70 Pleasant St. Cohasset, MA. 02025 ,781 383 0215 * Mail Call : Ben Barrett Ben517@aol.com

Hello,

Just arrived in Tahoe ahead of the snow. Sending out an incomplete Mail Call. Will try to catch up on mail tomorrow.

Please let me know if you want to receive Mail Calls or if you have a problem receiving them. You can always read back Mail Calls by clicking on www.517prct.org/archives

Ben

Website                                www.517prct.org
Mail Call                               Ben517@aol.com
Mail Call Archives                 www.517prct.org/archives
Roster                                  www.517prct.org/roster.pdf

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

National Reunion

Palm Springs, CA Salt Lake City

West Coast Party July 2009

April 20-24, 2009

Pat Seitz

Dear Ben:

Your Battle of the Bulge picture and statistics had a special resonance this Christmas season for two reasons. First, Dad just shared with me the Christmas he remembers most -- the one in 1944, and in particular when the German owner of the barn in which Dad and his men were on Christmas Eve, invited them into his house to salute the birth of Christ and on the wall were the photos of two young soldiers in Nazi uniforms. Dad's German was such that he couldn't determine if the young men were alive or had died, but it is a memory of the act of that man that transcended the war and spoke to the universal desire for peace on earth and goodwill toward all.

The second was an email my veteran husband forwarded to me from a fellow Vietnam vet. The email urged Alan to look at a very moving U-Tube video about remembering, honoring, praising for a job well done our troops presently in combat, and said: "I remember being in Vietnam for Christmas -- its about as lonely as I have ever been." The video is below.

Your pictures, what I have learned of the Bulge through the 517th, reading history and our Belgian friends' kindness in our trip to the battlefields in Belgium, Dad's personal story and this video and email, have provided an indescribable insight and epiphany. It makes me all the more want to say to the men of the 517th thank you from the bottom of my heart. Because of your humanity, sacrifices and heroism, I am able to live in a free country and celebrate this holy season in a very special way with my family. God bless each of you and your families. Merry Christmas.

Lory C urtis

Ben,
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and all of our 517th family.
Especially to our beloved troopers. Because of all of you I enjoy a
very peaceful Christmas. In 1944, you 517th troopers had a very
miserable Christmas. Some of you have the book Letters Home, A
Paratrooper's Story. On page 211, my Dad wrote on December 29th about
his Christmas experiences in 1944. Thought some of you might be
interested in reading it.

Lory Curtis, son of Bud Curtis, HQ, 1st Bn.

Letter to Mom from Harland L. Curtis
Somewhere in Belgium later determined to be Stavelot
Thursday December 29, 1944, postmarked January 24, 1945

Dear Mom,

This is the first chance I’ve had to write you for sometime
and I’m afraid for a while now my letters are going to be few and far
between, so try to understand that it isn’t my fault.
I’m not going to tell you anything about these past few days
because you would only worry about me and I don’t want you to do that.
I’ll tell you about it after it is all over, but for now all I’ll
say is that I’m up front fighting here in Belgium and it is plenty
cold
Right now I’m a little ways back from the front lines (in
Stavelot Belgium) and I am in a big mansion just like you’ve seen in
the picture shows. I am in one of the big rooms and I am warm and even
have a radio sitting in front of me listening to a broadcast from
England, so I am enjoying myself while I can. Yesterday I had on e of
the fellows that use to live on a farm get me a whole canteen cup of
milk out of a real live cow. Boy, it was good just like when I was back
in Payson (Utah) and Uncle Willis (Bud’s father’s brother) milked
that old cow of Ma’s (Bud’s paternal grandmother)... ..
I got a lot of mail yesterday and will probably get some more
today if we stay here... .. The clipping you sent me was about our
outfit, but I’m a long ways from there now. I came all the way across
France in one of those 40 and 8 box cars (train) you heard about in the
last war. You won’t find much about the 517th by looking for news in
the paper because we are a “Combat Team” and wherever there is some
place they need good men fast that is where we go. We have been
attached to almost every Army over here at different times.
The reason we don’t get much rest is because we are a good
outfit and all the time someone is needing us. There is nothing we
can’t do, but you people won’t read about it because we aren’t
a big enough outfit to make front page headlines.
I was sure thinking a lot about you people at Christmas and
wondering what you were doing and if maybe you were thinking about me
that day while I was ducking bullets and shells, and if there would ever
be a time when we could all be home for Christmas together again. I saw
a lot of guys that day both ours and Krauts that will never see another
Christmas, and all I could do was pray to God that it wasn’t my time
to go, and I guess it wasn’t cause here I am. I’ll never forget
this Christmas as long as I do live, and you will never know how glad I
am that this war is being fought in these countries and not in ours and
I’m glad that you people there will never have to see some of the
awful things I have, but I don’t even want to think of them so I’ll
drop the subject... ..
I’m going to heat me up something to eat now so I’ll say so
long for now, and I hope some more mail comes in tonight. It is sure
swell to get mail from home so keep it coming. Oh yes, I got two
packages from you just before I left that last area (censorship would
prevent Bud from telling his mother exactly where he was in case the
Germans intercepted his letters home. Each of his letters were opened
by Army mail personnel and screened before they were sent out). To come
up here in Belgium. Thanks a lot for them they sure tasted good.
Believe it or not I ate that whole can of pineapple and fruit ca
ke
laying on the ground with machine gun bullets whizzing only about 6
inches over my head. I figured at least I was going to eat that instead
of some darn Kraut, come what may. Send some more when you can and some
cookies and candy. Lots of Love, Bud

Bruce Broudy

Ben, as we approach this holiday season I am reminded what the 517^th Parachute Infantry Regimental Combat Team was doing on Christmas Day 64 years ago in the Battle of the Bulge. These men truly, without exaggeration, saved the world. We are so proud that our father played a role (see his bronze medal citation below). May G-d bless you and keep you. Bruce, Ron and Eileen Broudy (Shaw)

P.S. I regret missing the Florida mini-reunion, but hope to make it to Salt Lake City

Frank Ramos

Merry Christmas and a Healthy New Year to al of the 517 PCRT and families. I have been provide with the Veteran's Administration web links for services that the 517 members or family might use to track benefits for themselves.

Best

Frank Ramos

Links for Veterans

Below are web-sites that provide information on Veterans benefits and how to file/ask for them. Accordingly, there are many sites that explain how to obtain books, military/medical records, information and how to appeal a denied claim with the VA. Please pass this information on to every Veteran you know. Nearly 100% of this information is free and available for all veterans, the only catch is: you have to ask for it, because they won't tell you about a specific benefit unless you ask for it. You need to know what questions to ask so the right doors open for you - and then be ready to have an advocate who is willing to work with and for you, stay in the process, and press for your rights and your best interests.