June 6, 1944

Sgt Stanley W Safford 39539976

5^th Auxiliary Surgical Group

Dodd Field

Fort Sam Houston

Texas

June 6, 1944

Dear Mother:

Well I never thought that I would ever see France but it looks more so every day.  From the looks of the news there will soon be a lot of action over there and a lot of use for us.

I woke up this morning to hear a lot of noise and the papers were all out with “Invasion” all over the front page but not much else…

Our plans here for the future are that an advance party is leaving the tenth of June for POE and we will follow then some time afterwards.  Major Skinner is one of the three officers and we have not received definite instructions as yet but are quite sure it will be New York or at least the East coast.  The Surgeon General’s office has changed their strategy and are not sending this type of group West.  They are sending much smaller more flexible groups out there.  We are being prepared for warm clothing which is a good indication perhaps of our destination.  I can just see an evening in Paris.

You mentioning moving pictures reminds me of the picture I saw the other evening with Sgt Rapp and his wife.  They had invited me over for dinner and I took them to the show afterwards.  It was more for the reason of her wishing to see it than it was mine.  The picture was “Pin Up Girl” with Betty Grable.  As far as she is concerned I do not like her but the picture was quite beautiful and Hollywood in some places.  They had a couple very good seating numbers which were really quite nice.

Well the other day my OCS deal finally bounced back due to our dear unit here.

They were never enthused regarding it so therefore gave me no cooperation.  Major Grubin was quite mad about it and told me that it was practically all their fault in the personnel office and the colonel’s. So I got back the entire affair all under one cover, excepting a couple letters which were removed for some reason or the other.  I, my hands are washed of that for now.

We have been swamped here the last few days with all the 70 nurses coming in and the rest of our officers.  And I have this dope in here that is no good at all.

I am going to soon be rid of him as soon as the Major gets back.  He has been sick for two days and I was up to see him today and done some work with him.  I had lunch with his wife, son and daughter and they are all quite nice.

I have made out a $25 allotment to become effective in August and to be taken from my pay, of course we get 20% increase for overseas so I will then be drawing $41.25 and even then may have too much.  The government will send 100Lbs of things home for me so I will put all of my things into a locker and mail it all home at one time.  I am making out an elaborate will and power of attorney which you should receive in the next couple of days.  The power of attorney is to you.  The will you can put it in the safe deposit box for me and leave it there.  Find out if it is necessary to file a copy there in the courthouse.  I never dreamed there was so much to a will or the other stuff of that kind.  They tell me I should have had one made out at home.

Major Eskin, who is one of our officers who is in LA now to leave his wife and family there writes back and tells us that there writes back and tells us that there is no place like it.

Sgt Ryan is now back in the unit and is feeling quite well, only the doctors tell him he will not be able to have too much bad usage of his jaw for some time.

How is Maibelle getting long these days? Do you know her address?  If so send it to me and I will try and write her soon.

I feel that if they think enough of me to keep me from OCS they can do a few favours for me soon and give me some consideration and take this dope out of here.  It will be more work but rather do it myself than to have him swooping around here and having to be shown how to do everything.  And that is not all they are going to do for me either before they are through with m. I am going to get all I can, I have made up my mind to that.

Well enough for now and I will write again soon.

I remain as ever,

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

---

[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)

October 10, 1943

Sgt Stanley W Safford 39539976

5^th Auxiliary Surgical Group

Dodd Field

Ft Sam Houston

Texas

October 10, 1943

My dear Mother:

It is raining outside today and it is beginning to dampen down the dust and wash the dust from the beginning to smell and look a little better.

Went into town yesterday and had dinner at a very nice cafeteria and after that went  to a show which I thought very good and you very likely will think the same when you see it.  “Johnnie Come Lately”[1] with James Cagney.

I have seen two shows in the past week, which is more than I had seen in the previous two months.  The other one I speak of is “The Constant Nymph”[2] (the one you had seen) which was very good.  Mrs. Tedesco and myself went to dinner at an Italia place here and after that we went t the show.  In all we had a very enjoyable evening and the dinner was very good even tho I did get some of it on my shirt, which I had just put on clean that evening.  Gladys was planning on going to dinner with us but we received the news that her house had burned down the night before so she called and said that she would be unable to come along.  Fortunately I had not as yet given her the little Redwood vase or it would have been gone and she said it would be something for her to start again with.

