May 13, 1943

PFC Stanley W Safford

Co “B” Med Serv Sch

Barracks No3

Ft Sam Houston

Texas

May 13, 1943

11:00 o’clock am

Dear Mother

Well here I am still here writing for my call to go but it has not come as ye and after 1 o’clock today I shall be the only one left.  But who am I to care? I have not done a thing all week and am not going to hunt anything down to do. After me telling you this you are going to ask me why I have not written you more often then.. Of course you know me and my trait of putting everything off until later and that later just never seems to come around and the days go by so fast and I am kept fairly ell occupied with keeping clothes clean, shoes shined and last night I went into town for dinner and afterwards went to the River Theater and listened to the band.  On one side of the river is the stage and on the other side is the bank with outdoor grass covered seats just like the Hollywood Bowl is formation and the fireflies were surely beautiful over the water.  The boy that went with me had never seen that before and he quite enjoyed it.  We had a very good meal: shrimp cocktail, fried chicken, new potatoes, rice and gravy, a very good salad (fruit), iced tea, hot rolls and gooseberry cobbler as a dessert. And it was fairly cool in town last night along the river. In fact surprisingly so, it being so warm everywhere else.

Well, here I am at my new destination and none too well pleased with it either.  It consists of two long rows of tents, board walks and still here at Fort Sam Houston. There is a fairly large group of tents here all surrounded by barracks etc on the other side.  From what I can gather this group may be here about, the shortest, 6 months and maybe even as long as a year or more before going elsewhere.  This group has only been here about three weeks.  Lew Ayres was in the last group that was here.  The tents here have wooden floors which does make them a little more comfortable, but they are still tents and in no way compares with what I left.  And what I gather the boys that are here so far have done nothing at all since their arrival here.  And the one meal that I have had so far here has been nothing to brag about but was fair.  I have already asked the First Sgt. About applying for OCS and he, different from the last one, seems to be more willing to be of service than some of the others have been.  He told me that he would get me the necessary material in the future and get someone here interested in it.  Most of the other boys here have only been in the army about 12 or 14 weeks and then they send me here.  But perhaps I shall wait until after the first of the week when the new program starts and then perhaps judge more easily I am beginning to think that the Med. Service Sch. Was just and is a great big mess and just something more to add confusion to an already big mess.  I received a nice note from Aunt Maibelle yesterday and was in hope of hearing from you but since you, not knowing of my coming or going, you very likely have not written.

The news on the African front looks very encouraging and the sooner they are done all over the much more satisfactory it will be for me and perhaps for the rest of us here and everywhere else in this mess.

It is certainly very hot and sultry outside today and the heat just comes through these tents like there was nothing there at all.

Well there is not much more that I can write for now but will write you more later and I hope that you will not be getting letters from me here for long.

My new address is

PFC Stanley W Safford

5^th Auxiliary Surgical Group

Ft Sam Houston

Texas