4 February 1945 - Holland

Sgt. Stanley W Safford 39539976

5^th Auxiliary Surgical Group

APO 339

c/o Post Master

New York  New York

Holland

4 February 1945

Dearest Mother:

Have here before me your most welcome letters of Dec 14, 30 and January 9, so you have an idea the way the mail had been arriving here recently.  Altho the other day we really had an abundance of mail for the month of December.  So far all that has arrived here recently has been Air and a couple V-Mail.

Yes I can well imagine the trouble which Jay is giving you now and of all the trouble in the future.  I very promptly answered him for the candied fruit and have sent him one of my recent pictures.

In Muriel’s letter which I received today she mentions George Ohashi as being in Los Angeles on business.  I was very much surprised to hear that.

I am certainly beginning to wonder just where the increased allotment has gone to for three months.  I am going to have to investigate a little.

You should never worry about the expense etc which I may go on gifts etc, as I enjoy doing it and I never go out my way to get things.  As a rule things are quite high and of no value so I choose to not bother.  I am in hopes of going to Brussels soon and you may get something from there.

In regards to your lace doilies mentioned in your letter of Dec 27.  They as well as the wooden shoes and little vases were all purchased in Bastogne, the little Belgian city so recently in the news.  The little soap shoes are some of my work, done in spare time.

I surely hope your glasses do you some good as evidently you are in need of something and I hope they are the answer to your problem.

Grace Safford, Jan 1945

All of your gifts sound very nice.

The lace handkerchief is not quite as nice as it could be.  The lace is just very poorly sewn on and would stand no wear at all.

Nelson owes me a letter as I wrote him last.  I am quite behind in all my mail as quite a bit of old mail has arrived recently.

I received your letter of Jan 1 with the 2 pictures and the 4 air mail stamps.  I really like the picture of you and appreciate your sending it.  I think the picture of Muriel and her friends is nice and Howard Kiel is a very nice looking fellow and I am looking forward to hearing from him.

In regards to the celebration you mentioned. We had a small one and that was about all.  I will tell you more later when my other news runs out.

We have done a little more moving here again and I am in a small room again which I enjoy very much as I have the privacy to write and have a restful mind.  We had to move after New Years and now again makes it two times so far this year in the same building.

I am now up to your letter of Jan 8 and will answer that one.

You have no reason to feel ashamed of not writing as I am quite tardy also with mine.

You have not yet acknowledged the receipt of my last two money orders.  I hope you have gotten them.

In answer to your question about me receiving all of your packages.  I have received all five of them and found them all in good order.  I have certainly enjoyed all of your nice long letters this season and enjoy going back over them before writing you today.

Christmas 1944: Earl Fickle, Muriel Safford, Carl Davis, Howard Kiel

Your mention of meeting people with war brings to my mind the thought that there are quite a few I would never have missed.  And there are a few of them I certainly will not miss if we were to part tomorrow.

Mrs. Miner mentioned Donald as being in bed but did not mention the cause.

One of the boys here knows just where the Lyons lodge is.  He says it is beautiful there.  His home is not far from Cour de Lain[1], Idaho.

No we do not have a chaplain and I feel as tho we are getting along without one.  I have seen some awful examples of chaplains over here.  Yes, we have the Engineers here.  They build all the bridges and other construction jobs.  Some of the 4^th Auxiliary boys were flown into Bastogne.  They received the Bronze Star.  One of the Majors of theirs is the brother of one of my Service School friends from Boston. He had a third III on the end of his name etc.  quite surprised to hear of his brother over here flying around.

I heard from Barbara Olmstead moving back East, didn’t help her much.

Well about all for now and more at a later time.

As always, all my love

Your son

Stanley

From the transcriber:

CODE: BOMBED(?)

---

[1] Coeur d'Alene

21 May 1944

Sgt Stanley W Safford 39539976

5^th Auxiliary Surgical Group

Dodd Field

Fort Sam Houston

Texas

21 May 1944

Dearest Mother:

Again it is Sunday and another uneventful week (has) rolled by so therefore is not too much to tell.

I went to see “Song of Bernadette” this afternoon and thought that it was an excellent picture and you should not miss seeing it if you have the chance.  It, of course, was slightly religious, but not too much that way.  And what surprised me was that there were several Catholic nuns in the audience and I did not know they ever went to theaters of any kind.

Well the “Fourth Auxiliary Surgical Group” has arrived at their destination and I will tell you when I find out as it is of great importance since there is one allotted to each full active army in the field. As I mentioned before there are already three in the European area.  It is also quite significant of the number of American troops we have there. An Army may have as many as 400,000 men.

The weather has been quite changeable here of late and hot as can be one day and raining cats and dogs a couple of hours later.  Last night was a good example of it.  It was unbearably hot yesterday and last evening but when I went to bed all of the curtains on the tent were up and I had only one blanket over me. About three thirty this morning a very cold strong wind came up and I barely had time to put the curtains down when it started to pour and I do mean pour, with a heavy wind to accompany it and was still going strong a half hour later but when it stopped I do not know as I want off to sleep.

Received your letter of the 16 May and also the papers with the pictures, yesterday.  Say, how did my pictures get in there with them?

I recognize quite a few of them.  It is really surprising to find out how many there are that I know.

I will have to write Nelson a letter now that I have his address.  I hope that this one will be a more permanent one for him.  Did he receive the Schick injector blades which I gave you to send to him?

We are having quite a time about our nurses and as you know we only have four of the great many we are supposed to have and there seems to be no signs of getting any in the immediate future so the WD tells us as there is a great shortage of them and we may not get all of even when the time does come around.

I wrote a short note to Jay today in answer to his letter of two weeks ago.

I received a letter from Enid Norris, guess Lawrence and Nathan did not escape the draft.

Well I have run out of news by now so will close send(ing) you all my love and telling you to take care of yourself.

Love,

Stanley