Sgt Stanley W Safford
39539976
5th
Auxiliary Surgical Group
Dodd
Field
Ft
Sam Houston
Texas
November 8, 1943
My dearest Mother:
After
a long enough delay in writing you I am going to set down here and at least
make a beginning on a letter to you.
The
lights have been out twice this evening and above all that it is rather cold
outside and it makes it quite comfortable in the tent here with a nice wood
fire burning in the stove in the center of the tent which sure put enough wood
in them. Yesterday morning it was quite
chilly when I got up in the morning and we had call for a fire then also. So you see we are really getting the real signs
of winter here in more ways than just the trees turning orange and bronze.
I
finally got up town yesterday and sent the little piggy bank to the
children. Chances are that for Xmas I
will send the Chapin children some
of them also. They can break them quite
easy and I really should send them something of some type since they have done
things for me of that type which I did appreciate.
Tuesday
November 9
Back
here again and will write some more. I
have spent fifteen minutes trying to start a fire in the stove here and I think
that it is finally going.
Sunday
morning they took the Germans all up in small groups to get inoculated and as
they marched them by here they were all singing and they were really good as
far as voices went. The singing “we will see each other home again” and a
few other things of that type.
Also
while we were ready to freeze they were out marching in their shorts and
sandals which would be more than I could stand.
Enclosed
you will find four pictures which were taken on this boy’s German Zeiss camera. They are not very good. The one is not very bad of me in the close up
I am going to have some more of them made and distribute a few copies of
them. They were taken out in back of the
NCO’s houses and in back of the Grand Stand so they are shadowed quite a
bit. The last few days all I have done
is play politics of some kind or another and when evening comes I am quite glad
for the occasion to rest. How I get
tired of this mess here and sometimes want to go on Detached Service with the rest of them that are going.
Well
after another interruption I have made up my mind to draw this letter to a
close and get it on its way and will write again very soon and in the meantime I
will be working on a code for our use here so that we may try it out. What suggestion do you have here for
something of that type?
Well
good night for now, don’t give up hearing from me. Take care of yourself and as always.
Lots of Love,
Your son
Stanley
