From: Ben517@aol.com
Sent: Saturday, March 03, 2001 9:04 AM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: Mail Call NO 66
Hello,
The comments that I have received indicate that how often I send out Mail
Call
really doesn't matter. Will try to limit size to four or five pages.

I would like to hear from more members and we need to find more members who
are online.
Ben
______________________________________________________
Subj: Mail Call
Date: 3/1/2001 10:20:08 AM Eastern Standard Time
From:    jalicki@yahoo.com (John Alicki)
To:    Ben517@aol.com
Ben
It really does not matter whether you send your Mail
Call daily or periodically. We are here on this planet
but a short time, so keep the messages coming. I will
be grateful and beholding to you and your son Bob for
the great job you're doing.
"HE WHO ACKNOWLEDGES A KINDNESS HAS IT STILL AND HE
WHO HAS A GRATEFUL SENSE OF IT HAS REQUITED I                             
Boom Boom
________________________________________________________________---
Subj: Re: Mail Call NO. 65
Date: 3/1/2001 10:32:31 AM Eastern Standard Time
From: Wild bill 517

To: Ben517

Whatever suits you on length or frequency is fine. reading is
Faster than writing
                                  Bill Boyle
_____________________________________________________________

Subj: Re: Mail Call NO. 65
Date: 3/1/2001 11:05:06 AM Eastern Standard Time
From: CackyG

To: Ben517

You explained well about all the mail you try to include in mail call.  Send
it as often as you want to.  People have the choice of reading it or not. 
Personally, I will read it anytime it comes out.  Thank Bob for trying to get
the word out that most virus warnings are hoaxes.  Before we panic, I always
check it out at some of the virus warning places on the Internet.  If anyone
is really in checking them out, there are many places they can go to........
Dot
______________________________________________________
Subj: Feeling Old???
Date: 3/1/2001 11:08:23 AM Eastern Standard Time
From: CackyG

To: Ben517

I thought this was interesting.  I feel old enough sometimes without reading
stuff like this.  This makes me feel even older.  I thought you might enjoy
reading this, too.......Dot
Subject: THE CLASS OF 2004

Just in case you weren't feeling too old today, this will certainly change
things. Each year the staff at Beloit College in Wisconsin  puts together a
list to try to give the Faculty a sense of the  mindset of this year's
incoming freshman.  Here is this year's list:  The people who are  starting
college this fall across the nation were  born in 1982.  They have no
meaningful recollection of the Reagan Era and probably  did not know he
had ever been shot.  They were prepubescent when the Persian Gulf War was
waged.  Black  Monday, 1987 is as significant to them as the Great
Depression.  There  has been only one Pope.  They were 11 when the Soviet
Union broke apart  and  do not remember  the Cold War. They have never
feared a nuclear war.   They  are too young to remember the space shuttle
blowing up.  Tiananmen Square means nothing to them.  Bottle caps have always
been screw off and plastic.  Atari predates them, as do vinyl albums.  The
statement "You sound like a  broken record" means nothing to them.  They have
never owned a record  player.  They have likely never played Pac Man and have
never heard of  Pong.  They may have never heard of an 8 track The Compact
Disc was
introduced  when they were 1 year old.  As far as they know, stamps have
always cost  about 33 cents.  They have always had an answering machine.
Most have  never  seen a TV set with only 13 channels, nor have they  seen
a black and  white  TV.  They have always had cable.  There have always been
VCRs, but they  have  no idea what BETA was.  They cannot fathom not having
a remote control. They  don't know what a cloth baby diaper is, or know
about the "Help  me, I've  fallen and I can't get up" commercial.  Feeling
old Yet? There's more:

They  were born the year that Walkmen were introduced by Sony.  Roller
skating  has  always meant inline for them.  Jay Leno has always been on
the Tonight  Show.  They have no idea when or why Jordache jeans were cool.
Popcorn has always  been cooked in the microwave.  They have never seen
Larry Bird play.   They  never took a swim and thought about Jaws.  The
Vietnam War is as ancient  history to them as WWI, WWII and the Civil War.
They have no idea that Americans were ever held hostage in Iran. They can't
imagine what hard  contact lenses are. They don't know who Mork was or where
he was from. They  never heard: "Where's the beef?", "I'd walk a mile for a
Camel," or"De  plane, de plane!". They do not care who shot J.R. and have no
idea who  J.R.  was. The Titanic was found? They thought we always
knew. Michael Jackson  has  always been white. Kansas, Chicago, Boston,
America, and Alabama are  places,  not rock bands. McDonalds never came in
Styrofoam containers. There has  always been MTV. They don't have a clue
how to use a typewriter.

Do you  feel  old yet?  Pass this on to the other old fogies. But don't send
it back to me,  I  feel old enough.
____________________________________________________________________-
Subj: Re: Mail Call NO. 65
Date: 3/1/2001 3:03:27 PM Eastern Standard Time
From:    vze2b3gy@verizon.net (ray hess)
To:    Ben517@aol.com
Ben: You are doing all of us a hugh & wonderful service, so as far as I am
concerned you are the boss, do as you want to do. If you say eat grass, I
think we should all eat grass.  Ray Hess


I'm not the boss - Just the messenger. Eat what you want and send what you
want. Would like to hear anything from anyone.
Ben
______________________________________________________

John Alicki has sent us the translation of the poem Manhay. It was translated
for him by Nancy Prushinski.

