commemorative Airborne Jump Team
Dianne Lynch
I happened to see an obituary in our local newspaper for John Claude Williams that served with the 517th in WWII and was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge. I have attached a copy of his obituary. It does not state which company he was assigned to.
Thanks,
Diane
John Claude Williams was in Hq. 3
Abraham Lincoln was elected to the U.S. presidency today. By defeating Stephen A. Douglas, Lincoln became the first Republican president. On November 7, 1860, the Dawsons Fort Wayne Daily Times reported election results along with the headline, "Republicans be Glad!" The paper continued: "But let wisdom and urbanity be the governing principle in your gladness. The victory is ours. Now let us merit it; and by wisdom and patriotism continue that policy, for without both, the change will not be to the people a reform, but a barren result."
“Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin are elected President and Vice President of the United States. We need add nothing to the world of meaning conveyed in these words,” reported The Berkshire County Eagle on November 8, 1860. “In that glorious fact are foreshadowed equal rights to every section and every class of freemen in the Union. The rights and interests of free labor are not to be sacrificed to an oligarchy of slaveholders; States are not to be excluded from the Union for establishing a free constitution; commerce, manufacturing, art, commercial intercourse, and internal improvements are no longer to be governed by sectional prejudice. Majorities are to rule, and the interests of many are not to be sacrificed to the prejudices of the few. At last the people rule.”