Recent website additions:
More
photos from Europe trip 2009 - Parts 5 and 6
Myrle Traver, F Co.
biography
Michael A. Sura, H Co.
biography
St.
Cezaire and Les Arcs today
Dieter Laes,
During
your "Europe trip" in the Ardennes, I had the honor of meeting you together
with Lud Gibbons and Gene Frice. I spoke to you about my research, the
battle between the Ourthe and Aisne river. The first batallion of the 517th PRCT
played an important role in this Hotton-Soy-Erezee area. I would like to complete the total
framework, including the important role of the first batallion of the 517th
PRCT. I hope to be
able to include some personnal remambrences or other original sources like After
Action Reports, Morning Reports, S3 Journals, Interviews,Logs,...
Any information or help
concerning my research , if possible, will be
appreciated
Sincerely,
Dieter Laes, Belgium
***************
Darrell Egner
finally got the monkey off my back. First a bit of
history. Back in February 2008 your board decided that making a movie
about the 517 PRCT was in order. The movie was to preserve
our history for our children and friends. We decided to hire two
professionals to accomplish this task, one to interview 30 of us at the St.Louis
Reunion in July 2008 and the other to video these interviews. McDonald
Media (video) went a step further and decided to encompass our time from basic
training in Toccoa all through WWII. They went to
Washington and searched the archives for information on the
517. They came up with a first class movie which in my opinion is worthy
of being shown on the History Channel.
The movie was ready to be seen at
the Salt Lake Reunion in 2009. We played it to 163 people and asked for
comments, good or bad. Rob and Mary Lloyd (McDonald Media)
and myself talked to as many people as we could and all the comments were very
favorable. As your President I approved the movie and asked Rob to send it
to Wade Gilbert to be copied and mailed to all of you that wanted a
copy.
I waited two months and nothing was happening. I called Rob
and he informed me that people were asking for changes and even a request to
remove a part of the film that they didn't like. A few changes and
corrections were made. I called Rob again yesterday and suggested that he
send it down to Wade no later then today.
Wade Gilbert owns International
Audio Visual, Inc. and has been our largest
benefactor through the years. He has offered to produce CD's of the film and mail them to all of you that order a copy at
no charge to the 517. The instructions on how to order are in the Summer
addition of the Thunderbolt on page 52. If you order more then one copy
please note that he will only ship to your address. It will be up to each
of us to send copies to our children, etc.
My thanks to every one that
had a hand in making this movie.
Darrell Egner
***********
Orders may be sent via email
517film @avi.com
Wade is not charging for this service, but a donation to the
517 would be helpful and a thank you note to Wade would seem appropriate.
-Ben
Tory Parlin
>From: Tory Parlin <vparlin@eos.net>
>Sent: Sep 30, 2009
1:24 PM
>To: Howard Hensleigh
<hhensleigh@earthlink.net>
>Subject: Robert Woodhull
Howard
- I have finally gotten around to editing my paper on Uncle Bob
Woodhull. I
did not make any major changes but did clean up some typos and changed the
wording in about 3 paragraphs. It made me feel better.
I am
attaching the polished version which you said that you would like to
put on
the 517th website. I would be most honored and am grateful for the
information generated by you and the rest of the unit that helped to piece
together my Uncle's story.
If you would like me to send to someone
else please let me know. In the
meantime, I hope you are well.
Thank
you for taking the time and care to remember Uncle Bob. Without that
I would
not know half of what I do.
**************
We certaintly would put the information on our web site but we did not get
the attached copy of the polished version.-Ben
Best wishes - Tory
Tory Parlin
1495 Moon Valley Lane
Cincinnati, OH 45230
***********
We certaintly would put the information on our web site but we did not get
the attached copy of the polished version.-Ben
Howard Hensleigh
Dear Tory, Thank you for the work you have done to flesh out the
record of your uncle Bob Woodhull's service with the 517th Parachute Regimental
Combat Team. Your write up is an adventure in research and writing which
will be appreciated by those who knew "Woody" and those who are interested
in the young men who came to Europe to liberate them from Nazi
occupation. Those in the Netherlands who have "adopted" his grave and care
for it will be particularly interested. If Ben puts it on the website as
he probably will, it will be there for as long as we can keep the website
going. What you have done assists in reaching the objectives of the 517th
Association which is too keep alive the memory of the outfit, our troopers and
what they did, especially those who lost their lives doing it. This summer
some of the Association and Auxillary members visited all the places in Southern
France and Belgium your uncle helped liberate and left plaques and Certificates
of Appreciation with our European friends who do many things to assist, by
reenactments and otherwise, to keep European attention focused on the sacrifices
like your family has made in Woody's life.
Thank you again. I am still at it and in good shape for the miles on
the speedometer. Howard
Hensleigh