From: Ben517@aol.com Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2001
12:59 PM To: undisclosed-recipients: Subject: Mail Call NO.
55 Hello At the Florida reunion there was a general
discussion about Organization of Association Duties of Officers Du,
ties of Directors Constitutions and by-laws Nominating Committee
Selection of Reunion Sites Frequency of mini reunions Backups and
Responsibilities of Backup Positions Use of Association Funds Nothing
was finalized. That will have to be done at the Bismarck reunion. Merle
maybe able to expand on this.
The reunion was a success to the work of
the members of the Committee. We found four new online members. Sidney
Felber, Bob Piper, Richard B. Havill and Louis D. Holzworth. Bob Piper
from the 505 is an honorary member of the 517th. This was the first reunion
for Richard Havill. I wish all the new members would sign the guestbook and
tell us the company you were in and any other comments you would like to
make.
J. K. Horne won the drawing for the clock made by Ed.
Jordan, but since he already had one and being a real Southern gentleman he
allowed another drawing and this time Florence Mehegan won the clock. I
am including mail that I received in reply to email I had sent to members
that I met at the reunion. Not sure that I should do so. However, to
paraphrase Studs Turkel when you reach 80 you can make mistakes in judgement
and others will just chalk it up to senility. We had about 40 members at
the Florida reunion and 18 are on line. Therefore if we project this for the
entire association we should have at least 600 members on line unless the
East Coast members are more hep. I am sure that there are many more members
out there who are online. If we could reach all members who are online, we
could be the glue to keep the association together and active in the
future. Here is a very important site for all veterans concerning health
care. VA encourages you to enroll. Your enrollment will help VA better plan
its delivery of quality care to all veterans---www.va.gov/health/elig.
_Website----members.aol.com/prct517/
________________________________________________ Subj: Fwd: Beyond Valor
Date: 1/27/2001 11:43:04 PM Eastern Standard Time From: Tomx517 To: Ben517
Ben: I am forwarding
the message that I received from Patrick O'Donnell regarding publication of
his new book Beyond Valor. You will recall that Clark Archer
mentioned this book at the Orlando Mini Reunion. Pat asked me to
pass on the fact that this book would be released shortly and that he would
appreciate my passing this info to 517th PRCT Association Members. I asked
Pat to give me some info so that it could be used on the 517th PRCT Web
Site. The forwarded message is for this purpose. We enjoyed
meeting you and your wife at the Orlando Mini Reunion. I believe the we
were able to find a common ground on various subjects that pertain to the
future viability of the Association. I was pleased to hear so many
compliments about what you and your son are doing for the 517th PRCT through
the 517th Web Site. Regards, Tom ----------------- Forwarded
Message: Subj: Re: Beyond Valor Date: 1/27/2001 10:28:45 PM
Eastern Standard Time
From: historian@thedropzone.org
(Patrick O'Donnell) Reply-to: historian@thedropzone.org
(Patrick O'Donnell) To: Tomx517@aol.com
Dear
Tom:
Thanks for your response to my email and willingness to help
spread the word on the book. Unlike, other books, I kept my slant more
or less out the book and just let the men speak. Beyond
Valor is verbatim the words of the men I interviewed - its
raw, uncensored and captures the feelings and
emotions surrounding war. The book covers the entire ETO
starting with the Dieppe Raid and touches upon many of the intangibles
- such as the spirit of the independent units. The book broken down by
campaign and each contains several interviews from your men (with
the exception of Italy). From a technical standpoint, every interviewee
was recommended or screened through multiple sources, cross
checked with unit journals and other primary source material, by those the
person served with and sometimes even with your former enemies.
Amen on Messengers, that guy wasn't objective at all
and his conspiracy theories about the destruction of the 551 were
utterly absurd. I also felt his treatment of your the Col.
was very shabby and undeserved.
