January 19, 43
Dear Mother:
What do you think of this stationary. I thought it rather pretty and I think you like the emblem of the Medical Department. I will probably only be able to write you a period of five minutes for they are having one of those shows this evening that they request our presence and they usually have a roll call, quite amusing perhaps my writing will be better later on for I am writing sitting on the floor writing on my footlocker.
Well it is now after the show and I am back. The movies were on the spy problem. One of them was a film which was made by the British Government and showed what I think were some actual photos taken in the Dieppe raid, they were too real to be acted. We have seen some very interesting films since my coming into the army. We had a very gruesome but very interesting. They were sponsored by Billie Burke and taken in the Good Samaritan and Cedars of Lebanon hospitals there in L.A. And believe me they surely did not have a thing unseen. It showed them with seven needles in a person’s back giving them a spinal anesthetic and each of the needles believe me were about 3 or 4 inches long and later they showed the doctors hand probing for something in the abdomen and the picture showed finger, neck and other abdominal operations quite a picture.
Did I mention to you of maybe getting a chance for a three months advanced nursing or surgical course. Well the group I am in was called over to the practice ward where a nurse (a 2nd Lieutenant) and a sergeant put on a show of surgical technique of the proper way of putting on gown, gloves and draping the tables and patient preparatory to operating with out contaminating them in any way, quite a procedure and to climax it she told us she would take half the group tomorrow and the other half the next day and we are going to go through the same procedure and even today she watched us each and every one very carefully so it is going to be our first test and I am sure going to try my best, even though I wonder if I will ever make a surgeon’s assistant. What do you think?
I shall close or this evening and take some time for study. Some more tomorrow. Good night.
January 20,
Well we have had another day and they sure go fast here and it seems months since I have been in the army. Does it seem that way to you?
Today ten of us were called into Captain Rosembaum’s office and had another interview and he seemed to ask me a few more questions and he seemed to ask most of us different questions and the questions he asked me mostly questions regarding tracking if I had ever done any and if I liked it and if I would care to track all the time talking in his very fast way but they ceased to scare me a long time ago, that is most of the officers’ favorite trick. Of course what will come of it I do not know. They ask so many foolish or seemingly so. Personally I think our path is all laid out for us without the questions.
I have observed that in everything the Army does, they just pick out a bunch and send them here and there regardless of qualifications whether they are fitted for the position. For instance they brought down here with us a man who never has been very good, so as soon as he got here where he could get whiskey he simply got on one big drunk and the amusing thing was he brought out his bottle and carried it around in a briefcase and was he careful with his case. Well anyhow they finally caught up with him and gave him 30 day detail and are sending him out at the end of the month. And then they tell us that they are spending more on the Medical Department technicians than on any other branch of the Army. They say that it costs them $300 to put one of us through the school here for two months and when we are finally through with our training we are some of the most expensive and costly property of the government. Then they waste time and money sending bums here.
I was quite amused this morning in the kitchen seeing the negro Pfc giving orders to the privates (negroes) and the noise that was going on.
We have one colored boy here going to school taking Dentistry. He sleeps alone and eats at one long table by himself which only he eats at. Rather funny to see him sitting there alone. His name is Washington.
Did I ever tell you they gave us a Dental inspection at Barkeley and they gave me number 4 which is the best.
Well they gave me another No 4 here but they called me in yesterday and put me in the chair and had me open my mouth and he asked where I had my teeth cleaned and said that they needed nothing and seemed quite surprised. They had quite a fuss at Barkeley about them pulling teeth instead of filling them, and in a few cases they pulled all of them and due to the regular army tie ups they went without fake teeth for a month or so.
Miss Mosher has been very kind to me of late. The other day she sent me one of those #1 boxes of chocolate covered cherries and you know how much I like them and she has also sent me the garden section every week.
I am sure going to try my best and send here those roses for she certainly deserves them.
My latest grades have been very satisfactory. None below ninety and that I think is very good, but I shall still continue to study and I am afraid I shall have to draw this letter to a close.
Have you heard from Joe? Did you know or had I told you that there is a huge Texaco Oil refinery a short distance from here and the smoke is settling around it now. I shall write very soon again.
