20 February 1945 - Holland

Sgt. Stanley W Safford 39539976

5^th Auxiliary Surgical Group

APO 339

c/o Post Master

New York  New York

2

Holland

20 February 1945

Dearest Mother:

Received today your most welcome letters of January 22 and February 2 and they answered a lot of my questions previously asked.  I am also quite relieved to hear of the $35 money order.  Now you have one more on the way which was mailed yesterday.

You mentioned nothing of the amounts involved etc. in the will I am rather curious although I have no reason to be so.

The weather outside here today is quite muddy since it has rained for the last two days and just the other day it looked like real Spring.  Anyway nature is getting ready as the buds are all swelling and will be ready when Spring does arrive.

Also received the Air Mail stamps which were enclosed in both letters.

Also very glad to hear of the allotment and Bonds finally getting all straightened out and in order.  Any of the money orders sent I want you to use them or deposit them to my account and use them for the purchase of stock or such things.  I am glad to hear of you thinking of buying more.  They are for me money better than the bank or War Bonds.

We were playing cards here at the house with the people the other evening.  We had a very enjoyable time topped off with some very good wine with cherries etc in it.  The wine was currant.  You remember how I liked the currant wine Clarence[1] brought down with him a few years ago.

We are going to work tonight and without a doubt will be up all night as we are First Call.  Last night we were Third Call, so slept.

We have been issued new sleeping bags and they are rather nice if a person can prevent himself from being entangled in it as it has a habit of becoming trusted around the sleeper.  We have just laid our sleeping bags on the matters which is on the bed in our room.  So we are quite comfortable.

Dad taking the fruit trees etc to the desert is a very good idea.  They should do alright if they are not eaten up, and have a mild winter the first year.  Were they not rather expensive?  Did you get any kind of a discount?

In looking over Gertrude’s last letter she tells me he was in England and expecting to be sent over here.  Did you know he was here?

I met a nurse here who knows Gaylord Hess[2] in Chicago.  She says he has a special incubator that they were using at St Luke’s where she worked.

Yes, I remember the Camillia “Franciscus.  Very beautiful.  Also very expensive variety.

Well can think of not much more tonight so will close for now.

I heard from Susanna Ingram.  Their three are really doing well.  Funny about those kids.

Well good bye for now.  Take care of yourself and the same for the rest of the family.

All my Love,

Stanley

PS:

Yes, I think you are right about the desert trip you should be the one to take a vacation once in a while.  Very hard for me to understand why she should care so much about going up there is more than I know.

Very amusing about the chick from Florence.  You are perhaps right about it.

Enclosed find four notes

 – 3 Luxembourg

-          1 – 10 francs

-          1-20 francs

-          1-50 francs

- 1 German

-          1-100 marks 1908

Signing off.

Note from the Transcriber:

CODE: SITTARD

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[1] Clarence WILDE

[2] Gaylord HESS, son of Charles Hess and Bertha Safford, b Mar 1890, Newton Co. IN.  Bertha Safford was Stanley’s paternal GreatAunt, making Gaylord and Stanley 1^st cousins once removed.

March 30, 1944

Sgt Stanley W Safford 39539976

5^th Auxiliary Surgical Group

Dodd Field

Fort Sam Houston

Texas

March 30, 1944

Dear Mother:

After a very busy week I am going to find time to write you a few lines.  We have been getting ready to start out a new training program, our seventh, and that always involves work for all of us here.

Then to top off the week we had one of those big inspections this morning and Maj. Grubin came back from the field, raving because of the dumb bells answering the questions the way they did.  He sure wasted no time in going over and telling the colonel what he thought of his lambs.  So he will very soon start a program which they will never get out of their minds.

Galveston bivouac - March 44

Some of our group are going to Fort Worth sometime next week with a demonstration for participation in some kind of War Bond Drive.  They are also taking with them the Surgical truck that we have here with us now.  General Kirk designed the truck and it is worth $50,000 dollars.  Quite a play thing.  It has a double thickness tent, the inner one white for reflection of light and the outer one black for camouflage.  The truck has hot and cold running water, autoclave, electric lights and a great number of other things including enough supplies for 60 operations.  The main idea is for it to be used as a supply truck with the tents attached on the tail end.  The diagram as shown here

Well I think that my friend Freddie who used to be Mrs. Tedesco’s assistant is going to go over to his friend who is the Commanding Officer of the Persian Gulf Area.  What a break! He is only a Brigadier General tho.  He used to be his private secretary when in civilian life and the Gen was then a Col. Here in the Eighth Service Command.

