March 25, 1944

Sgt Stanley W Safford 39539976

5^th Auxiliary Surgical Group

Dodd Field

Fort Sam Houston

Texas

March 25, 1944

Dearest Mother:

Well we are all back from our Galveston bivouac and yes we are glad it is over with.  We are all quite tired and none of us have any too much energy to do too much.

I received two letters from you while out there and they were most welcome.

First of all I want to thank you for the little surprise gift of the two sided mirror.  It is just what I needed and it will come in quite handy.  Another good feature is that it is metal and therefore less breakable.  I am also quite pleased with the photographs.  They are very good.  I did not have the time before bivouac to take care of a lot of things but will get them done now.  The thanks for the gifts just simple slipped my mind.  I will try and write a better letter hereafter. You have very likely received the box with the red material in it by this time.  I do not know what you might use it for.  If you don’t want it you keep it for me and I will make some cheap curtains or something of that type out of it.

It was decided that I was to fly down and ride back by motor convoy on the bivouac but the colonel decided to send me back by plane also so back I came and arrived here yesterday feeling a wreck and I got up this morning and went to work and put a small dent into the work here.

We left at about eight o’clock last Monday morning and rode in trucks out to Alamo Army Air Base where our planes were just arriving, a total of five, four of which were C-47 and one C-53 a cargo plane which carried our jeep and a few hundred pounds of baggage. 

These planes only had two engines and carried twenty passengers setting on seats along the wall and the baggage was all piled down the center isle.  There were also windows in the plane which made the trip much more interesting.  It took us two (2) hours to fly from here to Galveston, flying an average speed of 120-150 miles per hour and from 1500 to 2000 feet elevation.  We didn’t know even when the plane  took off or when it landed because of the smoothness.

From there the group marched out to the bivouac are where we stayed.  I remained behind to arrange transportation for our baggage etc since all we had was the jeep.  I finally got a large truck for our use and then the Col. And myself went on our way to Fort Crockett[1] which is a sleepy little fort on the seawall which I imagine is quite nice in the summer time.  From there we went on out to the area where we remained in waiting for the other half of the unit which arrived the next day at lunch time.  Our area was down below the seawall away out in a restricted military area with a lagoon between us and the seawall.  At high tide vehicles had to pass thru a lot of water to get to the highway, a small stream otherwise.

Well we had nothing but a vacation all the time we were there.  I went fishing a couple days but caught nothing and worked on papers the third day. On two evenings we went into Galveston which is only a town of 60,000 normal times.  We had one delicious seafood meal and another very good meal at one of the many fine old Louisiana type homes in one place before, and the size of them floors a person. And everyone has a very lazy attitude about all that goes on. I would like to see more of the town some day.

Well anyway after a(n) otherwise uneventful trip I returned yesterday by plane and the return trip was a little rough and several got sick. There were quite a few air pockets which made it quite choppy.  The entire trip has been a very interesting and long to be remembered experience.

The Gulf is quite muddy and the waves are not as large as ours on the coast.  It was the first time that several of them here had ever seen the ocean.  One of them even brought home one of those large hard shelled crabs and has it in  large jar of alcohol and thinks he really has something.

The pictures all look satisfactory and you need not have any more made.

You ask regarding Johnson. He is training for a pilot from the last I heard altho they have made quite a few changes in the Air Corp just recently and have or are cutting down on our pilots training.

I have not written Nelson and you may send his address because I just can’t at the moment remember where it is.  Very likely in my address book which is down in my tent just now,  Did you ever send him those razor blades?

Major Kuhns took some pictures which should be very good and I am going to get copies of them when and if they come.  You will get some of them when I do.

They are enlarging the Prisoner of War camp for another five hundred which should be in any day now.  They have started something new here with them.  They take them out for rides 2 or 3 times a week so that they can get some fresh air.

Well I am tired now and will write more later when I can think of more interesting things to say.

Take care of yourself and thanks for everything.

All my love,

Stanley

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[1] http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qbf12

July 26, 1943

Cpl Stanley W Safford

5^th Auxiliary Surgical Group

Dodd Field

Ft Sam Houston

Texas

July 26, 1943

My dear Mother:

Here I am tonight only not in the office as usual since it is so hot and stuffy in there, so here I am sitting on my cot in the tent here on a little table which comes in quite handy as a catch all and a place on which to write when the occasion arises.  They have sent out the hurricane warnings this evening again so quite a few of the tents have been laced up but not ours and it won’t be until it actually begins to pour down good and hard as it does once in a great while.

