March 4, 1945 - Germany

Sgt. Stanley W Safford 39539976

5^th Auxiliary Surgical Group

APO 339

c/o Post Master

New York  New York

5

Germany

March 4, 1945

Dearest Mother:

Received today V-Mail of February 12 and received three days ago your Air Mail of Feb 15 which enclosed your clippings of Gov. Dewey’s speech, which I have not read as yet for lack of time.

Your mention of the many Spring flowers in bloom makes me homesick, but I enjoy hearing of them,  Out here in the deserted garden the other day I found a small clump of Spring snowdrops among some primroses of the English type which have survived the Winter somehow, so you know me, I picked a few crystal glass on our dressing table and in front of the minor they make a pleasing picture and add a bit of color which I miss so much over here

Have just finished reading two very good stories, one entitled “The Larrish Hundred”[1] by A R Beverly Giddings and the other entitled “Four Years in Paradise”[2] by Osa Johnson.  I have enjoyed reading, for it has been some time since I had read any.  I will read the articles next and let you know what my opinion on them is.

You are perhaps right about the photo.   I did look bad and was tired.  That was shortly after our return to Headquarters.  Enclosed you will find a picture of our street at Dodd Field.  Our office was the second tent on the left.  The other side of Bulletin board.

Received also a V-Mail from Nelson in Hawaiian Islands.  Also a note from Miss Brode.

Very glad to hear of you getting rain after so long a dry spell.

I was never able to get a package off to Muriel, but will try again some day.

I hope Dad is able to get rid of his trouble without an operation.  Quite a life if a person doesn’t weaken.

I will try and have a few more pictures taken soon.  Would you or do you like pictures of the destruction etc.  Usually my camera is not handy when the chances are for a good picture as I hate to carry the box around.  If you get the chance I want you to pick up a case for me and send it on.

Soon I am going to have a box ready of my civilian shoes, short dress sox, Anatomy book, etc.  I am getting tired of carrying these things around and am going to send them home as I have worn them only once in Paris.  They are too nice to throw away.

Well about all for now and I will write again in a few days.

I have forgotten this number again.

All my Love,

Your son,

Stanley

Please excuse the writing as I have been writing on my knees

Dodd Field, Fort Sam Houston, 1944

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[1] Larrish Hundred by A R Beverley-Giddings http://pics.librarything.com/picsizes/d1/99/d19989a20b858275932694553414141414c3441.jpg

[2] http://www.nickharvilllibraries.com/2010/06/four-years-in-paradise.html

February 28, 1945 - Germany

Sgt. Stanley W Safford 39539976

5^th Auxiliary Surgical Group

APO 339

c/o Post Master

New York  New York

4

Germany

February 28, 1945

Dearest Mother:

After quite a while of no writing and during which time I have forgotten the number of the letter, this one is either 3 or 4.

As you see by the heading I have again changed locations.  This time I have come alone and am now on a new team.  The new team chief for me is the same Major Talmadge I worked for at Dodd Field some time ago.  Upon joining the new team I found Sgt Ryan here and a couple others I know quite well but they have gone on ahead today and again I am more or less alone.

As you see by the newspapers, things have been happening fast over here so I can tell you nothing more at this time.

Very sorry to hear of Mrs. Miner having another sickness and as you say she certainly has trouble.

I am very much interested in the new records you speak of and they certainly must be quite nice.

You ask about myself drinking coffee.  I only drink it once in a while and usually more often when they have nothing else to drink.  The Army coffee is usually very poor and I can never drink too much of that.

Our Headquarters has again moved and are located in a very nice place again.  They really have the luck.

I tried to get a hold of some very beautiful Delft wall plates a while back but was unable to do so as my time was limited and I needed it for sleep as I need it now, have been busy for 24 hours now and am going to bed very shortly as my eyes are going to fail to stay open very soon.

Enclosed you will find some pictures which Kupfer and myself took some time back.  They are in a way better.  Therefore at least something different.

Well this will be all for now and more will follow in another letter soon.

Take care of yourself and do not worry.

