July 15, 1943

Cpl Stanley W Safford

5^th Auxiliary Surgical Group

Dodd Field

Ft Sam Houston

Texas

July 15, 1943

My dear Mother:

Here I am on CQ tonight and tonight is the night that I would be leaving for home if things had worked out as planned. But instead I am here  Tonight I am going to have the job of handing the others who are going on furlough their furlough papers and that can not be done until twelve o’clock tonight.

This stationary here that I am using is some that someone has left in some of our supplies so I decided to use it to a good advantage.

You perhaps are right in the last paragraph of your last letter in trying to think that it is for the best which I am in a way beginning to think that it is really for the best since the last few days things have been really happening around here for me and I am in a way very glad that it is happening now instead later when my furlough is supposed to arrive.  Well what is happening is that my OCS application which was turned in a week ago last Monday has gotten into action and it has really surprised me because of its suddenness.  Well Tuesday this sent me notice to appear before the Reviewing Board on Wednesday afternoon at 1:30 so up I went yesterday and after the board I went up for a physical examination and am going to finish it up tomorrow morning so it does look promising for me for awhile anyway.  So I am in high hopes for awhile anyway.

That is about all that I have done the last few days is chasing that business down and will not be done with it very soon either.

 And then this afternoon I recorded three sets of grades in the little black books which are supposed to contain everything when they are completed and they are certainly a big lot of work and quite difficult to understand very well.  And the Major has other ideas that are just as bad if not worse and the more complicated the better.  All we can set and do is sweat and worry about how to straighten out some other mess of the day before and then the next minute I am on the run down to the New School room where there is always confusion and a bigger mess.  And then the next minute I spend going once Training Film material with some dope office or trying to read some terrible hand writing which most of them have here and the next time I am trying to start the clerk off on something.  I received a letter from Miss Mosher today and enclosed were a couple pictures which she took of the tulips and roses.

You mentioning Ed Pfare does remind me that I do owe him a letter but when it comes right down to it I really don’t care if I do answer his letter very soon.  He took his time about answering my last one to him and when he did he had some sarcastic remarks about my PFC which I then had and then he goes on to tell how terribly busy he is and then in the next paragraph all about all the shows, stage and screen and of the concerts and operas so he can’t be more busy than myself and he never writes any more than a page.

Outside there are some troops going out on a night march of some type and it is now ten o’clock so I believe that I will close for the evening and write some more tomorrow when I feel a little more rested and quiet.  Good night.

Here it is again the end of another day and almost the end of another week.

After coming home from the hospital this afternoon I went to the mess hall and ate supper after which I went to my tent and layed down and dosed off to sleep and woke up just a few minutes ago to find that the boy who lives in the tent with us who has been on furlough to Santa Paula, Calif. had just gotten in and he was quite pleased with his trip home.

Well, the news certainly sounds very good now and I hope that it will continue that way and be all over in a short time and then I can forget OCS and return home to the things that I really like.

I have been recently doing nothing other than running an office and that work is far distant from anything that I ever thought I would be doing but it is good experience for me I suppose.

What is Richard Miners grade now that he has graduated?

I sure hope that Nelson is still around when I do get my furlough for I also would like very much to meet him.

The trip to Big Bear would do you good, why don’t you go along?

I can well imagine that the corn is very delicious and perhaps we can have some boughten(?) corn when I get home because we have had corn on the cob here only once or twice and you know how fond of it I am.  We get so few things of that type here and sometimes what we do get the cooks always manage to ruin.  We have a good baker or two.  But I guess that we are lucky to have even them with the mess everything else is in,

Well had better close now and go to bed so take care of yourself and don’t worry.

Love as always,

Stanley