Sgt. Stanley W Safford 39539976
5th Auxiliary Surgical Group
APO 339
c/o Post Master
New York New York
Holland
1 November 1944
Dearest Mother:
I have been sitting here by the fire
for sometime this morning debating on whether or not to write now as we may be
busy later in the day.
We have had quite a rush since my
last letter and have also changed shifts from night to day which I like better
as things seem more normal for me.
Received a small parcel of mail the
first part of last week, and it contained six of your letters from Sept 14 –
October 17. One of them contained Dewey’s speech and I really liked
that. For my money he is by far my
choice. It is hard for me to understand
what has happened to a lot of my letters although I suppose with all of the
moving around that we have done we may be lucky to have had service as we have
had with our mail. I am quite surprised
and rather worried about the silver not reaching you by that last letter. The package situation, I suppose, is just
awful at the same time a letter from Joseph
and Mrs. Tedesco and another
V-Mail from Miss Mosher.
As for the mention of our whereabouts
in my letters. Our position of course
would give out a lot of information as to losses etc of the supported units. Censorship of Service Forces has always
been more strict than with combat units.
You hear over the radio where they are but not if losses are heavy
etc. factors which are vital to the enemy.
I received the statements also and
was quite glad since I now know where I stand. Since the bond affair is always coming up and they seem to have the opinion
that they would just as soon have everyone buy their own bonds, I have decided
to drop mine and then make an additional $25.00 allotment to you and you can
buy one $25 bond a month for me and use the balance in clearance of my debt to
you. Perhaps that will be a much better
system all the way around for all concerned.
You can buy them the same as they have been coming.
I believe that I have received all of
the snaps which you mention such as the ones of Aunt Edith etc.
Sent another package to you yesterday
and it contained post cards, 3 German printed French francs, some Scotch
heather and 2 pairs of swimming trunks which I have decided to finally send
home after bringing them this far. The
packages I have sent so far have been : 1. Silver; 2. Versailles portfolio; 3.
Paris flower book; 4. Wooden shoes for Jon which contained lace for you and
then the one last night. Did you get the
lace collar? And are you going to be able to use it if you did?
I am enclosing in this letter some
money (bills) which I have picked up while in my travels over here. You perhaps will be interested in some of
it. A lot of it is Invasion money and
others are pre war money. I really have
no place to carry much money for collection purposes and it is better off at
home. Also you will find enclosed the
silver certificates, giving dates and periods.
You can keep them with the silver.
You take notice of the dates.
They are really ancient.
Our headquarters ha(ve) moved a
little nearer to us now so we should not have much trouble in getting our mail
hereafter as we have had in the past.
I never dreamed that a canal could be
as large as the Albert Canal is and
the destruction of the bridges etc along it are masterpieces of tearing things
down. Liege is a town much larger than I ever imagined it to be. The part which surprises me is that things
are modern in so many of them.
Modernistic buildings are nothing new here at all. All of the cities of any size have both
residential and business districts all modern.
The “Sect. 8” which you mention is merely a part of or a type of
discharge. There are eleven sections and
the VIII is just one of them. The CDD is “Certificate of Disablement
Discharge” in other words a physical discharge on Mental disablement. A person can just act funny and get one of
those.
Your mention of fall weather makes me
homesick as I used to always like the fall and the thought of a beautiful
Spring to follow. Over here we have mud
and chilly nights. The trees are all
bare except for a few leaves here and there on them. They make a beautiful tracing against the
autumn skies that we have here. The
country here is just like the painting of the Dutch masters who have painted
them and captures their beauty long ago.
I am very fond of your idea of the
bookshelves for my books. I often thought of getting one for myself before
coming into the army but never got around to it. I have always wanted to have a large kidney
desk in mahogany as a sort of business desk.
That of course will have to wait until another day. You can charge the bookcase to me.
Do not become worried as my mail will
eventually all show up. I try never to
let too long a period of time elapse between them, but I will do better in the
future.
What are the full details of Ethel Zimmers exit from
their home?
Well all for now mother and more
later. Hope this finds you all well.
All my love,
Stanley
