Hello,
 
Anyone who has sent mail with attachments in the past few days to Bob prct517@aol.com and has not had a response, please send again. Computer problems.
 
We have added more photos to the website from General Seitz, Mike Kane and Donald Spears.
 
Ben
 
Bill Boyle
 
Somewhere in the distant past I recall (or maybe I
dreamt it) something similar (in part) to Col. West's
case. The solution was Try the soldier, Find him
guilty, fine him $ 1.00 and send him back to duty.
Strange, but it also protected that soldier from a
later charge by someone digging for problems.
In case you think I am not  on West's side I clearly
am and signed the petition to exonerate him---------
I was just testing my memory.
                                                             Bill Boyle
_________________________________________________________________
Carol Monkhouse Nash-
 
thanks for your reply do you know my dad he was in the 517 3rd battalion and h company .he is in the photo summited by mr doty .its the third one hes on the right on his knees with a cigerette in his mouth . he was only 16 years old .mr doty says dad was a scout,he is the one were it was raining he had his rain grear on and hung his rifle up side down on a tree branch.then a german soliger came along with his hands up togive up dad said hold on let me get my gun.also somthing about him blowing a tank up or something like that.i would appreciate anything you know.do you remember my dad.thanks a lotcarol monkhouse nash ctn_56@hotmail.com

Howard Hensleigh

Note to Dorothy Mackenzie and the ladies–you guys can read it too.

Bob Christie will welcome your contributions to what we may call a ladies column in the Thunderbolt. The ladies have always made contributions to the Thunderbolt. In the original Thunderbolts, we used to have a portion entitled Inspiration Corner. It contained a picture of one of the beautiful young ladies who had a connection with the outfit–sometimes a wife, sometimes a girl friend. If you get Bob to include a special column for the contributions of our better halves, I suggest it be called The Inspiration Corner. We, who have the enriching pleasure of communication through Mail Call, must realize that it reaches only 10 to 20 percent of our members. This means that Thunderbolt is vitally important in reaching everyone. Your contributions to Thunderbolt are important. We will also encourage others to get hooked up to Mail Call and be in touch in between Thunderbolt publications.

What Tom Reber is doing with his computer is arranging the roster so that it will contain columns of information that will be helpful in the interaction among the people listed. Tom says he can catagorize the list by unit designation, geographic location, descendants of members, etc. We should have a special column designating the wives and widows who have played such a special role in your husbands lives, and in the life of the Association. We trust that you will use this column to keep in touch with each other and plan things of special interest to the ladies of the outfit.

This allows us to take maximum advantage of "column", both senses of the word. Howard Hensleigh

Tom Reber

Ben,

Look what is on E-bay and the bid expires in 1/2 hour.  I guess I feel a bit uneasy about things like this being auctioned off.

Tom Reber
 
                               
Bob Schaefer (Also sent to us by June Hufman, Bob Cooper and others)
 
thought you  should read this(from john marsinko's son-in-law)

 
Dear Friends and Family,
I hope that you will spare me a few minutes of your time to tell you about
something that I saw on Monday, October 27.
I had been attending a conference in Annapolis and was coming home on Sunday.
As you may recall, Los Angeles International Airport was closed on Sunday,
October 26, because of the fires that affected air traffic control.
Accordingly, my flight, and many others, were cancelled and I wound up spending a night
in Baltimore.
My story begins the next day. When I went to check in at the United counter
Monday morning I saw a lot of soldiers home from Iraq. Most were very young
and all had on their desert camouflage uniforms. This was as change from
earlier, when they had to buy civilian clothes in Kuwait to fly home. It was a
visible reminder that we are in a war. It probably was pretty close to what
train terminals were like in World War II.
Many people were stopping the troops to talk to them, asking them questions
in the Starbucks line or just saying "Welcome Home." In addition to all the
flights that had been cancelled on Sunday, the weather was terrible in
Baltimore and the flights were backed up. So, there were a lot of unhappy people in
the terminal trying to get home, but nobody that I saw gave the soldiers a bad
time.
By the afternoon, one plane to Denver had been delayed several hours. United
personnel kept asking for volunteers to give up their seats and take another
flight. They weren't getting many takers. Finally, a United spokeswoman got
on the PA and said this, "Folks. As you can see, there are a lot of soldiers
in the waiting area. They only have 14 days of leave and we're trying to get
them where they need to go without spending any more time in an airport then
they have to. We sold them
all tickets, knowing we would oversell the flight. If we can, we want to get
them all on this flight. We want all the soldiers to know that we respect
what you're doing, we are here for you and we love you."
At that, the entire terminal of cranky, tired, travel-weary people, a
cross-section of America, broke into sustained and heart-felt applause. The soldiers
looked surprised and very modest. Most of them just looked at their boots.
Many of us were wiping away tears.
And, yes, people lined up to take the later flight and all the soldiers went
 to Denver on that flight.
That little moment made me proud to be an American, and also told me why we
will win this war.
If you want to send my little story on to your friends and family, feel free.
This is not some urban legend. I was there, I was part of it, I saw it
happen.
 
 Will Ross
Administrative Judge
United States Department of Defense