Showing posts with label Detached Service. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Detached Service. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

April 17, 1944


Sgt Stanley W Safford 39539976
5th Auxiliary Surgical Group
Dodd Field
Fort Sam Houston
Texas

April 17, 1944

Dear Mother:

Again the week end has gone by and I did not write you.  In fact I am quite a few days behind in writing.
I laid in bed yesterday until late and barely got up in time for lunch.  Received your nice long letter of the 12, yesterday along with a three page typewritten one from Joe.  His letter of course was very interesting.  I have been worn out here lately more of the sudden heat which we have had the three or four day.  We are getting the heat from now on I suppose.  The heat has not been so very hard or anything, only we have had a lot of cross checking etc to do.
You mentioned going to church or rather liking to go Easter.  I did go Friday but laid in bed Sunday as usual.  I enjoyed the sermon very much but liked to have fallen asleep while or before the evening was over.
Did I mention to you previously that I had bought a new fountain pen, a Parker lifetime.  I think that it is a very nice one and have put it away for a while.  I am still looking for a Parker “51” for Dad. They of course are a little more expensive than mine.
We sent off 25 of our enlisted men today on a two months Bond selling tour, they may be gone even for a longer period of time.  And from what I hear the balance will go to Detached Service about the First of May.
Enclosed you will find a clipping which I saved from our storm of a couple of weeks ago.  You may be interested in it.  A couple of the boys got letters from New York with some of the pictures which had appeared in the papers there.  They all gave a nice flowery story of all the damage.
A lot of the boys arrived back from furlough over the week end. And two of them got married while home.  One of them I know fairly well.
I was up to see Sgt Ryan yesterday and I think he is really enjoying the hospital.  He is feeling much better and they have still got his jaws wired which makes it very hard to talk clearly.  He is making all kinds of yarn rugs etc.
I will get all of my Income tax material home to you provided I can get a hold of a blank short form to put this year’s figures on.  By rights you should pay on the amount of interest which you could received as part of the interest on my bank account.  Had you thought of it as yet?
How is Aunt Nina enjoying her freedom now that she is no longer working?
Yes, I want to go to Knotts Berry Farm[1] again for I sure enjoyed it there the once we were out.
The hoodlums are just now coming in from the baseball game.  They have baseball games(s) on the brain now and don’t seem to think of anything else.  They all can spend more money running all the way across town than any outfit I know of.
Well enough for now as I have no more news.

Good Night,

Love,
Stanley

[1] In 1928, Cordelia Knott's tea room and berry market, named Knott's Berry Place, opened on their family farm.  In 1932, Walter Knott created a new berry, a cross between the red raspberry, blackberry and loganberry. He named it the boysenberry, in honor of his friend Rudolph Boysen..  Two years later, Mrs. Knott began serving her famous chicken dinners.  Since then, more than 200 million guests have visited the park.  The park was acquired by Cedar Fair, L.P. in 1997.  Knott's Soak City, USA, a 13-acre water park adjacent to the amusement park, opened in June of 2000. http://www.coastergallery.com/GA/knotts.html

Dodd Field, Ft Sam Houston
soldiers holding baseball sized hailized hail

 

April 10, 1944


Sgt Stanley W Safford 39539976
5th Auxiliary Surgical Group
Dodd Field
Fort Sam Houston
Texas

April 10, 1944

Dear Mother:

I had better get this letter written off to you or you will begin to wonder if I am ever going to write you.  We are engaged now in the classification of our enlisted men and that is a huge job.  We are also starting a few more carts etc for a forthcoming inspection this weekend.  It seems that we are no sooner done with one when another one comes along.  I get rather tired of the entire mess since a few of us get all the work and the balance of the company lay around with nothing else to do.
The weather here has taken a very sudden change. Where we previously had a lot of cold damp weather we have the beginning of the extreme heat.  Saturday afternoon when I was visiting Sgt Ryan at the hospital a very sudden lightning and thunderstorm started and it started a fire on the other side of the Post.  And it just poured for a while and after it let up it cleared off and it has been nice ever since, in fact too nice.
Sgt Ryan will be in the hospital from 6-8 weeks.  He has t(h)ree fractures of the face and they have his mouth wired shut for traction.  He tells me he is going to take a vacation while he has the chance.
Received the very delicious box of candy and the attractive Easter card.  The candy is all very good and to my opinion you have not lost your touch for candy making.  The card was very nice. Received cards from Miss Mosher, Aunt Dell, the Chipmans and others.
Also received a nice letter from Joe.  I got the pictures off to them about a week ago.  So very glad to have all of that done. Received a nice letter from Mrs. Matson and the picture back from Jay.
He was telling me about the other friends of Nina’s being there.  He seemed to think that “Duke” had been given the seat of honor at the table but said that it did not bother him.  Don’t repeat this or he may hear of it. So I autographed the picture and returned it yesterday.
I received a card I guess from Muriel also.  The envelope had not even been sealed and she had not even signed her name. Where was her head when she mailed that?
I hope you have received the money orders by now.  I am out on a campaign to save money.
Does Aunt Maibelle have any chickens of any kind now?  She, as you say, will not have patience to keep from working.  She has to keep busy.
I should hear from Marshall soon as he should have received the picture by now.  I suppose George does get very lonesome all by himself down there.  It certainly surprised me to hear of Marshall’s marriage.  I just never thought of him as getting married so soon.  But he of course is old enough.  I am no longer so very young myself.  I guess I judge others by myself and there are a lot of people getting married younger than myself.  Do not let this worry you and make you think I am contemplating marriage now.  Ha! Ha! About half the company here is married and more of them engaged every day.  And the families are quite numerous.
Have Marie and Leland gotten moved into their house as yet?
While mentioning Leland reminds me to ask if the tennis racket of his is still there at the house?  I may want to use one if I can get a hold of one.
Part of our unit is in Fort Worth on a Bond selling mission and I would have liked to have gone but no suck luck for me.  I remain here.  I would like to see Fort Worth.
I imagine that the company will be all gone by the time you get this letter and you will be rather tired.
Not to change the subject but I really like the tie which you sent and it will be a nice one for summer wear.  We are going to start wearing khaki tomorrow, although the wool has not been quite as hot as it was prior to going into khaki last year.  The tie is almost an officer’s color but will go well with my own shirt.
Major Skinner flew to Chicago in the middle of the week and he will be back in two weeks.  He is flying both ways and has a good priority.  He was able to save so much time with the slow and poor trains.
Major Kuhns is back on Detached Service now and most of the others are also gone.  So I guess that we will sit here for a while this summer and enjoy Dodd Field.  Most of us (officers & em) would much rather be here than in India or elsewhere of that type.
Well enough for tonight and thanks again for all the nice things and I will write again soon.

All my love,
Stanley

Thursday, February 2, 2012

November 8, 1943


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[1].  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