Hellcat News, (Godfrey, Ill.), Vol. 41, No. 1, Ed. 1, October 1987 Page: 4 of 40
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Page 4
HELLCAT NEWS
October 1987
Springs, Florida as the time
and place for the next SE
Chapter meeting. I sorta boxed
myself in on this one, having
scheduled two reunions for the
same weekend, about 90 miles
apart. I anticipate spending
one day at each if I can work
out the logistics. I have duties
at the ATFAR reunion which I
can't delegate, and have not
missed any of the SE Chapter
meeting yet, so will try to sat-
isfy both.
The recent shakeup in au-
dresses and zip codes here in
our county has caused a lot of
confusion. First, I have not
moved from my old home. The
Post Office changed our zip
code, from 33568 to 34668, no
big problem. Then the County
of Pasco changed our house
number from 604 to 8241, set-
ting up a 911 Emergency Grid,
and this was not too much of a
problem. The straw that broke
the camels back was changing
our street name from Harbor
Drive (we are in an all water-
front community) to Manor-
wood Drive. The residents all
got their backs up, and insisted
on a water-related name. After
much heated debate, and some
veiled threats, we were allowed
to have the name, Channel
Drive, assigned to our street,
not what we wanted, but better
than what they tried to push
off on us. So, officially, its 8241
CHANNEL DRIVE, PORT
RICHEY, FLORIDA 34668.
Wheee!!!
Now for some news of our
members. Got a letter from our
ole buddy, Paul Lozden out in
Oregon. Paul has been visiting
in Alaska, but was not too
thrilled with the weather, only
saw the sun three days. He did
some deep sea fishing, had
pretty good luck. He mentioned
looking up a "Potter" from the
12th, found his 12th AD patch
on a VFW Plaque, but no word
of Potter. I don't remember any
Potter in our company, but I
just may need a memory jog.
Anyone else remember him?
Someone said they thought he
was in Springfield, Ore., but
would need his first name to
try and locate him.
Paul Lozden has just been
installed as Commander of the
VFW Post in Eagle Point, Ore.,
and while performing his duties
at a parade, the location of a
WW II vintage M5A5 Light
Buddies at Barkeley on
the left John Cozzie (A).
With the soft drink bottle
Brock Boracchia (A) (17)
23rd
Tank
Battalion
ROBERT L. DOWNEY, SR.
004 HARBOR DRIVE
PORT RICHEY, FL 33588
Phone (813) 840-3448
BOOSTERS
Robert E. Seymour (A Co.)
Up until now, the main thrust
of all our columns has been to
encourage attendance at the big
reunion in Louisville, and by
the time you read this, that re-
union will be history. Since I
have to start this column even
before I head for Louisville, I
can't tell you if the attendance
was as we hoped, well over 500
members plus their wives
and/or guests. I hope for the
best, and sincerely hope some
of our ole buddies who have
been absent were finally in the
group at the Gait House. I ven-
ture to say I did enjoy the reun-
ion, mainly because I always
enjoy the reunions, but I hope
it was also because someone
whom I had not seen in all
these many years since WW II
finally showed up. If you miss-
ed it, we missed you, too!!!!
Now for other news. As most
of you know, the SE Chapter is
in the process of changing their
meeting time to the fall, and
since we didn't feel that we
could let it go over a year, we
have set a date of October 23-
24, 1987, at Holiday Inn, Silver
Tank was disclosed to him,
tank is located in Winnemucca,
Nevada. I am familiar with the
old M5s and M5Als, don't
know anything about the
M5A5s. As I recall, there is an
M5 series Light Tank at the
Patton Museum that was a lit-
tle different than the ones we
had in our company. It had fen-
der skirts, and somewhere
along the line we had those
skirts on some of our tanks but
they had a tendency to load up
with mud, etc., and were soon
discarded.
Got a nice note from Forrest
Smith, re: their Smokey Mt.
Chapter whing-ding, can't go
but wish them well. Also a note
from George "Birdman" Moss,
seems he will be delayed com-
ing to Florida this year due to
his injuries and the fact that
June can't wheel his big rig
around. Maybe something will
work out for him, will look into
it a little more later on this fall.
Hope those of you who miss-
ed the Louisville caper will try
to make one of the various
chapter meetings around the
country. We welcome any and
all former Hellcats who are in
the Florida area this fall to
come join with us at Silver
Springs in October, we promise
a good time, nice surroundings,
a reasonable motel rate, and
good sightseeing in the Ocala
area, and best of all, no snow!
Got a note from Bill Bartho-
lomew (D-92) that he won't
make Louisville as he has a
previous engagement in Phoe-
nix with the Military Order of
World Wars, of which he is an
officer. Sorry Bill can't be in«
two places at once, I know how
it is!! Also had a visit by Henry
and Anne Rohrback (493), they
will not be able to attend at
Louisville, either, some busi-
ness item that requires him
being here at that time. Will
see both the above at our Sep-
tember meeting here on the
Suncoast.
I do want to offer a word to
our many members who have
not been to any of our reunions
in the past, and there are
many!!! The days of our lives
are rapidly coming to a close,
and lots of your buddies would
like to see you. I use this forum
to tell those buddies who have
not been at a reunion to get
with it, we want to see you, we
want to renew old friendships,
we are an elite group, we have
been thru hell together and
everyone in that group are very
special people. Join us now,
before it is too late!!! The aver-
age age of WW II veterans is
65, many are older, not many
are younger. Our days are num-
bered, so join your buddies at
one of the chapter meetings, or
better still, at a national
meeting, and be proud of the
fact that you were one of a kind,
a HELLCAT OF THE 12th
Armored Division, the elite of
the American Army in Europe
during WW II. The 12th Armor-
ed Division was the first com-
bat unit in recorded history to
cross the Danube River by force
(The Crossing at Dilligen) and
no one can deny the record of
advancement that the 12th
Armored Division recorded dur-
ing the advance down the auto-
bahn by the 17th Infantry Bat-
talion and the 23rd Tank Bat-
talion in April of 1945.
I am happy to note that Paul
Fortenberry (C-23) has been
registered at the Gait House for
the 41st Reunion. I talked to
Paul at his home in Friona,
Texas, enroute to the 40th on
the Queen Mary, and he indi-
cated his intent to be at Louis-
ville for the 41st. I also note
that C Company will be well
represented at Louisville, and I
am very happy for them, they
are a very dedicated bunch of
nice people. I look forward to
enjoying the company of all
these fine folk at Louisville,
wish all the rest of you were
also here.
I close this column with the
wish that I will see many of
you next week at Louisville and
Fort Knox, at the dedication of
the memorial obelisk and the
various battalion markers near
the Patton Museum. Those of
you who, for whatever reson,
can't be with us, we wish you
good health and the sincere
hope that at some future date
you will be able to join us at a
future reunion, and remember,
above all else, IT'S GREAT TO
BE A HELLCAT, ONE OF A
KIND, A RARE BREED!!!
Bob Downey
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Twelfth Armored Division Association (U.S.). Hellcat News, (Godfrey, Ill.), Vol. 41, No. 1, Ed. 1, October 1987, newspaper, October 1987; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth410697/m1/4/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting The 12th Armored Division Memorial Museum.