MANHAY

At All Costs

Where are the worthy GI’s running who liberated us,
They have their tanks, the Germans, with their equipment,
Have been driven back.  They seemed powerful,
Invincible soldiers, masters for a very long time.

Each time the return of the occupying forces is precise.
For the veteran of the underground the decision has been made.
Once again, in the Ardennes, there will be vengeance.
Flee people of the maquis, avoid judgment.

Civilians have left, replaced by soldiers.
Speedily, they have been crowded into truck beds.
Since Reims, in the rain, turning points, chaos,
For parachutists, what hell, no planes, no trucks!

They were forewarned...in the winter by the fire.
A surplus of potatoes, bacon, eggs.
The front has been made right.  Manhay is in the middle.
The site can be razed.   Order to leave the area.

The bolt on Fraiture has suddenly been released.
Spreading out toward Manhay, grenadiers and tanks.
Evening descending on the Ardenne obscures
The steel worms spitting their fire bursts

Suddenly, from behind the low clouds , the moon appears,
Unveiling the barrages, a chance for the enemy.
Under a pale halo, appears the reply.
______________________________________________
Nine tanks will be destroyed, the snow has betrayed them
This Christmas Eve, will be the breakthrough.
In the radio silence, for the imposed retreat,
An audacious Panzer, between two Shermans, slips in.
Spreading terror…a feat of great audacity.

The artillery intervenes from Monchenoul to Deux-Rys
In three days the batteries will destroy the dwelling     
Through numerous battles, until body to body,
Face to face with the enemy, their fate is sealed.

The region liberated, the village retaken,               
The spoils of the sinister building will be counted.
Where have the sheets gone, still so well-folded?
On a slain soldier, is where they will be found.

Friends have left in pursuit of the enemy.
But the heroic Ardenne regains his courage.
The meadows are cleansed and the lodging is rebuilt.
At vespers they tell the tale of this hard, cursed winter.

Today, the village, fixed like a terrace
on the side of the green massif where violent winds brew,
Has found peace, let us hope, forever.
Manhay, her story, her central square: it was well worth the detour.

Manhay “cost what it may”.  The alarm has sounded…and the order has come     
  
 Down.
Hold at all costs-“Tenir coute que coute”

                                                    Emile PIRARD
______________________________________________________________________-
Entry
of Mar 1, 2001 at 21:34 [EST]
Name: Bill Cornett
Unit: Son of Staff Sgt Joe Cornett "I" Co.
EMail: littlebill01@msn.com

How I found the 517th page: From a search engine
Comments: Do any of you guys remember my father, he never had much to say
about his experience in the war, though I always knew you were all heroes. I
have read both books that he had. Dad passed away in 1995. I would
appreciate any information you can give me on some of his personal history.
Thanks so much for all you guys did for the good of the world.
____________________________________________________________
Subj: RE: (no subject)
Date: 3/2/2001 5:48:35 PM Eastern Standard Time
From:    littlebill01@msn.com (william cornett)
To:    Ben517@aol.com
Ben;
Thanks for the reply. Dad used to go to the reunions until just before he
died in 1995.
A person has gotten in touch with me that was a relative to a Sgt. Robert
Miller, K.I.A. in southern France in Sept of 1944. I am sending him some
pictures that Dad had of this person. This is very interesting to me. Dad
never talked much about any of it, I know about some things becaise of the
books I have read.
Thanks for everything.
Bill Cornett
______________________________________________________________Subj:
Highly Recommended by John Alicki

Date: 3/2/2001 10:27:15 AM Eastern Standard Time
From:    jalicki@yahoo.com
To:    Ben517@aol.com
Hi,
John Alicki would like you to see this Web page:

Secret to a long and happy life
(By Debs Fun Pages)

Click below to see this page and to join the Debs Fun Pages mailing list:
http://www.flowgo.com/rsubf.cfm?id=exhl517SxsgDvwd&l=19&p=1070&d=03-02-01
Click Here

______________________________________________________________________

Who Lost A Dog Tag?
Wednesday, January 10th
By Bart Anderson

A sky train of 396 C-47 transport planes, stretching out for more than one
hundred miles, was nearing the French Riviera in the predawn darkness of
August 15,1944. On board were 5,607 infantry, engineer, and artillery
paratroopers who were spearheading Operation Dragon, the Allied invasion of
southern France. The remaining 3,400 men of the 1st Airborne Task Force would
bail out and land in gliders later on D-Day.

As each flight neared its designated drop zone, green lights flashed on in
cabins, and out the paratroopers plummeted into the black unknown. One of
those troopers was Eugene L. Brissey of Loveland, Ohio, a member of Colonel
Rupert D. Graves’s 517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team. Brissey crashed
hard into thick shrubbery; his dog tag and chain were ripped off.

Scrambling to his feet, Brissey chucked his parachute, and then stalked off
through the foggy darkness in search of his company. The least of his
thoughts was the lost dog tag, although it did flash through his mind that if
he was killed, he might be buried with the word “Unknown” marked on his
wooden cross. However, Brissey survived the war.

Thirty-seven years later, Colette Saeys, who lived inland from the French
Riviera, was raking her yard when she noticed that a small metal object had
been collected with the leaves and brush. Picking it up, she saw the name
Eugene L. Brissey stamped on it. Mrs. Saeys put the dog tag in an envelope
and stored it in a drawer.

Eight years after she found the dog tag, two Americans, a man and his wife,
from Albuquerque, New Mexico, visited Mrs. Saeys and her husband. The French
lady ran a Bed-and-Breakfast inn. After some conversation, the American man
recalled he was in the area during t