July 19, 1945 - France

Sgt. Stanley W Safford 39539976

5^th Auxiliary Surgical Group

APO 339

c/o Post Master

New York  New York

Marseille Area, France - 19

July 19, 1945

Dearest Mother:

Another eight days have gone by and I have not touched pen or paper during that time, so decided to finally put my mind to a few lines this afternoon.

During the past week I visited Marseille once and as usual came home quite tired as you know how I walk once I get started.  I visited the Cathedral there and was really quite impressed by it.  It stands atop a hill overlooking the entire city and the bay.  A person can se everything from the front portice.  Inside is some of the most beautiful mosaic work I have ever seen.  Most of it done with gold and silver with the other colors inlaid.  After the cathedral I went to the theater to see Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in “No Love”.  I did not think much of it.

The statue of Mary and child which is many feet high and weighs 5-6 ton atop the church is one of the most beautiful things I have yet seen.  It is all gold gilded and may be seen for a good many miles in all directions.  On a close bright day the statue glitters in the sunlight.

Receiving a letter from Jay telling me of a great triumph the dinner was etc, etc, but was very amused to hear your version of it.  I certainly do not envy you on such parties.

Sorry to hear of you having more trouble with the Buick after getting it from the shop.  Hope you are able to get it in good shape again.

Yes I can well imagine the neighbors and the garden which they will have in that run down place.  It has never had any real good care and it will take some time before they get any real results.  I am very much afraid that the neighborhood is going to the dogs.

Has Richard Miner said what he was going to do upon his return to the Air corps? They may keep him right there n the states somewhere.

Have received your letters 30 and 31.  The latter was received yesterday in very good time.

Was glad to hear that Dad had a nice birthday.  I had wanted to get him something but I am in no place here for that.

While in town I got some French “Greeting cards of no great value, but they are something to have for people o their birthdays etc.  Well have to get a couple off for Marshall and Joseph, or at least ready to mail, since I very likely will not have the chance when their birthday comes around.

It must seem very strange for you to have children around the age of Virdens.  It very likely does you a lot of good tho.

Glad to know what you think of Marshall and wife.  I rather suspected by reading between the lines of his last letter that all was not well.  George always said Marshall needed someone to cheer him up so maybe he now has his wish.  I sincerely hope Marshall will be happy and will not regret his marriage.  He may have decided that him being alone was no good so he may have decided to get married in a hurry.  He never liked to be alone.

I can just see you in the kitchen canning cherries, apricots etc just as you used to do.  Why don’t you low down a little?

I mailed a package yesterday containing some books.  One of which is a book of prints which Olson gave me.  The others are some children’s books which you can put away for me except for three of them which are inscribed on the inside of front cover to Jon.  I want you to take the prices off them and sometime while out that way take them in.  I think there is one large and two small ones for him. Then there is some picture postcards for my collection.

The weather here has been very hot and as always a lot of dust blowing around.  I wish we would have a real downpour.

Glad to hear of the painting arriving in goo shape, but have begun to wonder what has happened to parachute silk and jackets which were sent some time before.

Quite surprised to hear of you all being invited to Richard Miners wedding.  Really must be quite an affair.  Where are they going to live?

Perhaps it would be a good idea to again restock the rabbits and start again.  Better results perhaps would be had.

The combs, watch band etc were all in good shape and the olive spread was very good on some crackers Ryan had one evening.

The fuchsia very likely got too much water or not enough or some borer got into the stock.

I am looking forward to seeing the pictures you mention.

http://images-02.delcampe-static.net/img_large/auction/000/103/958/545_001.jpg

Col. MacIntyre is no longer with us and I hear that he is on his way home at the hospital he was at is being dissolved.  So all Good Luck to him for he deserves it.  A lot of the others have also gone and the group is not the same.

Well all for this time and I hope you are all in good health and do enjoy yourselves when you can.

All my Love,

Your son,

Stanley

Enclosed one (1) postcard of chateau d’If

January 7, 1944

Sgt Stanley W Safford 39539976

5^th Auxiliary Surgical Group

Dodd Field

Fort Sam Houston

Texas

January 7, 1944

Dear Folks:

Well we are getting some rather chilly weather here tonight and this office is like a barn, the fire went out and I am just now getting I started again from the hot coats in the bottom of the stove.

Was very glad to hear from you in your letter of the 1 Jan. an as always I enjoy the clippings in the letters.  Was very glad to hear from Dad also.

Well I am just about able to see over the top of the work here now and am very glad of that.  My old clerk Johnson is back again and has already done quite a bit of the small things here for me which is a great help.  Altho he very likely will not be accepted for the Air Corps for which I sure don’t blame him, anything to get out of here and away from this mess.

Sgt. Kupfer has been sick the last few days and I have been called on to do a couple things for the colonel, so yesterday he asked me to cut  special order making some reductions in grade etc and the 1^st Sgt is really worried for it is right into his clique, quite a mess.  And they are all after him around here now.

My major told him he had better not hear of him not giving me the fullest amount of cooperation, and he sure does where he sure used to think he was funny by not doing so.  They really have him going now.

How come Maibelle (to) pick(ed) Inglewood Cemetery, that place never did strike me as being so very wonderful.

I, at the present time, owe Nelson a letter and will write so and mail it to the old address.  Surely hope he gets something good out of it.  I think he deserves all that he can get.

I had never heard of discharges for defense work.  The only kind they are giving now are physical of some type or Section Eight (mental).

I have as yet not received a letter from Marshall.  Quite glad to hear of his job, may do him some good afterwards.

Yes I think fort Sam Houston is rather nice compared to lots of others and from the looks of things here now I think we are going to be frozen here for a while yet.  All I done today was to work over the T/O with the major and then turn around and find a note from the Col. drawing my attention to some very complicated forms which are going to be filled out in place of some O already take care of.  He likes to wash his hands off the whole affair, he wouldn’t understand them anyway if he had to fill them out so just as well.  And the Adjutant is no better, with him the more eyewash the better.  He thinks everyone thinks the same as he does as far as displays goes.

I received a letter from Thelma today and one from Mrs. Tedesco yesterday. She is quite well satisfied at being home again and believes she will like it more than the library.

It seems that the more I write the fewer letters I receive.  Jay also owes me one now and I like to keep it that way.

It is getting so cold in here that I think that I will go to bed to get warm.  My writing is terrible since I am so tired and my fingers are cold.

So Good Night!

Take care of yourselves,

As always,

Stanley

August 15, (1943)

Cpl Stanley W Safford

5^th 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 1^st 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 1^st 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

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[1]By Marguerite Steen - http://greatpenformances.wordpress.com/2011/05/21/the-sun-is-my-undoing/