From: Ben517@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2004 7:41 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: MAIL CALL NO.691 517TH PRCT--MAY 13, 2004
Hello,
Website                      www.517prct.org
Mail Call                     Ben517@aol.com
Mail Call Archives   www.517prct.org/archives
Roster                        www.517prct.org/roster.pdf
Howard Hensleigh

Dear Ben:

We appreciate Gene Brissey’s writing about Bergstein. It is something we should write about. Each person who was there is left with his own vivid recollections which should be written down. His emphasizing the tragedy of many who went the whole way with the outfit and then lost life during the last day(s) of combat is especially on target. We who survived have lived with that tragedy for a long time. I am sure we all think of the men who were killed on those final days each Memorial Day. I do and wonder why I made it and they didn’t. It is good to get it off our chests and it helps others understand what the outfit survived. Anyone in that "attack" had men killed and wounded right beside him. That any of us made it out unscathed is just short of a miracle.

What I like about the 517th is that we aren’t and weren’t a bunch of "belly achers". We did what we were ordered to do without many complaints. Col. Graves was convinced that the Bergstein operation was a diversionary attack. When higher headquarters sets up a diversionary attack, they don’t tell the unit getting the order that it is a diversionary attack. They don’t tell you afterwards either. I think the Colonel figured it out correctly.

Mail Call will help all of us have a more meaningful Memorial Day this year.

Thanks Ben & Bob, Howard Hensleigh

Toni Bucynski

Wanted to make sure that I was on the list to receive Mail Call and any other publications RE: 517th.  Thanks!
 
Toni Bucynski
Grandfather:  Alex Tait, Reg.HQ
625 Seventh Street
Huntingdon, PA  16652
 
814-641-7237
bucynski@pennswoods.net
Joseph Martel
Gene Brissey, I would like to see the picture of the 40. I don't remember
the picture myself. If it was taken in Joigny, I may have been in the
Stockade at the time, Thanks.
Joseph Martel, E Company
 
Entry of May 12, 2004 at 06:54 [EST]
Name: Kenton Floyd Immerfall
Unit:
EMail: mailto:%20kfihome46@aol.com
How I found the 517th page: From a search engine
Comments: My Uncle, Floyd A. STOTT, was a Lt. in the 517th. He was K.I.A. near Manhay, 27 Dec 1944. I would like to get in touch with anyone who served with this BRAVE man that I am named after. The last correspondence from Floyd that was given to me by a now-deceased relative listed his unit as Co. "I", 3rd Bn, 517 P.I.R. Thank you, Kent
Lory Curtis

Dear Ben,        

            Another Paratrooper from the 517th brings distinction to the organization.  See the News Release below.

Yesterday, May 12, 2004, the French Government notified my father, Harland “Bud” Curtis, HQ, 1st Battalion, that he was one of only 100 American veterans who fought in France during World War II to receive the French Medal of Honor this year.  The Medal will be presented to the American Veterans in Paris France on June 5, 2004.  On June 6, 2004, these veterans will also be honored at Normandy at a special ceremony hosted by French President Chirac and President Bush.  My brother and I will attend with our father to see him be presented with this medal.

 We are very excited about the trip and I know others from the 517th will be going over to France to be at Normandy.  We would like to find out if there is any way we could meet with other 517th troopers while in France.

Please let me know.

Lory Curtis

Baltimore Sun
April 21, 2004

300 D-Day Vets Invited To Paris For Anniversary

PARIS - The French government announced plans yesterday to welcome 300 veterans of the 1944 D-Day landings - chiefly from Britain, Canada and the United States - with free accommodation in top Paris hotels.

Ceremonies will be conducted in early June to mark the 60th anniversary of the Allied landings on the beaches of Normandy in northwest France. The invasion began June 6, 1944, and was a major turning point in World War II to end Nazi rule.

Former servicemen are expected from 13 countries and will be decorated with the Legion of Honor at a ceremony at the Invalides on June 5.

Rich Winship

Hi, BoomBoom,

Just wanted to say thanks for you prayers for my dad.  It means a lot to him and to me. 

I feel like I got to know you a little bit reading Battling Buzzards and if what's in the book is accurate, I can only say I would have hated to be a German who happened to run into you!

Best wishes and may God bless,

Rich Winship