Enclosed you will find a money order for twenty dollars which will be part payment on what I owe you.  The balance will come later and my next check will be a little larger anyway.  I am sorry that I am so tardy in paying you.

I received a letter from Ray Coates a couple days ago.  He was home on furlough from the 1^st to 15^th September and is now stationed at Camp Mystic[3] which is about 15 miles from here and he has been asked to help organize the Special Service office there by the lead of Special Services in this area.

It may turn into something good for him.  It is a camp for convalescing patients.  We now have about 400 of them here at  FSH.  They are keeping them in some of the large barracks.

Also received a letter from Alvin Whitney now T/5 and he had also been home on a furlough.  He as always had a lot of interesting news and he is planning on coming down one of these week-ends.

Today I received a letter from Marshall and he is starting back to school now and he speaks as tho he were not too happy there because of the attitude of the people etc.

I certainly feel sorry for him in his present position.  He certainly wrote a nice long letter and as always in his style quite nice.  I am about the same as yourself when it comes to looking ahead I never plan on anything because if I do I am very apt to be quite disappointed.  And as every day goes by my patience become quite stronger and I live with the thought in mind of keeping busy and waiting.  I suppose that is why I work so hard here and why I am always on the run.  Yes, I can well understand what you mean that perhaps is another reason why I do not have to go to town and get drunk.  I keep myself busy all the time and don’t allow myself to become idle.  That is also a reason why my money goes so rapidly.

I wanted to more or less surprise you about the Sgt’cy and I did nothing other than put the return on Jay’s letter the same as yours.  It did not coma as a surprise to me tho, and I have earned it where a lot of them did not.  And I have been told that it is a shame that I can go no farther.

As for the OCS, I have just about given up hopes and the reason is that they are really having a shake-up in the schools and are changing things quite a bit.

So maybe it won’t ever come my way.  But when I give up hopes it will come.

Major Grubin here in P&T Office says now that Major Skinner can have the job when he gets back, and he will go on DS to the hospital to study, so maybe it won’t be so bad after all.  He is a pretty good person even tho he is a Jew.

The dog operations were just experimental and I did not exactly approve of the last two since it is giving the dogs a lot of pain and they are very slow to recover.

We are expecting to start wearing the wool about the fifteenth of October although nothing definite as yet.  The nights here have been quite cold and we have to wear a field jacket in the morning to keep warm.

This last week they took twelve men from us to use on a train of trucks going to San Francisco POC.  They will be used as guards and will have a layover of three or four days in California.  Of course I never get in on anything of that type.  Only Mexicans and the rest of the louts get that type of thing.

Well the afternoon draws on and I still have some work to do on some more lists and be glad to get them done for we have been working on them for three days.

John Langstadt is in Denver and he expects to be leaving soon.  I well have to write him also very soon or he will get away.

I am wondering if Dad had any luck deer hunting or if he came back empty handed.

How is Aunt Nina getting along.  Has she had her operation yet?

Well I close giving you all my love as ever,

Your son,

Stanley

---

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Come_Lately

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Constant_Nymph_%281943_film%29

[3] Camp Mystic is a summer camp for girls on the South Fork of the Guadalupe River three miles southwest of Hunt in central Kerr County. It was established in 1926 by E. J. (Doc) Stewart, former head football coach at the University of Texas, who had founded Camp Stewart for boys in the same area two years earlier. Camp Mystic, known originally as Stewart's Camp for Girls, provided facilities for outdoor activities and instruction in roping, marksmanship, music, painting, and drama. In 1937 the camp was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Gilespie Stacy and in 1968 was owned by a group of investors that included Stacy family members. The camp has remained in continuous operation since its founding, except for the years 1943–45, when it was leased by the federal government as a convalescent camp for army air corps veterans of World War II.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Frank R. Gilliland, Kerrville, Texas: A Social and Economic History (M.A. thesis, Stephen F. Austin State College, 1951). Kerrville Daily Times, February 25, 1968.

Rebecca J. Herring, "CAMP MYSTIC," Handbook of Texas Online - http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/xvc01 -  accessed January 31, 2012. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

August 20, 1943

Cpl Stanley W Safford

5^th Auxiliary Surgical Group

Dodd Field

Ft Sam Houston

Texas

August 20, 1943

Dear Mother:

After a very tiring day which the temperature rose to alone a hundred and the tent here was unbearable at times and after a very short while of sitting here and sweating a person very soon begins to smell and I feel now as tho I had not had a bath in years.

