Website                                           www.517prct.org

Mail Call                                   MailCall@517prct.org

Mail Call Archives            www.517prct.org/archives

Roster                            www.517prct.org/roster.pdf

Recent website additions:

Don Fraser's CP near Col de Braus then and now

Warbird Magazine article about the 2008 St. Louis Reunion

MailCall News

MailCall #2000.  Wow.  - BB

This is for Dan Robins,

Dan, I saw your mail about Richard Lynam, and just wanted you to know that in 2007, I visited Bergeval Belgium where your Cousin was killed Jan 5 1945. I placed in St. Jacques church near Bergeval, a photo of Richard and my Cousin Layton Pippin and a narrative about Corwin Clark who was also killed the same day as our Cousins. When the Veterans visited last year, pictures were made inside the church, and the pictures and a candle stick were still there. I was proud to do that so the men could be referred to by name, instead of troopers killed. Thanks

Morris McDowell
garandaddy@yahoo.com

Hello Everyone! I need to know if you Folks are receiving my E-mails. Reply to this E-mail if you would please, so that I know my computer is functioning properly. I have not been getting any E-mails lately . Help me!!!! Best regards to you all

Ray R. Hess
rrhess1@ptd.net  [new address? -- BB]
 

hello. I collect the patches US airborne WWII. I am French. can you say to me when l' badge of the 517 marked 517 in top and attack in bottom was creates and carried?

with my thanks.

jean-louis bourgeois
jean-louis.bourgeois9@wanadoo.fr

To All , June 12 - include a thought for Colonel William J. "Wild Bill" Boyle in your prayers.

Be well all, - Paul Abbene

[Will Bill Boyle died one year ago, June 12, 2009]

From: Eddy Lamberty [mailto:eddy.lamberty@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2010 12:58 PM

Subject: Fwd: FW: Courage... PLEASE READ IT and SEND IT TO YOUR FRIENDS!!!!!!!!

Thank you Patrick,

American media are not the only one that should be blamed.  In Belgium and Europe they do the same.

God bless America.

Eddy
 

-----------------

Courage.

You're a 19 year old kid.

You're critically wounded and dying in the jungle somewhere in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam .

It's November 11, 1967.

LZ (landing zone) X-ray.

Your unit is outnumbered 8-1 and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 yards away, that your CO (commanding officer) has ordered the MedEvac helicopters to stop coming in.

You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns and you know you're not getting out.

Your family is half way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again.

As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.

Then - over the machine gun noise - you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter.

You look up to see a Huey coming in. But ... It doesn't seem real because no MedEvac markings are on it.

Captain Ed Freeman is coming in for you.

He's not MedEvac so it's not his job, but he heard the radio call and decided he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire anyway.

Even after the MedEvacs were ordered not to come. He's coming anyway.

And he drops it in and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 3 of you at a time on board.

Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire to the doctors and nurses and safety.

And, he kept coming back!! 13 more times!! Until all the wounded were out. No one knew until the mission was over that the Captain had been hit 4 times in the legs and left arm.

He took 29 of you and your buddies out that day. Some would not have made it without the Captain and his Huey.

Medal of Honor Recipient, Captain Ed Freeman, United States Air Force, died last Wednesday at the age of 70, in Boise, Idaho .

May God Bless and Rest His Soul.

I bet you didn't hear about this hero's passing, but we've sure seen a whole bunch about Michael Jackson and Tiger Woods.

Medal of Honor Winner Captain Ed Freeman
----------------

Shame on the American media !!!

Now ... YOU pass this along to YOUR mailing list. Honor this real American.

Please.

Ben: I received the hard copies of the Citation from Nolan Powell. I have scanned the 15 pages of the Distinguished Unit Citation for you to archive and display if you wish. I have transmitted them in two transmissions.

I am will next scan the 58 pages of the "Support Papers" in segments as it takes time and is hard to transmit that many in one transmission.  Therefore, I will sent them in 10-15 pages per transmission whichever is the faster number.

When I am finished scanning the pages I will convert them into a CD Rom and mail you a copy until the originals can be converted as I am working from copies and some have some light exposure on the pages.

