There has not been much mail during the past few days. I do want to get Boom Boom's mail about Don Fraser out to members.

We have added on the website the citation for the Silver Star awarded to William Throng D Company and to "Soldiers Stories" a story about Lou Holtsworth in the Korean War.

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Received a telephone surprise from Don Fraser, lst Bn, who was highly elated about successfully overcoming the scourge of cancer. He had a terrible and terrific fight for six months straigth. Let's all say a prayer of thanks for his recovery.
BoomBoom

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-Tom Reber's note, in Mail Call 537, about our trip on an LST triggered some thoughts and questions about our ride from Naples to Civitaveechia. First of all I had no idea that they had bunks on that thing. Maybe it was a different model. When we got on board in Naples, the only place that my friends and I could find to lie down was the cold steel deck. It was hard and cold all night and we were glad to see what was left of the beach when we arrived the next day. The place was a picture of devastation and we stumbled through the ruts and ditches as we moved inland. One vivid memory was seeing a rather long line of German prisoners being marched back to someplace which I am sure must have given them some pleasure after what must have been a rough fight for them. So, Tom we were on that piece of metal overnight. I often wondered if the main purpose of that LST was to carry tanks. We moved into the mountains of Italy and soon began our first combat. I don't know where and if I could remember the names of towns,I couldn't spell them. As we moved into combat, the sounds of burp guns, or whatever they were was not music to my ears. When we weren't climbing mountains we spent a lot of time on our bellies with bullets flying over us. Tom, I know you didn't ask for our history but I would like to tell you about the first prisoner that I captured. On a farm we came upon a bunch of little hay stacks. I saw a bunch of German equipment lying under the edge of one. I checked for a possible booby trap, finding none I tore down the stack of hay and found a German soldier in a fox hole under it.
Gene Brissey, Company E.

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Thank you so much for adding me to Mail Call. This is a monumental task that you have undertaken with mail call and the website.

I am attaching a copy of the citation for the Silver Star that was awarded to my Uncle William F. Thorng D-Co. I am still trying to find more information on my uncle, but am not having much luck. No one seems to know anything about him and have not been able to get anything from the military either. They keep wanting a signature from his next of kin. I cannot seem to get through to them that I am all that is left. Anyway will keep trying.

Again, Thank you for all that you are doing and have done.

The citation for the Silver Star is now on the website.-Ben

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Hello Ben,

I received your mail and the article. Thank you for taking the time to send, as I am a big fan of you guys.

John Bramswig
son in law of Ed Marconi Comp A

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Dear Ben and Bob: thank you for adding my husband and me to your e-mail address list. Pat Seitz and Alan Greer

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_In a message dated 9/4/2003 4:21:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Ben517 writes:

It looks like the site is being rebuilt. But they have posted the in-process version, showing what the new layout will look like. But all the text is just filler. The "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..." is just a bunch of scrambled Latin words. I have seen many text and graphics designers use this dummy text.

In fact, here is a page which explains it more:

http://www.lipsum.com/

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I couldn't find the speech given to the paratroopers by Graves on the web site. Can you tell me what category it is under? I go right into Index when I click on the site. I would like to download a copy, and I was also wondering if it was possible to download the German paratrooper?

I always enjoy your emails!

Other members may be also interested in same- Ben

3. 1944 August- "Top Secret "

I also believe that Nila is referring to the 82nd Airborne poster and not a German paratrooper.

2. Airborne and Paratrooper Links.

3. WW11 82nd Airborne poster

Both can be downloaded by highlighting them and then copy and paste.-Ben