Sent:
Saturday, January 27, 2001 5:06 PM Subject: Re: Beyond Valor
Dear Patrick: Thanks for the information on your
new book. Clark Archer mentioned your book at the 517th PRCT Mini Reunion
that took place in Orlando 21-25 January. He was very enthusiastic and
recommended it highly If you would care to give me
an idea of the extent of coverage and a note or two of how the 517th PRCT
is mentioned then I will transmit it to the Web Master of the 517th
PRCT Web Site so it will get maximum coverage. We
want all of our Association Members to be aware of the first class
coverage/authorship of our WW II airborne history/heritage as distinct
from some of the uninformed second generation authors who put their own
views/slant on what we did and said (Messengers of the Lost
Battalion) pertains to this comment. Best
Wishes, Tom m
___________________________________________________________________-
Subj:
Fwd: Beyond Valor Date: 1/28/2001 12:27:52 AM Eastern Standard Time
From: Tomx517 To: Ben517 CC: LRL24, PancakeII
Here is initial message
that Patrick O'Donnell sent to me. Regards, Tom -----------------
Forwarded Message: Subj: Beyond Valor Date: 1/27/2001
11:34:14 AM Eastern Standard Time
From:
historian@thedropzone.org (Patrick O'Donnell) Reply-to:
historian@thedropzone.org (Patrick O'Donnell) To:
Tomx517@aol.com
Dear Tom:
You may already know about this, but
BEYOND VALOR will be published by Simon & Schuster and Random House in a
month. Every major historian has blurbed it, we have a ton of great
reviews, its the Main Selection for the Military Book Club, and our
bookstore orders are at Best Seller levels. Everybody I interviewed
from the 517th did a great job, especially Gen. Seitz.
More
info can be obtained at:
http://www.thedropzone.org or at
http://www.simonsays.com keyword search: BEYOND VALOR
Thanks for
your help identifying interview candidates. Please help spread the
word by sending this email around to folks in the 517 and other interested
parties.
All the best,
Patrick O'Donnell Historian
____________________________________________________________________
Subj: Returned mail: see transcript for details Date: 1/28/2001
7:23:12 PM Eastern Standard Time From:
MAILER-DAEMON@vmd-ext.prodigy.net (Mail Delivery Subsystem) To:
Ben517@aol.com
The original message was received at Sun,
28 Jan 2001 19:21:16 -0500 from imo-r11.mx.aol.com [152.163.225.65]
----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors
----- <jdbutler@flash.net> (reason: 550
<jdbutler@flash.net>... User unknown)
______________________________________________________________________Subj:
Mail call #54 Date: 1/28/2001 9:13:24 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: gasfelber@mymailstation.com (gasfelber) To:
Ben517@aol.com
Just checked on your message and
the message was truncated. No word there. Did you send a
message? Will wait for another one. Thanks-Sid Felber from the
517th Did anyone else have this problem? Ben
___________________________________________________________________
Subj: Mark Ellis. Date: 1/29/2001 8:33:04 AM Eastern Standard
Time From: edfla@netzero.net (edfla) To:
ben517@aol.com (*Ben and Mary Frances Barrett H Co)
Ben
, In reply to his request I have sent a page from the 44 booklet to
Mark Ellis showing his father, Tascal Ellis, listed as a sergeant in F
Co.
Ed
Flannery Sebastian, Fl. _______________________________________________________________________-Subj:
Re: Beyond Valor Date: 1/29/2001 12:02:56 PM Eastern Standard
Time From: historian@thedropzone.org (Patrick O'Donnell)
Reply-to: historian@thedropzone.org (Patrick O'Donnell)
To: Ben517@aol.com
File: 03569bey.pdf (455743
bytes) DL Time (TCP/IP): < 1 minute
Ben:
Thank you so much
for helping spread the word on the book. I'm very proud of everybody's
accounts in this book and you guys did a stellar job. Here's
something that may look decent in the newsletter.
Thanks
again,
Pat
I will try to include the download that he
mentioned in this Mail Call Ben
Hello Patrick, Just returned from a mini reunion if
Florida. Tom Cross told me about the book and about you. We have already
posted "Beyond Loyalty" on our website and have publicized it in a news
letter that I send out to online members twice a week. We will do anything
that you wish to get word around about your book. Best Regards,
Ben "H" Co.517thPRCT_____________________________________________________________________-
Subj: Re: Reunion Date: 1/29/2001 3:40:12 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: chrcook@juno.com (robert j christie) To:
Ben517@aol.com, edfla@netzero.net, mmcmor8391@aol.com
Hi Ben, Glad to meet you also. All had a good time I'm
sure. I reserved the Ramada for the same period next year.
I also made our hotel
reservations for the Radisson in Bismarck. However, I had to change my
traveling plans. I got a call from the chef in New Hampshire to start
working the first of May. We will fly from Manchester to Bismarck instead
of driving from Florida. In April we have to drive to Atlanta for the Air
borne Awards. In between I'll probably be fighting fires. That fire whose
smoke we saw at Kissimmee is still burning (now over 3000 acres) and we
are having 5 or 6 fires in our district every day. Bob
______________________________________________________________________Subj:
Re: Reunion Date: 1/29/2001 4:42:00 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: GEMA9 79 To: Ben517
Thank you for the nice note. I
just don't want to be a pest. All the members of the 517 have made me feel
so welcome. Pat and Dan are the best friends anyone can
h