Frank Ramos

[We are still working on this.  The copies are a bit hard to read.  -- BB]

I am still trying to find a way to post the video that Patricia and Roland Orengo made of the ceremonies at their house in Sospel last August.  . -- BB

Name that Trooper

This episode is centered around the 460th Parachute Artillery Battalion which made up one-third of the 517th Regimental Combat Team. It was commanded by Colonel Raymond Cato, a 1936 West Pointer who took over the reins after a shake-up in command positions was made. He was one of 29 officers and 534 enlisted men who made up the troop. Our mystery trooper, Lt. ____ was hand picked by Colonel Cato to fill a position in his staff. Colonel Cato proved to be a very capable commander for the 460th PAB.

Their first real combat encounter came on June 18th, 1944 in Italy, near Grosseto, when this "Band Of Brothers" came under withering machine gun fire near the Moscona Hills. It was here that they fired their first salvo in anger. They saturated the area with 75 mm Howitzer rounds. This resulted in the capture of 100 German prisoners and many enemy dead. Then on June 24th, Lt Col. Seitz and Sgt Bill Lewis were reconnoitering the area near Falonica when they observed a strong contingent of enemy tanks headed straight for them. They contacted our mystery trooper, Lt. _____ of the 460th PAB who immediately placed himself on a hill top for a birds eye view of the situation. Our mystery trooper was always out front of the men, and he was in constant radio/phone contact with the 460th Artillery battery. After assessing the situation he began giving immediate grid co-ordinates of the enemy's location.

They combined efforts and soon had rounds falling in the vicinity of the German armored position. 75 MM artillery rounds are not considered as tank killers but the Krauts may not have known this. Together they were able to walk the artillery rounds toward the enemy location until the Germans felt their position was untenable and decided to make a run for it. Having had two successful combat encounters with the enemy within 6 days, the 460th were becoming a very confident fighting force. This was but the beginning of the journey for this combat group that soon earned the respect of rank and file German soldiers as well as the vaunted SS troops. Any time the Germans seemed invincible while holding a town that the Five Seventeen had been ordered to "take at all costs", it was often the job of Lt._____ to take the lead and be out front alone in order to assess the situation at hand and relay co-ordinates for the fire mission. The purpose of the mission was to soften up the opposition with a little explosive persuasion.

Much later in the war our mystery trooper came to the aid of 1st battalion troopers at Mont de Foss during one of the many confrontations during the Battle of the Bulge. A whole company of German troops came into range and the call went out to find Lt. _____ . He soon got busy doing what he did best, "calling in rounds from battalion". He asked for 10 rounds. Subsequently all able bodies from the Five-Seventeen headed for the tree line before the fireworks started. And fireworks they got. After the fireworks had ended a body count was taken and 60 enemy were found dead on the field. In the final analysis this body count of the enemy would eventually transcend to a lesser number of American dead and wounded in future battles. If one 517th trooper equaled 5 enemy troops then we might assume that the carnage brought against their German counter parts may well have saved the lives of 12 Battling Buzzards.

Our mystery trooper held the distinction of being the oldest Lieutenant in the 517th. A native of New York City, he helped support his widowed mother and younger brother back in New York. Like another former 517 soldier, he had a kid brother who also went on to gain film stardom in Hollywood. His brother, after changing his name to "John Dall" later starred in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Rope" also with Bette Davis in "The Corn Is Green" and Kirk Douglas in "Spartacus". Upon leaving the Army our trooper entered a business involving disposal of sewage and conversion of sludge into energy. A concept that was way ahead of it's time.

Can you name this 517th trooper? See the answer to this quiz in the next edition of "517th Mail Call"
 

Nephew of a Buzzard

Administrivia:

- If you have trouble reading this MailCall, or seeing the images, you can read them all online at http://www.517prct.org/mailcall/

- At any time, if you want to be added or removed from the MailCall list, just let me know.

- Donations for any programs involving the 517th should be sent to our treasurer Leo Dean at 14 Stonehenge Lane, Albany NY  12203.

- New address for MailCall:  MailCall@517prct.org  I will also continue to search Ben's gmail and AOL accounts for a while as well. 

- If you send me email that you do not want included in MailCall, just label it as “FYEO”.

- I now understand how Ben could get confused about what he already posted and what he didn’t.  If I miss something, please just send it again.