Save the Dates!

Florida Mini-Reunion 2005
January 23-27, 2005
Kissimmee, FL

Annual West Coast Party 2005
April 10-16, 2005
Palm Spring, CA
More info soon

2005 Biannual Reunion
August 15-19, 20

Website                        www.517prct.org
Mail Call                        Ben517@aol.com
                Mail Call Archives       www.517prct.org/archives
                 Roster                          www.517prct.org/roster.pdf

Leo and Joyce Turco

Hi Ben,

We are happy to hear Gene Mars (Chop, chop} is alive and well. We are sorry to hear he has become so alone in his thinking except for bowling. We had many good times with him and his sweet wife Jane. Both here at reunions and in Europe. Gene treated all our guys so many time to big meals but would never let anyone do anything back for him. He called all the guys his brother. Wondered if his son would mind having our 517th know his E-mail address as it would be a great way for us to each mail him letters to let him know we all have been thinking of him. We always exchanged Christmas Cards which stopped after Jane passed away. We continued to send them but had heard he also had passed away.

Sometimes it is sad not to know our good friends are still alive and that we have quiet being in touch with them because we think they are gone.

It took us a few years to know that Dan Sada, A Battery 460th and it was only that we found out he died of a heart problem when his darling daughter who remembered us from the CA reunions E-mailed us. We kept in touch with her and her mother for a while but now the letters have stopped. We saw that Mrs. Dan Sada was listed as a member but no one told us he was gone.

Well, if you feel Gene's son will not mind sending out his E-mail address please publish it. We all will understand if he does not answer but would want him to know we all remember him fondly and with some comical things that happened when we were together.

Hope you enjoyed you Tahoe trip. Leo wants to know if you ski? We do hope to make the reunion in Augusta if I can get some help with Leo having chairs available to sit. Won't be able to take side trips unfortunately but he sure wants to see all of you who can make it.

Best wishes to you and Fran.

Joyce and Leo Turco A Battery 460th

Darrell Egner

Ben

Thanks for sending out a special Mail Call on our friend Gene and a big thanks to Dan Mars for his prompt reply to my E-mail. First of all I am pleased to find that Gene is still with us. It would appear that I had some facts wrong but what can you expect from an old guy that never was noted for his memory.

As Dan mails Mail Call to his Dad maybe Gene would consider coming back to the fold if other troopers would talk to him through Mail Call or snail mail. The rooster shows his address is 6183 McAbee Road, San Jose, Ca. 95120. Savannah in August 2005 would be a perfect start.

Most of us are only know or remembered in the company we served in but in Chop Chop's case he was probably widely know throughout the Second Battalion and loved by everyone that ever talked to him.

Again Dan and Bob thanks for the effort you both made to keep his memory going. Just maybe we can get him to come back to the finest group of men that ever fought a war. General Seitz you were always one of his favorites, how about a direct order!

Darrell Egner

Hq. 2nd Bn.

Joe Miller

Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend the Kissimmee reunion this year. I am still trying to recover from surgery in April and don't have strength to make the trip to Florida. I talked to Bill and Marge Conger last evening. Bill had a rough December with pneumonia but both he and Marge are doing fine now. We learned that Garnet Dalyrmple just returned home from two weeks in the hospital after a fall. Have a good meeting and keep us informed. Best wishes and Airborne--Joe Miller

Tom McAvoy

Janice Desso, I new your father well, we were in Regt. Hdq Co. together
he as Cadrey and me as a Recruit, A very likeable man. When my family
came to Toccoa to visit from Indiana , Paul took us in his car to
Toccoa falls, on a Sunday. I don't know when he was transferred to H. Company, But When I was transferred to H. Company there he was??

Tom McAvoy

Gene Frice

Dan Mars,

    Dan, please extend our best regards to your father. Gene was respected by everyone in the 517th. He made most, if not all, of our gatherings and had an ability to add to the event, merely by his presence. I recall at one of our gatherings he sponsored the luncheon at the Presidio for the entire gathering; troopers and family members and refused to accept any contributions to the cost of the event. Seldom was he seen without a smile and a greeting for all. His partner in our happiness was Jane. We miss them both. My wife Margaret, carried his money clip (dime and paper clip ?), until her recent death.

    Please tell Gene our ranks will not be "to full strength" unless he returns to our "dirty several hundred."

    Another 517th trooper     Another Gene        Gene Frice, F Company