July 4, 1945 - France

Sgt. Stanley W Safford 39539976

5^th Auxiliary Surgical Group

APO 339

c/o Post Master

New York  New York

Marseille Area, France - 17

July 4, 1945

Dearest Mother:

Again this afternoon I will write you a few lines and let you know I am still here, and have not been blown away or covered with dust, which the air has been full of the last three days.  Everything from fine sand to particles of gravel have been in the air making everything miserable.

In regards to your questions about my preference of directions.  I think as you do that it would be better to go direct there than home.  It would be much harder the way home first.

Our unit is changing quite rapidly.  Major Grubin is gone.  Major Kuhns is leaving and a good many of the other familiar faces are going.  It will not be the same.

The candy covered walnuts are certainly good.  They have kept when all else has melted.

Received a letter from Muriel telling me of our recent school etc.  One today from Frances and a couple days ago one from Miss Mosher’s niece.

Yes, you are right about us seeing planes in abundance over here.  They have gone over for hours at times in the past, especially when we were near Eindhoven.

Tales are rampant over here whenever Patton is mentioned.  A couple o my friends here worked on teams with the 3^rd Army Hospitals.  He is quite a character.

Have heard no further from Ed Pfan(?) or Herbert Shaffer.  They both owe me letters.  One which I wrote while still at Ft Sam and Herbert was sent a Xmas card last Xmas.  I can no longer be bothered with that type of people.  So busy themselves.  And Jay is another one.  He can just wait.  I am in no mood to write most of the time recently.  Condition here are not at all favorable for writing.

I again giving lectures.  My first one was Tuesday, entitled “History of China”, others will follow later on Japan etc.

Muriel also tells me of Blair’s house being sold and to whom . Witzel really has his nerve.

I want you to send me my brown swimming trunks (short style) and a good pair of sunglasses, which you may have trouble getting.  You will have to pay a good price for them but you can charge to my account.  Polaroid are good ones. Use your own judgment of course.  Do not send until I ask again.

You should have received the 1 June money order by now.

I am going to make plans to see Lloyd Whelchel soon if possible.  I wonder is I will recognize him.  Tell you the details later.  Don’t you have his last address.

Enclosed you will find some negatives which you can have prints of each made and send them to me when I ask for them.  There will be more to follow these.  They are some taken at Bad Salzuflen and Bielefeld.

I am looking forward to getting another letter from you today, as I have not received one from you for some time.

I suppose Richard has reached home by now.  Give him my regards.

Well all for now.  Hope this reaches you all in good health and happy.

All my Love,

Your son

Stanley

10(ten) negatives enclosed.

1 June 1944

Sgt Stanley W Safford 39539976

5^th Auxiliary Surgical Group

Dodd Field

Fort Sam Houston

Texas

1 June 1944

Dearest Mother

I am worse this week than ever before in writing, but I hope that you will understand that we have really been busy here the last few days and there is no sign of it becoming more slack as time goes on.

I am quite glad to hear of you getting the chance to rest a little during Dad’s absence, and you should do it a little more often.  It will do you good.  Give you the chance to rest a little more because I am sure you become more tired every day of the same old thing as I do.

Well we have had our clothing showdown today which means that we turned in a lot of things that are worn and will be issued new for them.  A person never realizes just how many clothes he has until one of these.  I have a huge pile of things to be turned in.  I wonder what type we will be issued?

I received a letter from Jay today or should I say a short note.

I am quite pleased to hear of the grapevine having such an abundant crop of fruit.  Perhaps the Amaryllis could be transplanted into a larger pot for next year.  Had the Cymbidiums shown much growth as yet this season, keep them quite moist.

The weather here has been terribly hot and I just about fall asleep here every afternoon when it gets so warm.

Last night was pay day night and I was kept awake until about thru this morning by the drunks coming in and making their noise.  I hope that will be more quiet tonight.

We have about all of our nurses and are housing them here on the post.  They are as I have predicted already becoming a problem, and will be more of one before we are done with them.

Doc Skinner told me of his plans to retire and from the clippings in the letter he has had quite a long history in the school system.