The last rain which we had has brought out a very pretty little white bulb flower of some kind which I am going to get a few of and send them home for you to plant for me.

I went into town this evening to get some more cleaning and I will have enough to do me for another day or so now.  I went through one of those cheap shirts that they gave me, the other day, while I went up to the Service School to show one of the dumb bells here how to make a bed.

Also while showing him I showed a couple majors and a couple other officers who certainly knew nothing about making a bed of any kind.  I never thought that I would ever be back at the Service School but we are going to be up there eight days teaching some of the boys from here or rather try and teach them something.  Sgt Elkins was quite surprised to see me arriving at the school again with the majors, captains etc.  And he really thought that they were a big bunch of dumbbells from some of the questions that they asked him.

San Antonio Express, July 31,1943

Well we are really having quite a time here with all the officers here are just taking every chance to cut the other person’s throat and they seem to thrive better every day and they all seem to be quite content with all the mess that they have here and they are all too much interested in the gold leaf that they are or may get.  And a very good price of news is that the other day Captain Skinner became Major Skinner so he will return quite much better off. 

Here it is the next day and we did have the hurricane and as you have very likely read the papers by now about all the damage done in Houston and Galveston about 1:30 the wind came up and blew things all over the tent so we had to get up and let the curtains down and it still continued to blow and the floor shook and the sealing moved.  I expected the tent to tear but it survived it as the others did.  It did although tear the siding off the big ward tent when it fell over.  After a short while it began to rain and it came down in sheets and just pound off the tent,  And in the meantime practically everybody left their tent and went down to the latrine and stayed there until it was over, which I was asleep when that time came I was asleep.  Most of the boys here had never seen anything of that type before and were certainly scared stiff of it.  We got up this morning and it was all clear again and it has turned out quite warm or shall I say hot again which it has been ever everyday for several weeks.  I long so much for the nice cool weather in California.

Well the officers have again changes their minds as to when the next bivouac is to be and they have set it ahead to leave next Sunday evening and return the following Wednesday.  So all of a sudden I have had all the work of making up all the schedules and all the other things that go along with it and have been putting in a lot of overtime on it and consequently have been very tired in the evenings.

We went up to the Service School today and it was quite confusing, the first day or so will very likely be that way.   All the confusion connected with the affair: getting out the supplies etc. and when I sent back the boys I told the transportation corporal to send me back a car to come back to the field in and due to the confusion here they did not send one until after lunch and they had to fix a special lunch and all that mess.

If all my other ideas do not work on getting out of this place, I am going to pursue another avenue that is that they have a large green house here that I understand wants some help so I may get myself requested in some way or another and I am quite sure  that I would enjoy that very much.  What do you think?  I am hearing at present the radio in the distance with “Rosy" (see Fireside Chats with Franklin D Roosevelt)[1] telling all and yet nothing.  He has told although that the rationing of coffee is to be stopped.   I guess that they are beginning to realize that people are getting tired of that mess.  But they are still going to take more gasoline away, I guess.  And he tells of after war peace etc.  That is to keep the people looking forward to something which he knows he is unable to foretell.  Last Saturday I saw “Gentleman Jim[2]”, starring Errol Flynn, and I, in a way, liked it.  That is, as far as his pictures go, but I am not too fond of that type of boxing picture but it certainly was some good enjoyment and of course that does a person good once in awhile.

How does Muriel like her work by now or does she think that she would rather be home running the streets with the others?

I have had to change desk so that I could write a little more plainly.  The other desk was so high that it was very hard writing as well as uncomfortable.  I shall have to practice my penmanship and try and make it more like yours if at all possible.  Everyone that sees your handwriting always remarks upon how nice and plain it is and how straight the lines are. There are so many of the boys here that are lucky to be able to spell their own name much less write a legible letter.

It has begin to rain outside this evening and it has turned cool and is quite comfortable now.  The rain sounds so very nice on the roof of the tent.  I always think of home when the rain sounds that way upon the roof.  But as usual in the evening someone somewhere ruins the evening by turning on some of this rotten Texas music.  I never heard so much terrible music until I came down here.

I had better begin thinking of drawing this letter to a close and I will write again a couple times before bivouac for I am not going to be as busy from now on for awhile.

Lots of love from your Son

Stanley

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[1] http://www.mhric.org/fdr/chat25.html

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentleman_Jim_%281942_film%29