I received your nice long letter today and really enjoyed it.  I would so much like to write so very much more but you very likely know just what that is to never have the time for anything at any time.  And the heat here just wears me and everyone else down to the place where we don’t feel like doing anything.  And on top of all that I have worked three out of the last five evenings on some of their stupid work that I have had piled up here all the way up to my neck.  I have not forgotten Miss Mosher and her letter is with three of four other unanswered ones in my box and hers was the next on the list but to ever get to it I have been trying to ever since bivouac but just to do it is another thing.  I do think that you should go to the desert for a day or so because the rest would do you good, and then you could just let the rest of the world go by and think of yourself for a while.

It is indeed too bad about Mrs. Finley and I do hate to hear about it.  I always liked the both of them very much and hate to hear of anything happening to either of them.

I guessed that when my clerk left me the time before that he would very likely be back and sure enough he is back and I am really able to give a big sigh of relief since he is such a big help and once again I can have a furlough in sight and it may be the 1^st or 15^th of September unless the OCS thing comes up first.  So once again we can have hopes and something to look forward to.

Here it is again another one of these tiresome and boresome Sundays when we here never seem to get anything done, most of them here seem to think that their Sundays are a day when they can lay around and do nothing else other than sleep or read some magazines of some kind.  But for myself it is a day when I can get a chance to clean up myself and a few other things of that nature.  It seems that my shoes always need cleaning and my head needs working.  The other evening I went by the library on my way home and it was 98° inside there where they have the electric fans and all the other things so you can well imagine what it is like where we are down here at Dodd Field and the conditions don’t lend themselves towards helping keep a thing clean.

Enclosed you will find one of those orders that was made out when I was sent down here.  One of them as you see was for me  (I & M) but I never received one of them in fact never saw one of them until yesterday when I was going through some of the files and found a couple extra so you can keep me a copy.  All things of this type you can save for me.  They may be useful to me some day.  To look at the thing you would really think that they were send an important personage to some place equally important Ha Ha !

Also you will find a copy of the other order that Major Skinner put over while his friend Col Hill was still here and not the fool that we have here now that listens a little too much to the 1^st Sgt who is entrusted only in his own welfare.

You asked about the watches at the PX here.  They are all sold out of all kinds. So they will be rather hard to find around here.

You asking about the mail being wanted by all soldiers.  Yes that is true but so many owe me most of their time.

I always tried to keep the Matsons’ away from the house since it in no way compared with theirs and you know me as far as pride goes in that respect.

You know that Mr. Matson quite often told me that they were always going to never keep the secret from Jon of his being adopted so it rather amuses me to hear about Mrs. M keeping it a secret.

The college where Donald Kingen is more than Texas A M where they have all sorts of these courses.

Your mentioning  the ocean makes me homesick to think of it since we have none of the sea very close here.

It is quite an affair of us being able to take back Kiska so very easily.  Perhaps the Japs saw a hard winter ahead of them so decided to give up without a fight.  The war news looks very promising from all angles today so the more of it the better we like to hear of it.

Yes, the bunch of bums here are all quite a bit like A Grumberg.  All of them always broke and they do nothing else but drink it up and throw it away.  They run around here in some of the dirtiest clothes that I have ever seen.  I get so disgusted with them sometimes.

Your mentioning Jay reminds me that he owes me a letter since I was the last to write him.

Finally the Company Commandment at the Service School put a stop to Sgt Elkins leaving even once Col Fargas’ orders.  So there he is stranded there for awhile, but his wife is down here with him now.

We have made arrangements to meet each other a couple times, that is, Ray and myself, but you know that he is acting almost everywhere now and he is always getting called the last minute and he also owes me a letter.  The same with Bruno who is in Burbank (Lockland) now.  Neither Mrs. Tedesco or myself have heard from home for a long time.  I returned the negatives to him with a note but have not heard from him since.  Also Whitney owes me a letter and I will write again very soon to find out.  He may have gotten a discharge with a recent cleaning up of Limited Service.  We have gotten rid of two or three of them here.

Well they made three more Majors here yesterday so suppose that there will be a wild party at the Officers Club now.  One of them is a very good man from Georgia and quite well to do from what I gather.  His cousin is Governor of Georgia, and his wife is a very nice lady. True Southeners.

