2005
Biennial ReunionAugust 15-19, 2005
Savannah, GA
Registration due before July 10, 2005!
Mail Call Ben517@aol.com
Mail Call Archives www.517prct.org/archives
Roster www.517prct.org/roster.pdf
The phone calls are coming in and the Registrations are coming in.........keep them coming!!
I know that you are hurrying to get the Registrations in on time, and that will help me with my records tremendously, however I know that mail often does not arrive when you want it to. As long as you have the Registrations mailed by the 10th, everything should be fine. I have to give my numbers to the DeSoto Hilton by the 16th of July. I can not guarantee that you will still get the 517th rate after that date. If you still want to register, you will need to talk to the Group Rooms Coordinator regarding the rates.
Rather than print the entire list of people that are registered, I will give a daily update of the names.
Since the last list, the following have registered:
Sandy Evangelisto (daughter of Ernest Olson)
Richard Hammel
Ed Henzl
Russ Miller
Karen Henzl Reece
Heather Cowan Riley (daughter of Ian Cowan)
William Webb
From the phone calls and email that I have received, I feel sure that we will have between 225 and 250 in attendance.
I have talked to so many nice people and I look forward to meeting them in person. Everyone take care. No hurricanes for Savannah, so keep packing those suitcases.
Helen
We of the airborne brotherhood are grateful to Steven Ambrose for bringing to light the WWII contribution of our small band of parachutists. We were only a small percentage of those in uniform, but we made our mark. We also owe a debt to Spielberg and Hanks for taking Ambrose’ Band of Brothers and making a realistic miniseries. Ambrose was a true historian. He made a story out of his books, but he hued to the accuracy standards of an historian. He and the Hollywood people did what Ernie Pyle and Bill Mauldin did during the War. They let the public know how it was "in the trenches."
There is another book published in May 2005 that is a worthwhile read–"Biggest Brother" by Larry Alexander, published by Penguin. Jan, who knows how to give good gifts, got it for me for Fathers’ Day. This is the story of Dick Winters life. He, as you may recall, is the main character of Band of Brothers. As I read it, I thought the book should be required reading for West Point cadets. As I read on, I found that West Point had discovered Dick. A try was made to upgrade his DSC to a Medal of Honor. That hit a bureaucratic snag, so Dick didn’t have a Joe Foss problem in boarding the plane for the Point.
If your local library doesn’t have a copy it might be worth a few bucks for purchase. Please wait until after Savannah so you won’t be strapped there.
My best, Howard H.