Update Italy Commeration WWII 2005

[Walt's Daughter]

Received this today from Ken. There is also an attachment that shows the planned itinerary for the commeration as stands today.

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Happy New Year to all.

 

Over the holiday period our committee has worked hard on advancing our plans and getting the word out.

 

We have a conference call for our committee to go over next steps on Wednesday evening at 6PM EST. Call into 914-381-5353 x267. If you would like to participate in the call please respond back by email or phone. We can certainly use more volunteers if any one has time to help out. Attached is our latest updated plan document.

 

Over the past month we have been communicating with county, state, and national levels of the American Legion. We have also identified over 150 veteran’s groups around the country to invite to participate. We have found contact information for many associations representing Army divisions and regiments, Navy ships, and Air Force bomber and fighter wings which served in Italy during WWII. Several have conducted similar trips to Europe to visit sites they passed through in WWII and to visit the cemeteries where their comrades are at rest. For example, outstanding work has been done by the Battle of the Bulge Veterans Association and the Anzio Beachhead Association.

 

I am also very pleased to mention that a very fine community choral group from Pelham, the Pelham Larks, has expressed interest in making the trip to Italy and providing patriotic music for the ceremonies.

 

We have also been looking very closely at finding ways to lower travel cost for those who are interested in joining us. I appreciate the efforts of Post 50 member Frank Barbieri and Harriet Balter of Rich World Wide Travel.

 

It has been great to hear from veterans like Ben Palmer from the 36th Division who expressed appreciation for what we are trying to do. Ben has a great book on his experiences going first into Italy then into southern France. I visited Sunday with 10th Mt. Division member Frank Carafa who is building strength and feeling better day by day after a hospital stay in the fall.

 

With less than 120 days left to departing for Italy, we are looking forward to going over our plans this month with the WWII 60th Commemorative Committee in Washington and representatives of the American Battle Monuments Commission both in DC and at the embassy in Rome. We see the ceremonies at Nettuno and Florence being very similar to American Legion Memorial Day ceremonies held in thousands of villages and cities across the country. We really appreciate the support provided to us by the hard working staffs of the WWII 60th CC, the ABMC, and the embassy staff in Rome. They do a great job every day looking after the needs of military members and veterans.

 

I received a nice response last week from Col. David Hackworth who many of you I am sure have heard on Imus and many other news outlets always in support of the average soldier or military member. The Col. mentioned he is has a health challenge which precludes traveling with us to Italy in May and I want to extend our best wishes for a complete recovery. His website information is found below but I want to highlight the memorable quote he passed along:

 

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly Proportional to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their Nation".

George Washington

 

Thank you Col. Hackworth and to all on this distribution for your support of our project.

 

Ken

 

Kenneth G. Kraetzer

Sons of American legion

American Legion Post 50

Pelham NY

 

Vice President

CBSI

550 Mamaroneck Avenue, Harrison, New York 10528 USA

914-381-5353