Hi Ben, yesterdays Mail Call content was excellent. It is sad to know that Gerald Astor is no longer with us. He was an excellent writer especially when depicting combat situations. He knew how to bring it to you in it's rawest form. Sometimes painful to read but thus is war. He could explain it so well because he was there as a soldier with the 97th Inf Div.  I learned so much of what I know about the 517 from reading his excellent book "Battling Buzzards". The rest I learned from Uncle George and this great web site [www.517prct.org] 

Also in yesterdays Mail Call I was amazed to read Merle Mcmorrow's account of being at B.Dalton books in his jump suit to hawk his book "From Breckenridge To Bastogne". To think that 12 year olds are being introduced to America's role in WWll via the internet at school really made me proud.  And why not, it's history.  I'll quote Merle's story when informed by the 12 yr old that his class was studying America's role in WW ll via classroom computers and that his teacher gave them this really neat web site to use for preparation.  And the next words out of the kid's mouth was "Did you know Ben Barrett?"  At that point I fell out of my office chair [almost]. Really great stuff.  If anyone missed Mail Call No. 1721 you need to backtrack and read it. If that sorta stuff keeps up Ben will do as the famous athletes do and start charging for his autograph at reunions.  By the way I did send off for a copy of Merle's book last year when I saw the title "From Breckenridge To Bastogne".  Being a Texan I thought hey a 517er from my home state. I soon found out that he was not talking about Breckenridge Texas.  Oh well it was a very interesting book about his take on the war as a paratrooper having served in a couple of airborne outfits. I really thought he would end up being married to the pretty German girl in Berlin but it wasn't to be. 

In the same Mail Call I very much enjoyed reading Darrell Egner's account of being involved as a Pen Pal and getting 30 letters from 5th graders via Chris Lindner's efforts. You know they are already smarter than us by the time they hit the 5th grade. I gave some thought to the question asked most often asked of him by 5th graders, "how many people did you shoot?"  What kind of answer do you come up with to a question like that from 10 and 11 year olds?....... After mulling that one over for a quite while I have decided that if I am ever asked that question by a 5th grader my reply would be "Only the ones that were shooting at me." 

By the way congratulations to Chris Lindner on being a "Granny".   Also in this Mail Call was an update from Scott Ramsey with his new e-mail address. Scott has been taking oral histories from WWll veterans for some time now and according to the article I read in the Florida newspaper article attachment, he does this at his own expense and donates his time as well to this worth while endeavor.  I sent him an e-mail yesterday in regards to the possibility of him taking an oral history from a "Battling Buzzard" who happens to be my uncle. I hope to hear back from Scott soon.  Well Ben I know the e-mails must have slowed down a bit as you mentioned it in one of the recent Mail Calls and now you will get bombarded with them. Ben you have cracked the whip and we minions are responding...."Hook  Em  Horns"