Cpl Stanley W Safford
5th
Auxiliary Surgical Group
Dodd
Field
Ft
Sam Houston
Texas
August 15
My dear Mother
It
is here a very warm and sultry afternoon which I hope will be broken up soon
because there is a nice mild breeze coming up in the distance or shall I say it
is here now. These breezes of the
evening they tell me, are a sigh of the fall coming on. I have written two
other letters today: one of them to Muriel who I have not written to for quite
a while.
The
new Major which has taken over the P&T Office here is a very nice person to
work for, before he took over he was around here but I never had the occasion
to do anything for him. He does not seem
to know how to take a hold of things and when I am gone he will leave me a note
saying “at swimming pool” so he doesn’t seem to worry to any great extent and
leaves things more or less up to me.
Sgt
Ryan had a clash here the other day and he asked the major for backing and he
got it even tho it required him to tell the 1st Sgt where to get
off. So around and around we go here day
after day, and the Lt Col sets placidly by and lets them fight even taking
sides. Yes I guess that it is quite a
sight to see the Blair children and then acting. I do not suppose that I would recognize a lot
of them on the street.
Had
I mentioned before that I had started to read “The Sun is My Undoing”[1],
very good but entirely too long for me to start another one like it. It has some 1200 pages.
Yes
the Air Corps is really the only
thing that is making great advances towards getting ahead and we have had quite
a few from here leave and nothing can step them since tho Air Corps has first
choice on anything anywhere. The Col
made the remark that he would have nothing but a bunch of morons and below 60 IQ
if it kept up. I would like to have told
him a thing or two at that time for instance if he looked out for the good ones
which he had here he may be better off.
I
know the name of the cactus which you speak of but can not recall it just now.
There is a very large family of them and they all (are) very attractive.
You
ask about the OCS affair. I have not
heard as yet but from what I hear conditions are very favorable for me and
before Major Skinner left he said that he was in high hopes for me on it. One of his friends here, a Lt., told me that
it was a secret but that Maj Skinner
was also trying to leave. So you see we
have quite an organization here. Just
one big happy family (ha ha!)
Last
week I had occasion to work with the new head nurse of the group and she is
like all the rest who will not acknowledge any soldier as knowing anything but
she will and is careful of me and Sgt
Ryan. She is a 1st Lt ANC (Army Nurse Corps).
We
never have 33 of the 132 officers which we are supposed to have and they are
coming in groups of two or three every day or so. Some of them are really nice but others never
amounted to anything in civilian life and are big shots here and they are
unbearable at times. I have a notion to
go up to the post this evening and visit for awhile and then come home and go
to bed and get some sleep which I don’t think that I will ever catch up on
until I get back home.
The
other day one of the tents down the row caught on fire and caused quite a bit
of confusion. It started by the light
wires rubbings the top of the tent where they come in. One of the boys took the fire extinguisher
and shot it at the flame and the electricity came down it and knocked him down.
Just
recently they examined the limited service boys here and are going to send them
home. They have, you know, disbanded Limited Service from here on. Then are fairly reliable rumors that they are
going to bring another Division in here the latter part of the month. I will hate that because it will make things
so crowded again going and coming from town and all the other inconveniences
that it will cause. Fort Sam is so
beautiful when it is not all crowded. It
is such a large place that they have room for a lot of lawn and trees
around. And people always ruin these.
Well,
the European situation is beginning to look better every day and I do not
believe that Italy can last much longer. And Sweden latest move is very
encouraging since it shows that Hitler is losing face in Europe, or at least
that is my opinion.
We
recently got in ten new fellows who are not quite up to par but are better than
a lot of them that we already have. The selective
Service is just about dwindled away. That is a way from good men anyway.
Had
I mentioned we going out to a very good seafood place here in town the other
evening and of how good a meal it was. Half
a lobster and some delicious iced tea.
We
took a very nice long hike the other day and for a change it was fairly cool so
therefore we had a real nice walk. We
passed a good sized hog ranch which simply had hundreds of them. The first time I knew of them raising any
hogs of any kind down here. The hay and
other crops of that kind have been mown some time ago since the heat ripens it
so very early. Everything is all dry
again. It turned green after the last
little shower we had but does not last very long.
We
had for lunch today some fried okra. Did
you ever taste any of it? It is very
good and adds a little something different to our diets, which never change
very much.
Did
the Spider Lily bloom that is in the front of the house this year. They have a couple very beautiful clumps of
them down here in town. The Crape Myrtle
and the Oleanders are still blooming quite profusely. They have so many different colors of both
down here. Otherwise the beauty of the
trees is just about spent since their leaves have begun to look quite old and
withered and the hurricane didn’t improve it either.
I
am getting quite thirsty for something cold so think that I shall close for now
and will write again very soon. I am
just going to make time from now on.
So
you take good care of yourself and don’t worry about me. Give my regards to the rest of (the) family
and Goodbye for now.
All my love,
Stanley
No comments:
Post a Comment