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

Hello,

I have had problems with AOL and may have lost some mail. Starting now from scratch and if your mail is missing, send it again.

Send contributions for Film Project to.

Leo Dean

Update on the 14 Stonehenge Lane

517th Film Project Albany, NY 12203

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

Click on National Reunion

Salt Lake City

July 9-13, 2009

Recent website additions:

St. Cezaire and Les Arcs today

A Company in Life Magazine 1944

Pvt. Harry A. Hill, B Company - 200 photos and clippings

Pvt. Richard L. Lynam, H Company, KIA

Operation Dragoon After Action Reports

Mail Handling Procedure During the Invasion of Southern France

Merle Mc Morrow

Ben:

Here are a couple of pictures of Chop-Chop. I assume those in the picture with Jane and Gene are grandchildren. The other picture includes Harry Saunders when we were in Europe in 1997.

Merle

Patricia and Roland

Ben,
Please pass on our condolences to Boyle family.

Patricia and Roland Orengo
Sospel, France

Darrell Egner

First Subject: Due to time restates, etc. no Thunder Bolt will be for coming until after the SLC Reunion. The next T'bolt will cover the Palm Springs and the SLC Reunions. It will be a big publication so please send your input (pictures/stories) to Helen Beddow ASAP.

At our meeting I will hold the elections for the new President and the board of Directors. If you run/elected for any office please be active. It would also be helpful if you use E-mail.

The present officers are Darrell Egner, President; Merle McMorrow, VP; Leo Dean, S/T; and the following Directors. Allan Johnson; Ben Barrett; Tom Cross; Eugene Brissey; Richard Seitz; Phil McSpadden and Bill Christian. Please let me know if you will run for re-election. We will also take nominations from the floor at the meeting.

Merle McMorrow has already agreed to run for President. My two year term will be over after the SLC reunion so that requires someone to run for Vice President and be ready to take over after the President Elect's two year term is complete.

We have made great progress in the last two years but there is a need to continue this progress so there will always be a 517 PRCT. My guess is there is still about 650 veterans (517 PRCT) alive today. Probably over half of that number have no contact with us.

Thank goodness for the Auxiliary that is doing a wonderful job for all of us and will continue after we are gone.

Airborne,

Darrell Egner
President 517 PRCT

Marty Donahue

Hi Ben~~

Just wanted to let you know that I received

#1811....after I received 1812 and 1812B.

That's kind of unusual, but what the heck...it got here!

I'm sure you hear this a lot, but thanks so much for

the Mail Calls. It has to be very time consuming.

But certainly appreciated!

Regards, Marty

Mary Jane Hanron

Hi Ben,

Just wanted to share a short anecdote with you and the members of the 517^th to show how far reaching your efforts are. I was so moved by the content of MAIL CALL 1805 which had the wonderful images shared by Myrle Traver, I forwarded it (as I may have told you previously) to several friends, especially those with kids. One of my friends told me yesterday that she, her husband and her son (7^th grader) had looked at them together. Her husband, whose dad was a WWII vet was moved to tears and her son, coincidentally had an assignment from school to write a paper on a town or city in France. Because of the photos in Mail Call which also elicited reminiscing about his grand dad, he chose to write his paper on Normandy. He also printed some of the photos from Mail Call to share with classmates and apparently it prompted a wonderful lesson about what happened there.

Of course, I was thrilled but wanted to share this with you especially as further proof that your extraordinary efforts to preserve the amazing legacy of the great Americans who fought that war are very much appreciated and effective.

On behalf of all of us from younger generations, I thank you.

Mary Jane

Phil McSpadden

Hi Ben...haven't had a Mail Call from you in about two months...hope all is well with you. If you are still up and putting out the Mail Call, please put me back on the list....I'm now trying to see if I can't make it to SLC in July.

airborne, phil

Billie Hiers

The past year has left us dizzy with details of life and health issues. We THINK Lucky will be able to make the Salt Lake Reunion, but we have no hotel reservations (or any other reservations). ARE WE TOO LATE? If it is too late to get into the full swing of the 517th reunion, we may just have to travel on our own and find you all from time-to-time!

BUT...because our expectations were so low regarding Lucky's health ... he tossed away the information. Our daughter has convinced him he can TRY at least. Can you (or someone else) send us the #s for the hotel (can't remember which one). I imagine it is too late to sign up for the activities that have been arranged.

Once again, thank you for your efforts on behalf of the 517th!

Billie Hiers

***********

It is not too late to sign up for the reunion. Sooner the better. -Ben

Reunion Program

Registration Form

Hotel Information and Registration