Fort Sam Houston, Texas
January 3, 1942 (1943)
My Dear Mother
Well here I am just where I thought I would be and what a paradise this is. I was certainly glad to be able to leave Camp Barkeley. There were eleven of us from Co A 62 to go and I last saw the camp there about seven thrity AM. We gathered at Battalion headquarters and from there we went to Regimental headquarters where we joined others from there. We got on army trucks and went up to the 53 Battalion where there were more. We were then put aboard Greyhound buses - four of them – 36 to a bus and headed almost directly South for San Antonio which by the way is 260 miles from Abilene. We very soon left the country around Abilene and came into a richer looking part of Texas where we found larger trees, some evergreen and some deciduous what types they were I could not get close enough to tell. We crossed good sized streams saw large herds of cattle and sheep and a few pigs. Saw some nice apple orchards and I believe peach or something like that type. In all we came into a more beautiful country.
As we came into San Antonio we came through the richer residential section and what beautiful homes, with a lot of evergreen shrubs and quite a bit of dormant material and some beautiful poinsettias which in some places had been nipped by frost but did not seem to detract from their beauty very much. And the grounds here are very beautiful with just loads of interesting material which I am quite sure will interest me.
We alighted here and were sent to various barracks which are simply wonderful compared to Barkeley Heights. They are thermostatically controlled heated wonderful electric lights in abundance and everything in the building that a person would possibly have need for except writing tables which are just across the way in the Recreation room.
And we also find we are treated as students and not as soldiers and we do not have kitchen duty or the various other duties which we had to contend with back there. I am on the second floor in the corner and I can look out one window and see the swimming pool and beyond the class rooms and the answers below are lined with trees and other shrubs such as privet crape myrtle and believe it or not Bermuda grass lawns.
We arrive at 5:45 and the lights are out at nine. We go to classes from 8:00 until 4:00 with an hour our for lunch which is quite ideal, then on three days a week we have marching and barracks clean up from 4-5 otherwise we have the rest of the time to ourselves which we can go to town or study or do as we please and we can go to town which is about a half hour ride away on a very efficient bus system as we please without having to go through the red tape of a pass etc.
The kitchen is run by a very efficient crew of negroes and whites and the food is very good, served on nice trays.
We see very few officers here and when we do they are colonel, captains or majors and they do not bother us and in town the saluting is not compulsory to the extent it was in Abilene.
Now to tell you more of what kind of school I am going to here. It is called Medical Service School, which is broken up into a Medical, Surgical, Pharmacy, Laboratory and maybe one other, in other words a person coming here if he passes will get a technician rating such as technical Sgts or tech Cpl. I belong to the Surgical technicians school. Whether I will like or not I do not know. But time will tell. The schooling consists of 4 weeks in class, 1 week in practice ward and 3 remaining weeks in actual duty in the Brooke Gen. Hospital which I am sending you a picture of and then in my case of an unattached person and the rest of the same type they pick out the 10 best and keep them 3 months more in actual work in the hospital which usually earns them a rating of Staff Sgt.
There are all types going here. The attached ones are the ones that are already attached to such as Air Corps, Tank Destroyer divisions and a great many others, which upon their completion f their two months training they return t their stations. Some of them are Sgts, Corporals. Private First class etc and there is no distinction between us. We all eat at together etc while at Camp Barkeley the cadre eat alone slept alone etc.
But we have none of that here. The one class and I can also look out the window here and see the W A A C S who have not been here long and are stationed about a block away and they are not thought too well of her either. And from now on I am entitled to wear one stripe and my title Private First Class. What do you think of that?
I think I will draw this letter to a close and perhaps go into town with one of the boys.
Where is Camp Young there and what is the Nazarene church like?
Will you please send me back the packet of letter which I sent home for I put some of the wrong ones in. It is 11:00 AM so I had better be on my way.
