From: Ben517
Sent: Wednesday, July 27, 2005 3:36 AM
Subject: MAIL CALL NO.951 517TH PRCT--JULY 27, 2005
Hello,

2005 Biennial Reunion
August 15-19, 2005
Savannah, GA

Registration due now

website                                   www.517prct.org  
Mail Call                                  Ben517@aol.com
Mail Call Archives                 www.517prct.org/archives
Roster                                    www.517prct.org/roster.pdf  
Copies of Paratroopers' Odyssey can be purchased for $22.50 from Bob Christie.  390 301 Blvd. W. Unit 10C, Bradenton, Fl. 34205
Helen Beddow
 
Hello everyone!!

The numbers keep growing.  As of now the numbers are:
       Registered              272
       Mighty 8th Tour       152
       Ghost Tour               54
       Low Country Tour    117
       Dinner Cruise          166   (the boat is just for the 517th)
       Juke Box Journey     27
       Irish Pub                 107   (This might be just for the 517th also)
       Tybee island Tour     73

This is wonderful!!!  I will still take Registrations but they will have to arrive soon. 

Hal and I will be seeing your soon.  If you have any questions, please feel free to call me. (912) 925-2766

We will see you in Savannah for a great time
Merle McMorrow
 
Ben:
 
I responded to Yvon's note from Paris and his daughter sent me the following following:
 
Thank you so much for you nice mail. I am very touched by your warmness. I shall read it to papa (Yvon Hervais) and I am sure he has something to answer. As you know, he is almost blind, has parkinson and a very bad heart. He is all day on a chair and cannot walk alone. He needs help to answer the phone. But he is a wonderful courageous man, always interested in people, never complaining. I go to see him every day. Mama is tired also and not as available he need his wife to be. But they go along with a lot of simplicity.

VERY nice your website. I don’t understand all of it, but i’ll be happy to have a username and a password.   Love
 
Yvon is the fellow that gave all the women a bottle of perfume when we spent a night in the Paris hotel on our trip in 1999.  I think the hotel was Sosfitel (spelling)

                                                       Merle
Helen Beddow
 
Hello everyone,

The question has been asked if walking shorts are appropriate for the Reunion for both men and women.  Walking shorts will be most appropriate for everything except for the Banquet.  I want all of you to be comfortable and as cool as you can be in Savannah, and to have a good time while you are here. 

And as they say........."See y'all soon!"
Barney Hekkala
 
Hi Ben. There was a Bob Steel in "A" Company from our origin until he was commissioned in South France and moved to headquarters.  Have been trying to contact him for years. He was from the southern California area and I did hear that he was in South America as a mining engineer. A smart guy.  Seems he had a brother named Stirling who lived in this area but that was some years ago. Do not know any more than that. Barney Hekkala.
Leo Dean
 
I have a message from Cameron Gauthier.
"Please be informed that I received a letter from:
Margaret L. Lincoln, P.O. Box 883, Blairsden, CA 96103-0883
Phone: 530-836-0731
seeking information on: Raymond E. Lincoln, Company "A", 517th. Mrs. Lincoln would like to hear from anyone who remembers him from the service."
Can you put his in the next issue of Mail Call.
Thanks.
Leo P. Dean
Tom Copsey
 
Hi Ben, to date I haven't got any replys about my Dad but that's fine.  I will be at the reunion next month and look forward to meeting you and the rest of the fraternity.  I will bring a few things that my Dad left.  One is a picture of the third battalion taken I believe at Camp Mackall.  I hope to have it mounted - do you have this picture?
 
Cheers
Tom
Mike Kane
 
Ben, I am sad to report that my mother, Claire Kane, passed away last Thursday morning after being ill for most of the past year.  She attended several reunions with my dad and got to know and become friends with several troopers and their families. 

While I was staying with her in her final days, I came across the front page of a French newspaper "National Front" dated May 9, 1945 that my dad had gotten in France on that date.  I would suppose a lot of the men of the 517th had a copy on that date.  I thought perhaps you'd want to see it so I photographed the front page. 

Mike
Lory Curtis
 
Ben a note for Walt Smith

Walt, it is good to see you back up on line.  I spoke with you on the phone a few years back about my dad, Bud Curtis.  Yes you are right about Bob Steele,  he is also the guy who saved COL Boyle's life in Belgium.  Bob was from Long Beach, CA, my home town and my dad and Bob went to the same high school, but never knew each other until they were in the 517th.  After the war they pal around together and I can remember as a boy going to Bob Steele's house.  I remember in the 1950's he had a two door 57 thunderbird.  It was nice.  Anyway, my dad sure would like to hear from Bob if you or any others might know of his location.  I asked the question a few years but no one knows where he is now.
Lory Curtis, son of Bud Curtis, HQ, 1st Bn