One of Sgt Ryan’s friends wrote and asked him if I was any relation to “Baby Snooks”[1]’s father Hanley Stafford[2], the radio stars.  He had seen my name on the “Good Conduct” award sheet.  Several have asked me the same question.  It sounds so similar when over the radio.

Sgt Kupfer has started going to lectures on “Post War Education” here lately.  He gets all excited about a thing for a while and then lets it drop away.

Have you heard from Joe Scheltema lately?  He owes me a letter.  I have the picture all ready to send but have not done so as yet.  I wanted to write a line when I do send it.  Yes I can well imagine Aunt Nina’s great desire to be through with work.  She has done it for so long.

I am also quite anxious to hear of “Jay Day” and all that took place and what he did etc.

Well tomorrow I will have this office floor to scrub and all else in here to clean up for the week end.  I have not cleaned the floor here for some time.  So I am sure that it needs it.

I heard from Uvalde North(?) in Tulau. Wrote interesting long letter as always.

Will close now and will write again soon.  What do you want for Easter? Let me know.

All my love,

Stanley

April 3, 1944

Dear Mother:

I put off writing this time so that I could get the enclosed money order and also send the Easter card.  They are rather hard to find here, much less good ones of any kind.  You may consider the “us” as Muriel and I.

The Money Order is to finish off the balance which I got from you for my furlough last fall and the balance is to be applied on whatever else I owe you.  If any left, deposit it in the bank towards another Am T & T some day.  I certainly should have paid what I owed you a long time ago.  I am able to save more now since I do less running around.  After all I have seen the most of San Antonio so why go again.

Well I suppose you have heard the news by this time of our giant hail storm here yesterday.  The news here today said a million and a half dollars damage.  Yesterday about noon this huge black (the darkest cloud I have ever seen) cloud came over and all of a sudden the hail about the size of marbles began to fall and they became larger and more heavy.  They came down so heavy that a person had to yell to be hears by another person in the same tent.  I brought one in and it measured 1 inch across.  They seem to have been larger upon the post and in town as they broke windows, neon signs, street lights and went through the tops of the old type car roofs.  A lot of the cars which have the turret top which were outside appeared this morning with a lot of small dents in the metal.  And the old tin roofs really took a beating.  Well it will be something for me to remember.

Sgt Ryan is in the hospital today as a result of four Mexicans jumping him downtown Saturday night and knocking him unconscious and taking his “Longines” watch ($125) which was a gift from some relative a few years ago, although they did not get his money.  They must have been scared away or something of that type.  I do not seem to understand why that sort of thing continues here when it happens so often.   The police don’t seem to do much about it.  A person would hardly recognize him the way his face is swollen etc.

You asked me about “Lady in the Dark”, I thought it was very good and a wonderful job of Technicolor and filming.  The story of course is something different from the everyday thing.  I also saw “Buffalo Bill” the other day and thought that it was very good.  It is also in Technicolor and a very good portrayal of his real life.  Otherwise I have not seen any others of any kind a lot of them are not worth seeing in my way of thinking.

I suppose Clarence & Frances are there by the time you will have received this letter.

Give them my regards and tell them I am sorry to not be able to see them.  I suppose their children have grown quite a bit since last I saw them in San Francisco.

Well they have the bee in their bonnet about flying all the way to “Yellowstone” or “Grand Canyon” on the next bivouac.  Can you imagine such a thing.  We really drew the attention one our last trip.  We got some pictures today from one of the plnes which flew back with us this last time merely for the purpose of taking pictures.  You will get one of them if I can get a hold of one of them, for you.  They are all entitled “Airborne Medics”, what a joke!  Well let them spend the money while they have the chance I guess.  But what the last one must have cost.  We will pay for it someday.

Well enough for now and I hope you all have a grand and beautiful “Easter”.

