Mail Call Ben517@aol.com
Mail Call Archives www.517prct.org/archives
Roster www.517prct.org/roster.pdf
Recent website additions:
Operation Dragoon Drop Zone Map, by Clark Archer
1944 Dec 14 - Hamburg Iowa Reporter - Howard Hensleigh in Les Arc
|
April 20-24,2009 |
July 2009 |
Darrell Egner- President
Last week Ben Barrett E-mailed me
and said in essence "Lets either get the Movie production going or
forget it". Last Sunday I lay-ed awake most of the night
thinking about Ben's comments.
As most of us didn't talk about the War when
we got home our children learned about the War in school. As the 517 was a
combat team (one of only two in the Army) attached to seven different divisions
and Armies we didn't get much ink in the history books. Yes, a few books
have been written about the 517 such as Paratroopers Odyssey and Battling
Buzzards but to the best of my knowledge they were not used in school history
classes.
After many phone calls between Ben, McDonald Media (Producer)
potential donors and myself we decided to proceed with the Movie
depicting the history of the 517 starting in Basic Training all the way to the
end of the War. At the St. Louis Reunion 32 of us were Interviewed and
Video Taped. Some of these stories were never told
before. The stories ranged between what was done in battle and what we did
after the War. We think our Children and Grand Children should have this
information long after most of us are gone. We plan to make this Movie
available to all that want it. I have a promise from Rob McDonald that the
Movie will be ready to show it at our Banquet in Salt Lake City in July.
Please mark your calendars for what may be our last National Reunion. Not
to worry, we still plan to have the Minis in Florida and
California.
Now the hard part for me. I hate to ask
for donations but I am requesting all of you that can afford it to
send in money to Leo Dean, Treasure, marked for the Movie Project. We are
going out on a limb a bit but I am sure we will reach our
goal. We have about $6,000 in the bank today marked for this project and
commitments for another $4,000 so we are half way to our goal. In addition
one person has committed to match all donations up to
$10,000. Rob feels the quality of the Movie will be good enough to sell to
PBS, or the History Channel, Military Channel, etc.
Well folks I am sure
you can see I am very excited about this project. Excited because all of
you will have some in-site into our history and our children will
have some thing to pass down for generations to come. Thanks for your
help!
Darrell Egner
President 517 PRCT
**********
The donor wants to remain anonymous and I will restrict the amount donated. It will match one donation.- Ben
Jansson Family
| Thank you Mr. Barrett for the photo. Dad is, and
always will be, the biggest hero in my (and, if I may speak for my
siblings) life. Bertil Jansson continues to fight odds that seemed
to have hounded him his entire lifetime. He is still in Bourne Manor
near Cape Cod, MA. He has always maintained that the 517th were the
truest and noblest of men. He has advanced to a more precarious
state of Alzheimer's brought on most notably by the severe pedestrian
accident in December of 2006, but more so we believe as his children, by
the passing of his wife of almost 58 years in January. However,
since that accident, I truly believe that the one greatest memory
he has had was the trip to Washington D.C. in June of
2007. It is with great thanks that the Jansson family wants to
give to Mr. Barrett, Mr. Trooper Walsh, (truly a fine man who gave up so
much of his time and energy during that reunion) and the committee of
that reunion. Dad is in very hard times right now. His
family loves him more than these words can describe. It was
only late in his life that he expressed his experiences of WWII and the
517th, but he sure is proud of the company he kept with. It was only
in 2007, when my brother George and I were lucky enough to go
to the reunion with him how we remotely could understand. With
much love to the 517th and their families, Paul, George, Pete, and
Cindie Jansson--with daughter in law Cindy Jansson and son in
law Paul Grossi---with grandchildren Eva-Marie Jansson, Natalie Jansson,
Michael Grossi and Paula Grossi. We cherish the families of the
517th. No family could be prouder. --- On Sun, 3/15/09, Ben517@aol.com <Ben517@aol.com> wrote: From: Ben517@aol.com <Ben517@aol.com>
Hi
Ben, Interesting comments regarding the “Yank” Magazine and the 517. Also with the Yank was a copy of “Life” Magazine from 1945. In there is an article on WW II Paratroopers, with some really outstanding photos. Reading the article, again hoping to see the 517 mentioned, there were only references to “Paratroopers”. I also found another Magazine, “The 82nd Talon”, this of course dealt with the 82nd. Which brings up another question. Was this given to the 517 Troopers while they were attached to the 82nd? Never opened it up, these magazine have been laying up in a hot attic for years and unfortunately are very brittle. *********** The Stars and Stripes paper and Yank magazine were available to the troops, but the only time I saw one was when in hospital in England. The 517 Combat Team was for the most part occupied making the publications possible. I had in a previous Mail Call a photo of the 517 heading for the Bulge. It was in Life magazine 1944 with the heading "Airborne troops heading for the Ardennes"-Ben |