You mentioning Dad’s teeth reminds me of my teeth and the time I have had from them and about them.  Ever since the OCS examination (last one) I knew I had a couple cavities so asked Major Kuhns to check them and he found one in the upper R3 (will enclose a Dentist form later).  After he got in he found a small one in the next tooth. Neither one of them were very large and can not be seen from the front.  He then took an X-Ray of the lower one and found a small cavity there.  While in Xray I asked him to take a picture of one of my left lower wisdom teeth which ha(ve) become quite slanted.  So he did and the picture was shocking.  The roots of the tooth are almost straight back and the tooth in impacted.  I decided to have it pulled and made the appointment but had to cancel because of the big Service Command Inspection we had the following day.  So will some day have Major Grubin remove it.  He tells me it may mean a couple weeks in the hospital. So when we get over I will have a lot of time for such things since it is not bothering me any.  A picture of it is like the drawing here

Yes, Sgt Rapp’s wife has been here for about three weeks and I am invited over to dinner this Sunday.

I have been going to go up here and play at golf with one of the boys here but have never gotten around to it.  Doubt if I will at this stage.

I am still and was quite surprised to hear of getting the money in from the Income tax.  You may use the money to pay yourself whatever I owe you for telephone stock etc and deposit the rest and buy some more stock when and if it get(s) lower.  You may soon get so much each month from me in an allotment which I will send you the details of later.

One of the new officers we have here is from S F and is about 6’8” and wears a size 14 shoe.  He is certainly a card and tells me that he thinks that he will not make a good soldier.  I asked him what he thought of me as one.  He told me that he thought I was a very good one and was quite the person here. Ha ha.

As for your coming down, I see the same picture as you do regarding the unpracticability of the whole thing.  It of course would be very nice and I would enjoy it so very much. But to my way of thinking it would be more trouble than it would be worth.

Enclosed you will find a few pictures you may like and I will have a few more of them here if you want some of them.  There are also a couple of the Galveston bivouac which may interest you.  Will send more of them later to avoid making this letter too heavy.

 Heard from William Orum, often longed to hear from him.

Well enough for this time and will write again soon.

As ever

Your son

Love,

Stanley

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

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

February 20, 1944

Sgt Stanley W Safford 39539976

5^th Auxiliary Surgical Group

Dodd Field

Fort Sam Houston

Texas

February 20, 1944

Dear Mother:

It has been quite a while since I wrote you so will try an get another on its way.

The weather turned quite cold a couple days ago and yesterday morning it was raining when we got up and is still doing so outside mow on off and on streaks.  As usual everything is quite muddy and therefore we get a lot of it inside.  I chopped a good pile of wood the other evening but it is about all gone now.  That seems to be about all we do here is keep wood in the stove and then we are still cold.

The wedding the other evening was a big success and everybody who is anybody was there.  Brigadier General Beach of Brooke General was there with his wife, mink coat and all, and there were several full colonels there and a lot of Lt Colonels and Majors.  There was also a Major WAC and a Major Nurse in attendance.  The bride was very beautifully gowned and the “Bride’s Maids” also wore civilian gowns.  The Lieutenant was quite nervous and white as a sheet.  The only reason for myself and the six or eight others of the enlisted men’s group going was merely to be seen there and other political reasons.

Someone here has the idea that they would like to have a bivouac to the “Gulf of Mexico Coast”.  They would either fly there or take trucks and are already laying elaborate plans for going, so we may end up by going on our bivouac there.

The new officers are already being called for.  We have lost four of them already.  They as a rule are a bunch of dopes as far as personality goes.

I had not been to town since my return trip so know no news of there.

You certainly do not have to think that you have to pay for my coming home.  Don’t you think that I enjoy coming home myself?

So you can just forget all about the money end of it.  It wasn’t all that expensive.  I still owe you for part of the last money which I borrowed.  I also intend on paying for the pictures of myself.

How is the rose doing which I transplanted?  Also what are the rest of the things doing, the cymbidium and all?

Have you heard from Aunt MaiBelle since we were out?

Was very sorry to hear of Aunt Nina getting a cold.  She certainly has one thing after another.