Love,

Stanley

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[1] http://www.radiospirits.com/BABY-SNOOKS.php

[2] http://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/hanley-stafford/

March 12, 1944

Sgt Stanley W Safford 39539976

5^th Auxiliary Surgical Group

Dodd Field

Fort Sam Houston

Texas

March 12, 1944

Dearest Mother:

It has been some time since I wrote you and quite a bit has happened since then.  I hope you received the air mail special delivery which I mailed regarding the income tax.  I am certainly tired of that thing and the more I see of it the more sick I get of it.  I spent about 1 ½ hours on the mess and then got nowhere.  That is the first time I ever heard of them wanting the total income of the year before.  And the old fool tried to tell me first that I would get nothing back and I asked him why I wouldn’t while others in the same condition were.  I don’t think he knows any more about it than I do.  Don’t ever again send me anything of that type for me to take care of. I do not have the time, nor the patience for such a lot of fool(ish) things.  If  you can’t have it take(n) care of for me, just throw it into the waste basket and forget it.  It is next to impossible for me to have the afternoon off or any time at all off.  When I get thru with this mess I will have wasted a full day and will then work at night to make up the work missed and I do enough of that now.  I would rather pay someone to do it for me and then get the thing over with.

I received the wonderful box of cookies and candy the other day and I want to thank you so very much.  They are all certainly delicious, especially the candy.

Perhaps the very latest news is that I was called again for a physical examination on the OCS question.  I went up for that the same day that I went into town on the income tax.  I had been excused for the examination only and went to town on my own afterwards.  They called me back again for a retake on part of it yesterday.  Either they made a mistake or something of that type.  They made one last time you know.

I had a new crystal put in my watch also.  The new one is a “Rock crystal” and should be a very good one.  This one sits above the watch a little higher than the other one did.  It is certainly a very clear one.

With the latest scare of my leaving they sent one of the Sgts in the company in to help me and he is one of the First Sgt’s clique and I sure don’t trust him.  But if I leave what should I care.  Of course I have not left as yet.

 

You asked once before where Sgt Kupfer went on his furlough.  He went to San Francisco and returned on the train ahead of me.  Corporal Johnson went to the Air Corps and I received a letter from him the other day.  He is getting along quite nicely as he always will since he is that type that always does get ahead.

Have you heard anything more from Clarence[1] and Frances since you mentioned them in one of your previous letters?

Yesterday we had a representative from the Lilly Chemical Co out to give the officers a lecture and show a picture on a type of anesthesia which was very different since it was in Technicolor.  The man had a load of samples of all kinds which he gave to the officers.  I got a few vitamins etc which I may use.

All week here we have had nothing but disagreeable weather and a lot of mud combined with a lot of rain.  Today is the first time the sun has sho(ne) and really been warm enough to make a person comfortable outside without a sweater or jacket.

The clippings in your last letter were quite interesting.  It seems funny to put only 60 sailors in such an expensive house tho.

I have my head all covered with olive oil now, and am planning on washing it very soon as it has needed it for quite a while, but have not done so for fear of catching a cold.

Sgt Kupfer would like to see “Lady in the Dark”[2] at the Post Theater this evening and I believe that I will go with him.  I hear that it is quite good as far as color and beauty goes.  I am staying away from the War pictures altogether now and believe that I can get along without them.

Quite surprised to hear of Jay’s refusal of Aunt Nina’s dinner invitation.  He really must be mad.

How is Aunt Nina feeling now or is she still on vacation?  She will feel much better after she quits work and thinks a little more of herself and her welfare.

I received a letter from Mrs. Tedesco the other day.  She mentioned of getting a lot of reading done which she had been unable to accomplish while still here.  That is always the way tho.  My own reading is becoming caught up a little better now than it was for a while.  I always like to keep up with the news, what there is of it.

Has the same woman who I gave the subscription for Reader’s Digest called again?  My subscription expires next month.

Well the afternoon flies by and my head needs washing so I will close now.

Thanks a lot for the delicious box of cookies, candy, cake and nuts.

Take care of yourself,

All my love,

Stanley

Photo: Clarence and Frances Wilde and sons, Forest and Clarke

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[1] Clarence Wilde was Stanley’s cousin. Their common ancestor was Isabella Griswold who married 3 times.  Clarence was the son of George Henry Wilde, grandson of Charles H Wilde who was the 2^nd husband of Isabella, while Stanley was issued from her first marriage to James Hartwell through their daughter Cora. Isabella later married William Henry Matthews who survived her and with whom she had 2 sons: Ralph and Elmer Matthews.

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_in_the_Dark - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_in_the_Dark_%28film%29