All my Love

Your son

Stanley

December 25, 1944 - Holland

Sgt. Stanley W Safford 39539976

5^th Auxiliary Surgical Group

APO 339

c/o Post Master

New York  New York

Holland

December 25, 1944

Dearest Mother:

After a very nice meal of Roast Turkey, Sage Dressing, Marble cake, hard candy. Fresh carrot strips, raisin bread and butter with coffee to drink.  The turkey was much better than usual since it was a little more moist and juicy.  In all we are quite full.

Kupfer and myself have been sitting here this afternoon discussing old times at Dodd Field etc.  It does me good to return here every once in a while but not for too long at a time.

Received a very nice box from Mrs. Kinsfather last evening as quite a surprise.

Well this is about all for now. Have wondered what you were doing today several times.  Did you have a tree this year? All for now.

All my love,

Stanley

Juy 2, 1944

Sgt Stanley W Safford 39539976

5^th Auxiliary Surgical Group

Dodd Field

Fort Sam Houston

Texas

July 2, 1944

Dear Mother

Received your card of “Olvera Street”[1] today as well as a nice long letter from Mr. and Mrs. Matsons.  Yes, I wish that I were there to enjoy the dinner etc with you.

The Laboratory group next door left yesterday afternoon amid a lot of confusion caused by the post in getting them all cleared.  I really will miss them since they were certainly a wonderful group of boys, in fact much better than our own group is.  They were all a little more educated and read the most important magazines etc.  They could always carry on a good conversation where our group is always at a loss for that. Their POE was changed to Seattle, Wash instead of San Francisco.

We as yet have not gotten our Port call, but when we do we will really move.  You see we will go thru three stages.  First the Staging center then from there (to) the Concentration center, from there the actual POE or port. It should take but a few days for the entire affair.  And we will more than likely get about five days notice to get ready and out of here on our way to the port.  We are certainly scheduled to have a long and heavy train.  We are supposed to have Pullmans but we can very well still sit up all the way.  They already have our seats all numbered and everything else all by the numbers.

Well enough for that, and on to other subjects.

I hear that Mrs. Tedesco is going to go up to Denver to see her folks this month and will return next month.

Our officers and nurses are all going out on a bivouac this coming Tuesday and will be gone overnight.

I certainly hope that they like it for a change. We were originally set to go but they changed their minds at the last moment.

Enclosed you will find a picture which was clipped from the post paper.  I(t) was taken a week ago when we had the award of “Good Conduct” medals.  We stood there and listened to the Colonel and our adjutant speak, and neither one of them can speak worth a clam.  When we came n we were all wringing wet. Also you will find pictures of the surgical truck, which were taken on my camera when they were loading it for shipment to Washington. I gave the original negatives to the front office.  Also a picture of a peacock which is not very good.

My new helper is really a grand improvement and is certainly a well educated person and is so much more efficient than the last Texan which I had in here.

I have accomplished so much more here lately and done it much better. Sgt. Ryan is also in here helping me now on some typing etc.  By the last of next week I should have practically everything done and ready.

I am going to send you some maps home that you may be able to use.  They are rather nice.

The weather has been hot as can be up until this afternoon when it started raining, which should cool things off some.  The weather was fine at the pool earlier today and the water ideal.

I have run out of news for this time so will close and I will keep you posted.

Love,

Stanley

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[1] http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r293/VIEWLINER/1004%20VLTD/OLVLA1.jpg

Good Conduct Medals - June 24, 1944

Inserted in the July 2, 1944 letter

April 10, 1944

Sgt Stanley W Safford 39539976

5^th 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

January 24, 1944

Sgt Stanley W Safford 39539976

5^th Auxiliary Surgical Group

Dodd Field

Fort Sam Houston

Texas

January 24, 1944

Dear Mother:

Received your letter of the 20^th today and will attempt to get one done this evening.  I would like to have gotten one written to you yesterday but I took too much time on one to Joseph and was too tired after that to do another one.