It is very nice to have the other Majors back here again.  Major Skinner is always nice to do things for.  And Major Grubin keeps us in tears all day with his pranks. We are starting an Officers’ Training Program tomorrow and that will keep us on the busy line for a while.  They are always on the run to the office here for some reason or the other.  They borrow and run off with things faster than we can keep tract of them.  One pleasure I get out of it is that they treat all these new officers about like the enlisted men, and some of them are quite insulted when they are treated so.  Major Grubin told one of them here that the job he had been given was going to cease when he was through using him in his Tng. Program, and then he could forget being an office and then he could forget being an officer and be a doctor again if he knew how.  The Capt. did not like that any too well.  They gave us some new identification tag chains the other day.  They are something new which the army is issuing and are supposed to be sterling silver.  They are quite nice looking and I was very much surprised to get them.

They are certainly cleaning out the post of all men who have been there any great length of time. Freddie while in the Library is going to be leaving soon and Sgt Elkins has been transferred to the Student Nurses course at Brooke General and will still have about two and a half months to finish.  He is so much happier where he now is.  He was getting quite tired of the Service School.

I have not heard from John Langstadt for quite a while.  Received a nice letter from Ray Coates the other day and he is still at camp Mystic rehabilitation center for the Air Corps.  He is coming in some evening soon and I will see him then.

My subscription to Time magazine has started and I am already behind in reading that but hope to catch up soon.  I have been very busy the last week and very likely will have a little more time next week.

How is Muriel’s pen working? I am going to get myself another one when they have them at the Post Exchange again.  I will send it home for you to keep for me.

I wrote Jay a letter the first part of the week so that he would not become offended because I did not write him as soon as I got back.  It is nuisance having anyone like him to be afraid of stepping on their toes.  He will, chances are, write me back a card with a couple lines on it.

Well it hardly seems a week since I got back here, yet it seems ages ago that I was home.  I can not cease to thank you for the wonderful time you showed me while home.

I have run down now so will finish now sending you all my love.

As ever,

Your son,

Stanley

Lt. Martha Smith Weds Lt. Ewing

San Antonio Light, 19 Feb 1944, p4

The Post Chapel at Fort Sam Houston was the scene of the wedding Thursday night of Lt. Martha Amelia Smith, Army Nurse Corps, Brooke General Hospital, daughter of Mrs. Claude T. Smith Sr. and the late C. T. Smith of Oakland, Calif., formerly of Westminster, Md., to. Lt. Robly Brewer Ewing Jr., medical administrative corps, Army of the United States, of Los Angeles, Calif. Lt. Ewing is the son of Mr. and Mrs. R. B. Ewing Sr. of Siloam Springs, Ark., and is stationed at Fort Sam Houston. Chaplain James H. Martin officiated.  Sgt. Fred McGown, organist, played the nuptial selections and accompanied Mrs. Jack Cobb Moore soloist.

The chapel was decorated with greenery and white blossoms.  Adorning the altar were vases of white gladioli and ferns flanked by tall wrought iron candelabra holding white tapers.

Groomsmen were Maj. Merton B. Skinner, Capt. William H. Falor, Maj. Ralph O. Christensen and Maj. Hoyt S. Kuhns[1], Lt. Joseph O. Redline served as best man.

Bridesmaids were Lts. Lesley Gaye Baker, Merle Henley, Margaret Shaughnessy and Elizabeth Katherine Brocktruk, Mrs. Joseph Edward Job, sister of the bride, was the matron of honor.

The bride was given in marriage by her uncle Col. John C.Woodland, of Fort Sam Houston.  She wore a gown of white mousseline do soie over taffeta. The full skirt extended into a long cathedral train. She wore a long veil of bridal illusion, caught to her head by a pearl coronet. Her bouquet was of white gladioli and ferns

Following the ceremony a reception was held in the officers’ s club. In the receiving line were Col. and Mrs. John Woodland, uncle and aunt of the bride; Mrs. Robert Christy, sister of the bridegroom, of Ada, Okla.; Col. and Mrs. Elmer D. Gay of Fort Sam Houston, and the wedding party.  After a short trip the couple will return to their station.

Transcribed from the “San Antonio Express”, 18 Feb 1944, p 11, San Antonio, TX – also found in the “San Antonio Light” 18 Feb 1944,p19

 [1] Hoyt S Kuhns (b. 6 Dec 1910 – Nov 1986, Terre Haute, Vigo, IN). He is listed as a dentist in a 1947 in Polk’s Terre Haute City directory