Well have just about run out of things to write about so will draw this to a close and wish you all my love.

Stanley

 Inserted in the envelope this letter was mailed in were two pages seemingly out of synchronization.  No explanation why.

July 21, 1943

Cpl Stanley W Safford

5^th Auxiliary Surgical Group

Dodd Field

Ft Sam Houston

Texas

July 21, 1943

My dear Mother:

It is again the end of another very hot and sultry day and for the first time in days I have not been too rushed to enjoy it and today I really felt quite tired.  So I came down here to the school building this evening to write a couple letters and also enjoy the coolness of the first floor.  This is the only building in Dodd Field that is built two story but the upstairs is unbearable for the heat.

Yesterday for a nice little hike we took a hike which lasted an hour going and coming.  Off course that sounds quite easy, but when you hear that we took from 125-160 steps per minute you will begin to wonder a little and I was quite amused to find that I done much better than a lot of the regular field non coms who are out all the time or rather supposed to be but are laying in their tent most of the day.

I am going to try and get the clerk in my office a rating of some kind the first of the month also a couple others here deserve something.  I have come to the conclusion that they are going to hear a little of myself around here from now on, everybody else around here has their little part to say about everything that comes up.

I have as yet not heard from my OCS affair but I suppose that it takes a little time as everything else does and this case is no exception.  All I hope is that if I am called is that they will give me enough time for a furlough before going I would hate to o to school for four months before going home.

The letter that you sent on to me is one from an acquaintance of Joe’s and he I guess he just happened to think of me or something Joe tells me that he is a big nuisance.  But he writes me asking me all about flowers, vegetables etc.

So I guess that I shall have to take time out and write him.

Have you heard from Joseph as yet.  I suppose that he is back from his vacation by now and very likely back to work.  Here I wish that I were back to where I could be back to work and a week’s vacation of some kind.

I hope that I am able to get my furlough while the balance of the outfit here are on bivouac if not I will be ready to leave on it when we return.  The heavy rains which we had here a short time ago have sure brought out everything nice and green again the grass is just beginning to turn a little brown again.  The big old Brackenridge house upon the hill not far from here sure looks nice with everything green around it again.  That house is sure a very interesting one and only about four or five rooms in the entire house are occupied.  I am sometimes going to find out if I may go in and look around and take some pictures.

The news from Sicily is sure beginning to sound very good and if they can only finish the rest of this mess just as fast.  I have been following the news quite closely recently because of OCS reasons.

The evening is becoming reasonably comfortable now and I am sitting here by a window which looks out over a part of Dodd Field and beyond is some green hills which is a railroad track which is very seldom used.  There are a couple good sized horse breeding ranches near here and they really have some very fine looking horses.  One of them is a doctor who really has a very beautiful horse upon a knoll alone the farm or ranch.

The other day I was down here at the school building and outside drove up Brig Gen Nulsen and we thought that he for sure was going to come in but he went out and walked around one of the new building next door and after looking around for awhile he came out, got back into his car and the chauffeur drove away.  You should have sen us here inside putting things in order for him in case he did come in.  I am getting quite used to Generals now for every day or so I see either a Brig Gen. or a Major Gen somewhere on the post.  Also you perhaps have heard of Lt Commander Britt of the Navy?  He also lives here on the post, with a big house not far from Mrs. Tedesco’s.

How is Richard K getting along now(a)days. I guess that I should really write them for I do owe them a letter since they wrote me last, but my time does fly and I am not able to write you as often as I would like to.

The other day when Sgt Ryan turned in his application for OCS they like to have had a fit and today my clerk asked for an application to ASTP (Army Specialized Training Program).  They like to have keeled over again, they are very likely beginning to wonder just what is going to happen to all their good men.

Captain Skinner is expected back around the tenth of next month and he is in for a nice big mess when he does get back for the major is beginning to get tired of his job as Plans and Training Officer and he wants to get a course of some kind also and he made the remark the other day to another officer that he was getting tired of the job and that he needed a rest by this time after working so hard.

So he is also getting tired of this mess as everyone else is.

How does Muriel like her new job by now, or has she grown tired of it since she has not got the time to be out playing or chasing the streets with the other hoodlums up and down the street.

I suppose that the Blair’s yard is a mess with both of them working.

