Subj: Airborne & special Ops Roll Call 
Date: 10/20/2002 7:18:52 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: AARGoodman
To: Ben517

Assuming that Tom Coss' response to the Sept 18 letter has the desired results -I have the rest of the copies for free registration. I very much appreciated getting Toms counsel & his handling a reply. They sent me ten copies for free registration but clearly are looking for the $25 fee for general registration. It didn't look right to me hence asking Tom to step in. I will bring them to Fla.  Airborne!  Al
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Subj: Dororthy Mackenzie From AWOL to Present For Duty 
Date: 10/20/2002 9:57:54 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Tomx517

Ben:
       Bette and I received a telephone tonight call from Dorothy Mackenzie, widow of Past President Jim Mackenzie, announcing that she and Darrell Egner of the 2nd Bn. 517 PIR were making phone calls to old friends of Jim's urging them to be present and accounted for at the Annual Florida Mini Reunion at Kissimmee, Florida January 19-23, 2003.
       Dorothy has recently moved to Florida and promises to be more active in 517th PRCT activities.  The last time she was active in our midst she kidnapped the 517th PRCT Toy Bear Mascot from my hotel room which same bear was later returned by two FBI agents who were attending an FBI Party at the same hotel. The FBI charged the bear with being drunk and disorderly and creating all sorts of trouble. I proudly accepted the return of the bear because he had acquitted himself magnificently in hand to hand combat with some "legs" who were saying nasty things about the airborne. The toy bear outfitted in airborne attire is now serving somewhere on the west coast having been raffled off by Carl Kiefer of Co. A, 517 PIR at one of the West Coast Mini Reunions . Carl apparently found the bear to be unbearable.
       On a more serious note Jim Mackenzie will be remembered as the 517th
PRCT Piper who played his bagpipes in full Scottish attire at our Reunions.
Jim was a great guy and those of us who knew him well remember him fondly.
       Have been doing  some memory rambling but will get to the point of this message and that is will you please include Dorothy Mackenzie, in spite of her demonstrated criminal instincts, on the 517th PRCT Mail Call list. Her e-mail address is: CAMROD518@aol.com
Regards,
Tom Cross
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Subj: RE: Airborne & Special Operations Museum Update  
Date: 10/21/2002 10:47:14 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: ptremblay@asomf.org
To: Tomx517@aol.com
CC: seitz2@webtv.net, Wildbill517@aol.com, dalry596@webtv.net, Ben517@aol.com, AARGoodman@aol.com, hhensleigh@earthlink.net

Sir,
Thanks for your response and for bringing to our attention the oversight of not listing the 517th PIR. Whenever a project requires managing as much information as the museum does, mistakes are unfortunately made. We did not intentionally leave the 517th off the Roll Call program, it was simply an oversight made on the final printing, and I apologize for that. All future printings of the Roll Call brochure that you received will include the 517th, and on the next full update to our Roll Call database website the change will be made. 

It's a credit to your organization that this mistake has been called to our attention many times over the past several months. We are well aware of the important history of the 517th, and the regiment is covered in our exhibit gallery, as well as on our lobby board listing all airborne units. This was simply an oversight limited to the brochure and website.

We would very much like to have some important names from the 517th to help get our Roll Call database going. Please use the same forms that I sent, and just write in 517 in the "unit name" section. It would help to write 517 at the top right (above the parachute picture) as well so we can make sure they are added properly.

Thank you for sending contact information for Clark Archer, your historian. I will share that information with our historians so they can contact him with any specific questions. We are an educational resource, and with over 230,000 visitors each year (including tens of thousands of students and active duty soldiers) it is important that we get all information as accurate as possible 

As an Army museum covering all airborne and special operations units beginning with the Test Platoon in 1940, the ASOM belongs to the airborne community, and is therefore your museum. We thank you for your help in ensuring that continues to be a success.

Let me know if there is anything I can do for you.

Airborne!
Patrick

Patrick Tremblay
Airborne & Special Operations Museum
(910) 483-3003 ext. 229
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Subj: RE: Airborne & Special Operations Museum Update 
Date: 10/21/2002 11:16:24 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: hhensleigh@earthlink.net
To: Tomx517@aol.com, ptremblay@asomf.org
CC: seitz2@webtv.net, Wildbill517@aol.com, dalry596@webtv.net, Ben517@aol.com, AARGoodman@aol.com

Dear Patrick:  Thank you for your prompt and generous response.  We trust that it will result in the proper recognition of the elements of the 517th Combat team as well as all others who participated in the airborne invasion of Southern France.  It occurred to me that the 442nd and others who were made glider troops for an operation actually performed need to be recognized along with the other airborne troops some of which never saw combat.  The 442nd did a great job in Italy and the ones that were with us in Southern France were the best. They were with us every step of the way.  Along with the antitank guns, it seems to me some of them had 4.2 mortars.  Am I off base?  Howard Hensleigh
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We have a link for the 442nd on our website under other links.  Rosters and photos. I tried to contact them by email but did not get a response.
Ben
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Subj: Re: Dororthy Mackenzie From AWOL to Present For Duty 
Date: 10/21/2002 10:55:22 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Tomx517

Ben:    
       Yes, it is true that Dorothy Mackenzie's e-mail address 'is CAMROD518@aol.com'.
  I received a e-mail message from her today stating that John Lissner Co.F would be present at the Florida Mini Reunion.
Bob Christie should be warned that if Dick Seitz also appears on the scene too that it would be advisable to batten down the hatches and prepare for stormy weather in the form of a possible partial geriatric attempt at a repeat of an incident similar to what took place at the 2nd Bn Thanksgiving Party at the Hotel Negresco in Nice in 1944. Pages 258 and 259 of the paperback edition of Gerald Astor's Battling Buzzards-The Odyssey of the 517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team 1943-1945.
       If Wild Bill and Don Fraser also attend the volatility factor may be increased to the point that Bob Christie should seek additional insurance coverage and Ed Flannery should be issued a baseball bat to protect his superior bar items. I may be in error and to fast to judge these airborne heroes of yesteryear
for the last time I saw them together it seemed like a reunion of long in the tooth airborne tigers prone to purr more than snarl.
I may be in error but seldom am in judging the likes of the afore mentioned airborne heroes of our glorious past.
Regards, Tom
PS If you print this in the 517th Mail Call you must guarantee and furnish protection at Kissimmee.
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Sorry Tom. Im just the messenger. We print everything that's fit to be printed even malarkey unless explicitly requested not to do so.
Ben