Gladys called Friday and asked me if I would like to go to the Richard Crooks[1] concert with her Saturday night.  I accepted and we had a very enjoyable evening and we thought the concert to be very good.  After the performance we stopped by a friend’s house and visited for a short while.  The people had practically their entire house furnished with Mexican things and even the house was adobe, quite different.

We have had some very warm weather here the last couple days, which was quite a change from what it was for a while then last evening it clouded up and this morning it began to rain about ten o’clock.  And rather than just start in very light, it poured for about an hour and hers rained off and off and on all day the same way.  You ask about the snow.  No it is very uncommon here and home and from what they tell me it very seldom snows here.

Yes I guess that Mrs. Miner will fell quite bad about Richard going over, but they go over every day and we may soon be on our way if the birds here have their way.  The Col. You ask about is a Doctor and I wonder if he is eve a good one at that.

There is only about three out of all the doctors we have around here, have ever had any sense when it comes to administration. But they never put anything other than a doctor to head Medical Units.  Any doctor from a Lt Col up is strictly administration.  And the two MAC officers we have here are a couple of dopes also.  Heaven help me if I ever go to OCS and come out the way they are.

Hold the Income Tax material up until after the beginning of next month since I may be home if things are carried out according to the chatter that they have here at the present time.

A 1944 aerial view of the POW camp tents set up on Dodd Field.

Saturday morning we got up to find the German prisoners all out, 1,000 strong on strike.  They were all standing out in the center of the compound in a large circle and refused to do anything.  It was all about somebody getting paid or something.  Well anyway the Captain who commands them ordered all food kept out of the area and sent his guards in with clubs and made them all line up in groups under the range of the machine guns in the towers and stood them all at attention and kept them that way all day except only once when they went to the lavatory.  They had no water or food all day and night and up until Sunday noon when they gave up.  If one of them sat down the MPs would go up and kick him to stand him up.  They put 35 of them abroad trucks and sent them off with none of their belongings or otherwise and they did not know where they were going.  These were the ring leaders.  While all this was going on they searched their tent and found American money etc., also canned food.  So they have had some very careful plans laid evidently from the looks of things.  They have always been quite curious about the animal surgery and one day one of them asked about it and Sgt Ryan told them they were going to use humans next.  I guess that Ryan rather scared him.  They have not been too curious since then.  The animals I speak of is about ten dogs one oh which has a litter of pups which have just had their eyes open about a week.  And then once in a while we even have a cat.  An we finally got the gate built and put in place after having to go thru a lot of red tape.

One of the dope Captains just came in and borrowed our typewriter to use at home.  Well we just got it back from the repair shop, and very likely when he gets thru with it we will have it there again.

All I have done all day is to sit here and go over figures and names of subjects for the new four weeks training program.  It seems that every time is left up to me in the end.  Now tomorrow I have a couple more charts to make out that is all pure foolishness and excess paper work.

I talked to both Major Skinner and Major Grubin today and they both get a big laugh out of the outfit and something was mentioned about the men getting along and Major Skinner remarked that that applied to the officers as well, and Major Grubin was telling me about all the non businesslike things that take place and he thought it was a big joke also.  He said that he could stay away forever and never miss the place.

Well it is getting late so I will draw this to a close for now and will write again soon.

All my love,

Stanley

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[1] Richard Alexander Crooks (June 26, 1900  – September 29, 1972) was an American tenor and a leading singer at the New York Metropolitan Opera. - http://en.goldenmap.com/Richard_Crooks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5yxjy-uegc

Symphony Offers Four Novelties: Max Reiter will follow, the intricately - orchestrated 4th Symphony of Tschaikowsky with a group of musical novelties on the second half of the program to be presented by the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra tonight at the Municipal Auditorium.

The four "Musical Miniatures" programmed are by Boccherini, Liadov, Rimsky - Korsakoff and Dinicu. In the Dinicu piece, "Hora Staccato," the string section will be "soloist" for this brief work.

The "Russian Sailors' Dance" of Gliere will close the orchestral part of the program, after which Richard Crooks, guest artist, will sing operatic arias and songs in English, including negro spirituals. (San Antonio Express, 22 Jan 1944, p 5)