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

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Hello

Arrived at Tahoe last evening without problem. Just followed snow plows.

Please make reservations for Florida Reunion Jan. 16, as soon as possible . Host has to make down payment for banquet.

Please do not send downloads when just an email will do.

Please send links when possible. It saves me for searching for the link and saves space on Mail Call.

Donations for whatever program involving the 517th should be sent to our treasurer Leo Dean at 14 Stonehenge Lane, Albany 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

Florida Mini Reunion
January 16 - 20, 2010

Location: Ramada Gateway Hotel
                  Kissimmee, Fl 34747
                  Reservations: 1-800-272-6232
                                             www.ramadagateway.com
Contact:   Leila Webb
                  4155 Kissimmee Park Road
                  St. Cloud, FL 34772
                   407-892-3595

Registration fee: $40.00    More information Mail Call No 1916

Howard Hensleigh

Great to see you and Joanne. Hope the snow was not too deep in Donner Pass. Don't eat the Indian guides. Love, HH

Christophe Mora

Dear Sir,

My name is Christophe Mora, from France. At some point, I was subscribing to the 517th mailcall. I'm still reading it on the internet. I don't know how to post infos on the Mailcall, I hope this is the appropriate way...

I'm sending some informations regarding Olvie J. NUNNERY for Mr. Thomas ROBERTS (mailcall # 1934):

Before being assigned to the 517th, he was a Sgt. in C Co., 501th Parachute Inf. Battalion in late 1940 (the first Parachute unit created by the US Army, from the Parachute Test Platoon, so he was obviously one of the 1st paratroopers). In august '44, he was still a Staff Sgt, and was the platoon leader of 2nd platoon, I Co., 517th (cited in Battling Buzzards, p. 201), then he received a battlefield commission, and was transferred to H Co.

Sincerely,
Christophe Mora, from France.

Bob Barrett

Gilles Guignard pointed me to the Life magazine archives where that picture of the trucks heading to the Ardennes came from.

I posted a large version of the photo on the web site at: http://517prct.org/photos/bulge/life_mag_bulge_large.jpg

Here is the Life magazine archive site:

http://tinyurl.com/ya2h8wc

I am curious: How do you know that these are 517^th soldiers? Is someone we know in the photos or remembers this trip?

If some of the 517^th are in that picture, would any of the other “Related Pictures” from Life magazine also include some of the 517^th? Surprisingly, there are not that may pictures of the Battle of the Bulge in these archives. If you do a search for “Ardennes”, you can see most of them.

Bob

The Photo shown with a trooper's head clearly visible was in Life magazine, He tried to get a copy of the photo from Life but it would cost $75.00. A lot of money at that time. His family did purchase it and had it framed for a Christmas present .

The photo and story was in a 1990's Thunderbolt. If anyone has a copy of the article, please send it to me. Ben

Lory Curtis

Ben,

As this is the time when all of you were at the Battle of the Bulge in 1944, I thought I would share a part of a letter my Dad wrote home to his Mom on December 29, 1944. His letter comes from Stavelot Belgium, and his mom never received it until January 24, 1945. In this part of the letter he is answering a question his mom had about seeing an article in the newspaper about the 517th. His Mom lived in Long Beach, CA, and I assume it was in the local Press Telegram Newspaper, but I have never seen the article. If anyone knows of a newspaper article of the 517th, I sure would like to see it. Anyway Dad talks about the combat team, and how proud he is to be part of it. He then gives some poignant comments of how he is feeling on Christmas so far from home. Finally, his closing remarks about eating his treats his Mom sent him all at once while being shot at by the Germans is interesting. I am not sure I would have told my Mom that. Merry Christmas to all and thank you so much for what you have done for America and the World. Here is the Letter.

Lory Curtis, son of Bud Curtis, HQ, 1st BN

"The clipping you sent me was about our outfit, but I’m a long ways from there now. I came all the way across France in one of those 40 and 8 box cars (train) you heard about in the last war. You won’t find much about the 517^th by looking for news in the paper because we are a “Combat Team” and wherever there is some place they need good men fast that is where we go. We have been attached to almost every Army over here at different times.

The reason we don’t get much rest is because we are a good outfit and all the time someone is needing us. There is nothing we can’t do, but you people won’t read about it because we aren’t a big enough outfit to make front page headlines.

I was sure thinking a lot about you people at Christmas and wondering what you were doing and if maybe you were thinking about me that day while I was ducking bullets and shells, and if there would ever be a time when we could all be home for Christmas together again. I saw a lot of guys that day both ours and Krauts that will never see another Christmas, and all I could do was pray to God that it wasn’t my time to go, and I guess it wasn’t cause here I am. I’ll never forget this Christmas as long as I do live, and you will never know how glad I am that this war is being fought in these countries and not in ours and I’m glad that you people there will never have to see some of the awful things I have, but I don’t even want to think of them so I’ll drop the subject.

I’m going to heat me up something to eat now so I’ll say so long for now, and I hope some more mail comes in tonight. It is sure swell to get mail from home so keep it coming. Oh yes, I got two packages from you just before I left that last area (censorship would prevent Bud from telling his mother exactly where he was in case the Germans intercepted his letters home. Each of his letters were opened by Army mail personnel and screened before they were sent out) to come up here in Belgium. Thanks a lot for them they sure tasted good. Believe it or not I ate that whole can of pineapple and fruit cake laying on the ground with machine gun bullets whizzing only about 6 inches over my head. I figured at least I was going to eat that instead of some darn Kraut, come what may. Send some more when you can and some cookies and candy. Lots of Love, Bud"

T. Cotton Nelson

Ben:

1) first of all, thanks so much for your Mail Call efforts … most of the time I stop in the middle of compiling my NCC eNewsletter to read Mail Call .. love it and now its time for me to pursue some action items.

2) how do I procure the 517^th DVD that Mr. Jansson mentioned in the latest Mail Call – who do I contact ???

3) are members of the 1^st Battalion eligible for the Bronze Star – for Soy-Hotton campaign or other? If so, do I just contact my Congressman … anything I should provide for him/her ??

Thanks, Cotton Nelson, son of deceased 1^st Battalion PFC Gerald M. Nelson

T. Cotton Nelson

Manager, Public Relations

National Cotton Council of America

administration@band-of-brothers.nl