PFC
Stanley W Safford
5th
Aux Surgical Group
Dodd
Field[1]
Ft
Sam Houston
Texas
May
22, 1943
Dear
Mother
I
am here in the Service Club again. I
thought that I would bring along my tablet of stationary and write you a letter
before the concert this evening.
I
attended the one last evening and it was quite nice for what it was. They had a soloist that sang several numbers
of which about half of them were excellent, the other half were not quite
fitted for her voice although she had a very pretty voice. The orchestra was very nice but only about 35
players which was hardly enough tone in some of the pieces. They played some of my favorites such as the
Habanera[2]
from Carmen and Dance Boheme from the same. Then they played some by Grieg[3]
which were very good. You know that I
have the Carmen suite at home amongst my records. I am told to understand that they are having
a different program this evening. They
played also a couple of the Hungarian dances which were excellent.
You
speaking of Aunt Nina and Bill being
a lot of fun, they are really right down to earth people when they come down to
earth. I sometimes think that they rather envy you for the nice quiet way in
which you live. They may some day also
settle down and have a nice home.
It
does not seem so long ago since Buster left, I still think of him quite
often. I was uptown this afternoon so I
stopped by the park where the pigeons are and I had a small bag of salted
peanuts. Over on the grass were some
children feeding them but there were a couple of them near where I was so I
threw them a couple peanuts and the first thing I knew about 200 of them were
alighting on my shoulder eat out of my hand and all over the ground around
me. I shall have to get a picture of them
for you to see how tame they are. And
there are certainly some very beautiful ones amongst them.
The
Auxiliary Surgical Group is still a learning process for a lot of them because
there are very few of us trained technicians so to speak in the Company. But as an Instructor I will get my share of
the work. As far as I know I am now
attached to the group but the group being so new they do not have any sleeve
insignia as yet. Where and is we do I
will send you one. I also sent you your
caduceus (kadu suus) today in a small box.
Sure hope it reaches you in good shape.
They would not insure it but they I don’t think, will come to any
harm. I hope you will be able to use
them because they are the type the officers use on their clothes with permanent
attachments which of course may be taken off when cleaned, but they are about
the best a person can get that looks like anything. I thought some of getting you one with
imitation diamonds on it or something of that type but most of them look so
cheap.
Last
night we had a regular torrential downpour and believe me it really rained and
also remained cloudy until about noon when it cleared up and became quite
warm. Probably the warmest it has been
has been around 90 so far but they tell me that it really gets hot around July,
August etc.
Our
group as I stated before, works in cases where there have been heavy casualties
and then returns to their home station, when complete it will carry the largest
personnel of professional men and women of any group of any kind which goes
overseas. Even larger than a station
hospital, 170 enlisted men, 130 officers only four are not Medical Men. They are composed of dentists, surgeons, MDs,
and a group of specialists. When done
they will make up groups or operating teams of 6-8 with a couple or 6
technicians. Also we will carry about 50
Army nurses.
What
do you think of that type of a group? Of
quite a size larger than you expected, isn’t it?
Very
few people know anything about it.
Here
I am back at this letter again only this time I am going to finish it with the
completion of this page for it is bed time and tomorrow my mind will be more
clear for the starting of a new letter.
Today has sure been a hectic one and about all I have done is cut or try
to cut red tape, and what a job it has proven to be. I never dreamed of myself as having a job
where I would be able to do a thing of this type, and the more I see of it the
more I believe that I am going to like it all the more.
Yesterday
I went into town with a friend of mine who is at the service school and had a
very nice meal at the French place[4]
that I spoke of going to once before, only alone last time. You will soon have some more pictures of
myself to look at because we are going to take some more. This friend has come up against the same
difficulty as myself at the school of just getting rather tired of it the same
as myself. He hopes to leave there next
month. His parents are pretty well off
from what I gather. His father is a very
prominent NY surgeon but John knows nothing at all about surgery.
Well
I had better quit for now but enclosed you will find a picture of a very small
fawn which I saw the other day up on the post.
He was certainly cute and so small.
With
lots of love.
Your
son,
Stanley
