Hello,

Thanks to all for letting me know that you were able to receive  the
  I Pledge Allegiance -- By Red Skelton I will try to include patriotic pages  in this and future Mail Calls.

If any of your ancestors came to this country via Ellis Island, you might be interested in the website--Ellisisland.org This data base is some what  like what we would like to do in a small way with our website.

Click on
_That Ragged Old Flag 
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Subj: Battalion Deployment 
Date: 3/4/2003 3:12:15 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: hhensleigh@earthlink.net

Dear Ben:

Your reprint of the Tom Cross remarks from Static Line about the 550, 551 and 509 Parachute Infantry Battalions got me to thinking about how we were deployed in the Bulge. Tom’s idea was that we should have been deployed as the First Airborne Task Force, rather than piecemeal.

To my recollection, we in the 517th were also almost always split up and deployed in the Bulge as separate battalions, and not even as a regimental combat team. The 3rd Battalion, less G Company which was guarding ridgway’s 18th Airborne Corps CP, took Manhay In the attack south of Stavelot, we were between the 75th and 30th Divisions, rather than with the other battalions of the Team. The 2nd Battalion attached to an armored unit (I thing the 7th) spear headed the retaking of St. Vith and the 1st Battalion had its own attachments and separate missions. The units to which we were attached usually got credit for what we did and I don’t mean to belly ache.

As a lawyer for Raytheon, I used to say, "I don’t care who gets the credit, just so Raytheon gets the cash." We got the cash by helping win the war and some of us survived. Incidently, Raytheon’s Patriot missiles are back in Israel to guard against Saddam’s scuds, irrespective of what that MIT professor said about them.

I will be interested in what others have to say about how we were deployed in the

Bulge.

Howard Hensleigh
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Subj: FW: We the Women 
Date: 3/4/2003 11:41:11 AM Eastern Standard Time
From: chrislindner@bellsouth.net

Hi Ladies and Gentlemen, Please take a moment in listening and reading it, IT COULD BE SOOOOO TRUE!!!! Chris  

 http://users.snip.net/~sprtfan/we_are/women.htm  
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Subj:  
Date: 3/4/2003 11:43:38 AM Eastern Standard Time
From: mardy111826@msn.com

Dear Ben:
 
I have a new e-mail address.  It is:   mardy111826@msn.com
 
We hope to see you and Fran at Oklahoma City.
 
Thanks for all you do to keep the Association banded together.
 
                                            Mardy
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Subj: The Pledge 
Date: 3/4/2003 1:12:35 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: Camrod518

  Hi Ben......The Red Skelton explaination of our pledge brought tears to my eyes, as I'm sure it did to a lot others.  I'm normally hesitant about forwarding Email to others, but I sent this one off to everyone on my list!  You do a great service Ben, thanks a lot!!!!!!!!         Dorothy Mac.
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Subj: Re: MAIL CALL NO 431 517TH PRCT 
Date: 3/4/2003 3:37:23 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: Bigdegner

BEN

RED CAME THROUGH LOUD AND CLEAR.  IT WAS GREAT, THANKS FOR SENDING IT.

DARRELL
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The following is another except from an article that Tom
Cross wrote for his Static line column in 1988.

I received a nice letter from Gail Walsh Tayler, the daughter of the late Lou Walsh our first C. O. of the 517th PRCT,in which she stated that she enjoyed being with us at the '87 Albany Reunion.This helps to illustrate how the children of the 517th PRCT revere their father's memories and they will be the ones, in the final analysis, that will keep the memory and heritage of th e 517th PRCT alive.
                                             **************

The above was written fifteen years  ago and Tom's  prediction about the children of the 517 keeping the memory and heritage or the 517th PRCT alive is well manifest by the interest in Mail Call and the Website by the children of the 517th today and now even grandchildren.

Hope Gail will be able to come to Oklahoma City in June.

Ben
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Subj: Lt.Aaron Shore 
Date: 3/4/2003 7:45:47 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: eharger@chartermi.net
To: Ben517@aol.com
CC: em11@freegates.be

Hi Ben:
Good to hear from you, excuse the delay. I doubt that I could be of any help for Eddy. I certainly remember Lt
Shore, but I have no knowledge of the patrol he mentions.
As he mentions G Co. was assigned to guard Gen. ridgway's Hq. We arrived by truck in the middle of the night. "Cold and confused" When I jumped out of the truck and hit the ground my feet felt like two stumps, they were nearly frozen! I remember that Gen. ridgway came out and told us what our assignment was (to Guard his Hqs.) and that he was not moving! I was in the 3rd. platoon and we were on guard in close proximity to the Hqs. building. Other
than that everything remains quite vague and confused in my mind, as in a lot of the other actions through out the
"Bulge"
Yes,  I'm still jumping, It is great fun, a lot safer than walking the streets in our larger cities! We say the most dangerous part of skydiving is driving to the drop zone!
I don't know if you heard or not but following the 50th. anniversary celebrations at Normandy My wife and I went to Belgium and our friend Jean Francois Dahinov  drove us to Spa
Where I made a jump. I jumped with a guy from Luxembourg
                                Hope to see you in OK, OK.....OK?
                                        Blue Skies
                                               El
PS Hensleigh have any info on this patrol ? He seems to be the living encyclopedia on the 517th.