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Dates!
April 10-16, 2005
Palm Spring, CA
More info soon
August 15-19, 20
I am William Edwards of the 517th Parachute Infantry Combat Team in Regimental Headquarters Company.
I was inducted at Camp Grant, Illinois and was sent to Camp Toccoa, in early 1944. About 3 or 4 weeks later the 517th was activated. There were only about 40 of us in the camp at that time.
During the Camp Mackall night jump, my friend Lou Cavett was killed because he had put his message case over his left shoulder. After the end of the war while still in France, I met his widow who was an office nurse.. She wanted to know exactly how her husband was killed.
Many of my friends were Donald Murphy who started the "Thunderbolt" while we were still at Camp Toccoa. Tom McEvoy who was my bunkmate, Dave Barry who was myy best man after the war. Most important to me was Lt. Robert Hackett who was my leader because I was the head of Special Services for the 517th,both in the United States and in Europe.
We
all returned to the United States from LeHarve, France when President Truman went
to the Potsdam Conference and his division from World War I was sent to Potsdam
and the 517th took their place to return to the United States on the way to jump
into Japan.
Talk about a small world, my older son was graduated from Duke Medical School and his medical certificate was signed by Terry Sanford, who was the president of Duke University.
Thank you for your Mailcall service.
Bill Edwards
12 Delgado Lane
Hot Springs Village,Arkansas 71909
Merle McMorrow
Ben:
I see the name Howard Rose mentioned in one of your emails. It also mentioned he played in the 1940 Minnesota State High School Basketball Tournament in St. Paul.
I also played in that tournament; in fact we won it beating Red Wing, MN in the final game 43 to 40. It was quite a thrill coming from Breckenridge with a population of 2,800 and playing in an auditorium with an attendance of 11,000.
Two years ago I attended a basketball game in Breckenridge and was introduced as a member of that team. After the game a fellow came up to me and introduced himself as a son of Howard Rose who had played for Tracy in that 1940 tournament.
Small world.
First of all a Happy New Year from Christa and I. We hope you have a very good one.
Thank you for putting my request on the mailcall. I got replies from Mr. Hensleigh and Mr. Baird, and Mark Landreth put me in contact with Mr. Joseph Martel. Mr. Hensleigh was able to give me an excellent account about Capt. Woodhull.
The response was amazing, to be honest. In the meantime I also got Nila Gott's book about Nacho Vasquez and hope to get some other 517 books too.
I would also like to ask permission to use materials from your website. I would like to use the patches/badges of the 517th and 460 FA Bn. I also would like to use a picture of Lt. Alicki which has Capt. Woodhull in it. I don't know if you can give permission or that I should contact Lt. Alicki over this? Of course I will give proper credits to all materials used and put up links to your site as well.
I can, if you want, sent you pictures of the Graves of the 517th men buried at Margraten, when I have them, next time I go. I intend to go sometime in the next few months, when the weather clears up a bit and I can make some good pictures.
I like to state that I have no commercial interest in this site, and that it is meant as a tribute site.
Looking forward to your reply.
Kind regards,
Stevin
http://www.fayettevillenc.com/printer.php?Story=5907633
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