To: 14thAssociation@1-14th.com Gentlemen, I have attached a letter concerning Thomas Bennett that you may use as you wish.   The letter was written largely  from memory with references to a few notes I had from the period of Corporal Bennett's death in 1969. It is a  memoir, not history, because I did not do the research of official documents that would be essential to sort out hard facts from sometimes fuzzy memory. Let me explain what prompted me to write the letter. In November 2000, I was visiting West Virginia University, from which I had graduated and where Thomas Bennett attended before entering the Army.   The letter is addressed to the President of WVU whom I knew. I encountered President Hardesty in the evening, after reading a newspaper account that day of the presentation of Corporal Bennett's Medal of Honor to the university. I told him that I recognized the events mentioned in the newpaper account and said that I had been present at the battle.   Some of Corporal Bennett's family and his former company commander Garrett Cowsert were also there when I discussed this with President Hardesty. So that is what prompted my November 2000 letter providing some of the context for the battle in which Corporal Bennett lost his life. Recently, I again visited WVU and went to the library to review its collection on Bennett.   The WVU library has about 11 inches of shelf space of documents and pictures on his childhood and military service, including my letter to President Hardesty.   My thoughts then turned to the 1st Bn 14th Infantry Association and I believe you should have a copy of this letter to add to the unit history and the memory of Thomas Bennett. (RETURN)