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Howard Hensleigh

Note to Ben and Cecil Doty:  You are right about the VA.  The news media may pan them, but I have found they treat old troopers well.  If you have not taken Ben's advice, you should look into it.

Cecil, were you the trooper who found a 517th logo on the desk of H Co.'s first Sgt. Gaunce, who was killed in the attack on Les Arcs, when you called on his father?

Note to Gene Frice:  Airborne has more than one meaning, but if properly defined, it includes a lot of soldiers who were not parachutists, even if General Yarborough's language indicates that all airborne soldiers went through jump school.  When most of us got our wings, we were allowed to wear a round emblem on our overseas caps with a parachute on it.  The Army dumbed that down to the airborne emblem with a glider and a parachute.  This did not make a lot of the old troopers happy, but we were required to wear the new emblem.  I recognize that the 82nd Airborne has a larger group to cover than we do in the 517th. Deactivation of the 517th in early 1946 has some advantages to those of us who served in it.  All of our members, excepting perhaps some of the 3rd Bn. cooks, are parachutists while in the 82nd and other larger units the glider riders outnumber the parachutists.  I don't want to take anything away from the Glider soldiers;  they did their job.  But they were not volunteers, did not go through the same training etc. we did.  The men of the 517th were well aware of this and frequently invented new ways of distinguishing themselves as parachutists by calling the glider riders leggins "glider boots".  I realize that this is not news to you and the other old troopers of the 517th. 

You may recall that I wrote a piece about Harry J. Kennedy, a member of the 508th S-2 section, who on his jump into the Netherlands landed right in the middle of a German army outfit, was taken prisoner, escaped and as soon as he could reported to the regimental S-3 who was digging his fox hole exposing his rear piazza.  He reported triumphantly to the captain who responded, "Damn it Kennedy, late again."   Kennedy said this was close as he ever came to kicking a captain in the but.  Kennedy rcently sent me a poster of parachutists dropping down into combat with the accompanying fireworks.  Here is how the poster further defines the Airborne Soldier.

"Don't say that you are an airborne soldier until you have jumped at night behind enemy lines carrying one hundred pounds of equipment while being shot at."

Highest airborne regards,  Howard Hensleigh

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John Krumn

Hi Ben,   Thanks for placing Gene Brissey's email on Mail Call, and thanks also for your message back to him and to us.  I will share your response with him by phone and/or by U.S. Mail.    Gene sent me the story about his experiences as a paratrooper back in the 1980's.  He had originally written it for his daughters, but also generously shared it with me because my deceased father was in his squad.  I remember receiving it in the mail.  Although it was not a brief story, I read it from beginning to end without stopping.  I thought it was written very well and it was also very interesting.  I still have that special copy he sent me.   My wife, Irene, and I had the pleasure of going to southern France, Belgium and Germany (Bergstein) with Edie and Gene on two trips.  Those trips were incredible adventures.  Maria, Irma, Arnold and others were all very, very kind to us.  I so enjoyed seeing you and the other veterans in the pictures of your recent trip to those places.  It must have really been a special time for you.  You and the other veterans deserved that wonderful trip and the tributes that came with it.    I noted you mentioned the Hot Air Balloon Festival in Albuquerque.  About four years ago, we drove down there to visit Edie and Gene.  They took us to the festival.  It was spectacular!  Gene even helped hold and stabilize a gondola on one of the hot air balloons until the air was heated to the point where it could rise.  It was another memorable trip with the Brisseys!   Thanks for all you and your son do.  The contribution to us all is immeasurable.

 Autobiography of Eugene L. Brissey, E Co.

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Guest Book Entry

Name: Kevin Pierce
From: Missoula, MT
E-mail: jkpinmt@yahoo.com

I was so excited to find this web page. My father Teddy P. Pierce passed away on Sunday morning the 4th of October. My father served in 517th PRCT during the war. I don't know a whole lot about his service in Europe except that it has always been a source of great pride to be the son of such a brave man. Thank you to all those that served with him.

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