Mrs Miner always did work so hard on her yard and no one ever thought of helping her.  You can tell her that I would enjoy her yard anyway that also applied to our house and yard.  I sure don’t want you to work yourself to death over it because after all there is no reason for t and I will appreciate it just as much.

How are my cymbidiums doing?  They should be putting on a lot of growth by this time and before long they will be going dormant and getting ready for blooming next year.  They should have a lot of water now to encourage their growth,

Someday I will make something of them or perhaps sell them before then.  That will depend upon what I think of them when I get home.

Well the evening is drawing to a close and I shall quit for now. Give my regards to the family and take care of yourself.  How is your arm here lately? I hope it is well by now. Good night for this time,

Love you always,

Your son

Stanley

July 15, 1943

Cpl Stanley W Safford

5^th Auxiliary Surgical Group

Dodd Field

Ft Sam Houston

Texas

July 15, 1943

My dear Mother:

Here I am on CQ tonight and tonight is the night that I would be leaving for home if things had worked out as planned. But instead I am here  Tonight I am going to have the job of handing the others who are going on furlough their furlough papers and that can not be done until twelve o’clock tonight.

This stationary here that I am using is some that someone has left in some of our supplies so I decided to use it to a good advantage.

You perhaps are right in the last paragraph of your last letter in trying to think that it is for the best which I am in a way beginning to think that it is really for the best since the last few days things have been really happening around here for me and I am in a way very glad that it is happening now instead later when my furlough is supposed to arrive.  Well what is happening is that my OCS application which was turned in a week ago last Monday has gotten into action and it has really surprised me because of its suddenness.  Well Tuesday this sent me notice to appear before the Reviewing Board on Wednesday afternoon at 1:30 so up I went yesterday and after the board I went up for a physical examination and am going to finish it up tomorrow morning so it does look promising for me for awhile anyway.  So I am in high hopes for awhile anyway.

That is about all that I have done the last few days is chasing that business down and will not be done with it very soon either.

 And then this afternoon I recorded three sets of grades in the little black books which are supposed to contain everything when they are completed and they are certainly a big lot of work and quite difficult to understand very well.  And the Major has other ideas that are just as bad if not worse and the more complicated the better.  All we can set and do is sweat and worry about how to straighten out some other mess of the day before and then the next minute I am on the run down to the New School room where there is always confusion and a bigger mess.  And then the next minute I spend going once Training Film material with some dope office or trying to read some terrible hand writing which most of them have here and the next time I am trying to start the clerk off on something.  I received a letter from Miss Mosher today and enclosed were a couple pictures which she took of the tulips and roses.

You mentioning Ed Pfare does remind me that I do owe him a letter but when it comes right down to it I really don’t care if I do answer his letter very soon.  He took his time about answering my last one to him and when he did he had some sarcastic remarks about my PFC which I then had and then he goes on to tell how terribly busy he is and then in the next paragraph all about all the shows, stage and screen and of the concerts and operas so he can’t be more busy than myself and he never writes any more than a page.

Outside there are some troops going out on a night march of some type and it is now ten o’clock so I believe that I will close for the evening and write some more tomorrow when I feel a little more rested and quiet.  Good night.

Here it is again the end of another day and almost the end of another week.

After coming home from the hospital this afternoon I went to the mess hall and ate supper after which I went to my tent and layed down and dosed off to sleep and woke up just a few minutes ago to find that the boy who lives in the tent with us who has been on furlough to Santa Paula, Calif. had just gotten in and he was quite pleased with his trip home.

Well, the news certainly sounds very good now and I hope that it will continue that way and be all over in a short time and then I can forget OCS and return home to the things that I really like.

I have been recently doing nothing other than running an office and that work is far distant from anything that I ever thought I would be doing but it is good experience for me I suppose.

What is Richard Miners grade now that he has graduated?

I sure hope that Nelson is still around when I do get my furlough for I also would like very much to meet him.

The trip to Big Bear would do you good, why don’t you go along?

I can well imagine that the corn is very delicious and perhaps we can have some boughten(?) corn when I get home because we have had corn on the cob here only once or twice and you know how fond of it I am.  We get so few things of that type here and sometimes what we do get the cooks always manage to ruin.  We have a good baker or two.  But I guess that we are lucky to have even them with the mess everything else is in,

Well had better close now and go to bed so take care of yourself and don’t worry.

Love as always,

Stanley