Your son,
Stanley
Dear Mother:
What do you think of this stationary. I thought it rather pretty and I think you like the emblem of the Medical Department. I will probably only be able to write you a period of five minutes for they are having one of those shows this evening that they request our presence and they usually have a roll call, quite amusing perhaps my writing will be better later on for I am writing sitting on the floor writing on my footlocker.
Well it is now after the show and I am back. The movies were on the spy problem. One of them was a film which was made by the British Government and showed what I think were some actual photos taken in the Dieppe raid, they were too real to be acted. We have seen some very interesting films since my coming into the army. We had a very gruesome but very interesting. They were sponsored by Billie Burke and taken in the Good Samaritan and Cedars of Lebanon hospitals there in L.A. And believe me they surely did not have a thing unseen. It showed them with seven needles in a person’s back giving them a spinal anesthetic and each of the needles believe me were about 3 or 4 inches long and later they showed the doctors hand probing for something in the abdomen and the picture showed finger, neck and other abdominal operations quite a picture.
Did I mention to you of maybe getting a chance for a three months advanced nursing or surgical course. Well the group I am in was called over to the practice ward where a nurse (a 2nd Lieutenant) and a sergeant put on a show of surgical technique of the proper way of putting on gown, gloves and draping the tables and patient preparatory to operating with out contaminating them in any way, quite a procedure and to climax it she told us she would take half the group tomorrow and the other half the next day and we are going to go through the same procedure and even today she watched us each and every one very carefully so it is going to be our first test and I am sure going to try my best, even though I wonder if I will ever make a surgeon’s assistant. What do you think?
I shall close or this evening and take some time for study. Some more tomorrow. Good night.
January 20,
Well we have had another day and they sure go fast here and it seems months since I have been in the army. Does it seem that way to you?
Today ten of us were called into Captain Rosembaum’s office and had another interview and he seemed to ask me a few more questions and he seemed to ask most of us different questions and the questions he asked me mostly questions regarding tracking if I had ever done any and if I liked it and if I would care to track all the time talking in his very fast way but they ceased to scare me a long time ago, that is most of the officers’ favorite trick. Of course what will come of it I do not know. They ask so many foolish or seemingly so. Personally I think our path is all laid out for us without the questions.
I have observed that in everything the Army does, they just pick out a bunch and send them here and there regardless of qualifications whether they are fitted for the position. For instance they brought down here with us a man who never has been very good, so as soon as he got here where he could get whiskey he simply got on one big drunk and the amusing thing was he brought out his bottle and carried it around in a briefcase and was he careful with his case. Well anyhow they finally caught up with him and gave him 30 day detail and are sending him out at the end of the month. And then they tell us that they are spending more on the Medical Department technicians than on any other branch of the Army. They say that it costs them $300 to put one of us through the school here for two months and when we are finally through with our training we are some of the most expensive and costly property of the government. Then they waste time and money sending bums here.
I was quite amused this morning in the kitchen seeing the negro Pfc giving orders to the privates (negroes) and the noise that was going on.
We have one colored boy here going to school taking Dentistry. He sleeps alone and eats at one long table by himself which only he eats at. Rather funny to see him sitting there alone. His name is Washington.
Did I ever tell you they gave us a Dental inspection at Barkeley and they gave me number 4 which is the best.
Well they gave me another No 4 here but they called me in yesterday and put me in the chair and had me open my mouth and he asked where I had my teeth cleaned and said that they needed nothing and seemed quite surprised. They had quite a fuss at Barkeley about them pulling teeth instead of filling them, and in a few cases they pulled all of them and due to the regular army tie ups they went without fake teeth for a month or so.
Miss Mosher has been very kind to me of late. The other day she sent me one of those #1 boxes of chocolate covered cherries and you know how much I like them and she has also sent me the garden section every week.
I am sure going to try my best and send here those roses for she certainly deserves them.
My latest grades have been very satisfactory. None below ninety and that I think is very good, but I shall still continue to study and I am afraid I shall have to draw this letter to a close.
Have you heard from Joe? Did you know or had I told you that there is a huge Texaco Oil refinery a short distance from here and the smoke is settling around it now. I shall write very soon again.
Your son,
Stanley
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