PFC Stanley W Safford 39539976
Co “B” Med Serv Sch
Barracks #3
Ft Sam Houston, Texas
January 3, 1942 (1943)
My Dear Mother
Well here I am just where I thought I would be and what a paradise this is. I was certainly glad to be able to leave Camp Barkeley. There were eleven of us from Co A 62 to go and I last saw the camp there about seven thrity AM. We gathered at Battalion headquarters and from there we went to Regimental headquarters where we joined others from there. We got on army trucks and went up to the 53 Battalion where there were more. We were then put aboard Greyhound buses - four of them – 36 to a bus and headed almost directly South for San Antonio which by the way is 260 miles from Abilene. We very soon left the country around Abilene and came into a richer looking part of Texas where we found larger trees, some evergreen and some deciduous what types they were I could not get close enough to tell. We crossed good sized streams saw large herds of cattle and sheep and a few pigs. Saw some nice apple orchards and I believe peach or something like that type. In all we came into a more beautiful country.
As we came into San Antonio we came through the richer residential section and what beautiful homes, with a lot of evergreen shrubs and quite a bit of dormant material and some beautiful poinsettias which in some places had been nipped by frost but did not seem to detract from their beauty very much. And the grounds here are very beautiful with just loads of interesting material which I am quite sure will interest me.
We alighted here and were sent to various barracks which are simply wonderful compared to Barkeley Heights. They are thermostatically controlled heated wonderful electric lights in abundance and everything in the building that a person would possibly have need for except writing tables which are just across the way in the Recreation room.
And we also find we are treated as students and not as soldiers and we do not have kitchen duty or the various other duties which we had to contend with back there. I am on the second floor in the corner and I can look out one window and see the swimming pool and beyond the class rooms and the answers below are lined with trees and other shrubs such as privet crape myrtle and believe it or not Bermuda grass lawns.
We arrive at 5:45 and the lights are out at nine. We go to classes from 8:00 until 4:00 with an hour our for lunch which is quite ideal, then on three days a week we have marching and barracks clean up from 4-5 otherwise we have the rest of the time to ourselves which we can go to town or study or do as we please and we can go to town which is about a half hour ride away on a very efficient bus system as we please without having to go through the red tape of a pass etc.
The kitchen is run by a very efficient crew of negroes and whites and the food is very good, served on nice trays.
We see very few officers here and when we do they are colonel, captains or majors and they do not bother us and in town the saluting is not compulsory to the extent it was in Abilene.
Now to tell you more of what kind of school I am going to here. It is called Medical Service School, which is broken up into a Medical, Surgical, Pharmacy, Laboratory and maybe one other, in other words a person coming here if he passes will get a technician rating such as technical Sgts or tech Cpl. I belong to the Surgical technicians school. Whether I will like or not I do not know. But time will tell. The schooling consists of 4 weeks in class, 1 week in practice ward and 3 remaining weeks in actual duty in the Brooke Gen. Hospital which I am sending you a picture of and then in my case of an unattached person and the rest of the same type they pick out the 10 best and keep them 3 months more in actual work in the hospital which usually earns them a rating of Staff Sgt.
There are all types going here. The attached ones are the ones that are already attached to such as Air Corps, Tank Destroyer divisions and a great many others, which upon their completion f their two months training they return t their stations. Some of them are Sgts, Corporals. Private First class etc and there is no distinction between us. We all eat at together etc while at Camp Barkeley the cadre eat alone slept alone etc.
But we have none of that here. The one class and I can also look out the window here and see the W A A C S who have not been here long and are stationed about a block away and they are not thought too well of her either. And from now on I am entitled to wear one stripe and my title Private First Class. What do you think of that?
I think I will draw this letter to a close and perhaps go into town with one of the boys.
Where is Camp Young there and what is the Nazarene church like?
Will you please send me back the packet of letter which I sent home for I put some of the wrong ones in. It is 11:00 AM so I had better be on my way.
PFC Stanley W Safford 39539976
Co “B” Med Serv Sch
Barracks #3
Ft Sam Houston, Texas
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