Somewhere in England - 1 August 1944

T/4 Stanley W Safford 39539976

5^th Auxiliary Surgical Group

APO 339

c/o Post Master

New York

New York

Somewhere in England – 1 August 1944

Dearest Mother

After a very long silence I will once again take my pen in hand and start again my letters to you and I hope that I may continue them as in the past.

We had a very beautiful and interesting trip from Fort Sam Houston to our Port.  I had a chance to see some of the country which I have always wanted to see.  Had the chance to see a couple of very beautiful Southern homes from the distance, and always looked forward to see and actually receive some of the wonderful Southern hospitality.

Our group really enjoyed the trip and all of us had a nice vacation and I even played a couple games of Five Hundred, and you very likely remember the last time I, or we played.

On our trip over I had a job as Sergeant Major and I have just now become rested up enough to enjoy the country here which is indeed very attractive and as beautiful as anything I have yet seen in my travels during the army.  And most of my stations in the past have been none too attractive as far as landscape features were concerned.  Texas was very attractive at certain times of the year but the predominant part of the year the weather and the landscape were none too attractive.

On our way to our destination here  saw some very beautiful large homes of the period of 2, 3 and 4 hundred years ago, but a large percentage of the people and the property here shows definite signs of a war being on somewhere much closer to them here than it ever was at home in the states. And yet in practically every home regardless of how small and poor they will always have a few very attractive and beautiful flowers growing along besides the vegetables. Their climbing roses are extremely beautiful and much more fragrant than ours at home, and they are certainly profuse growers and are now in full bloom.  The Rhododendrons here are regular trees and they have beautiful Holly.  Also some very fragrant Erica.  There are some beautiful specimens of Birch and Horse Chestnut which are like the ones at the Kings Road estate (Mrs. Vosberg) and there are wild raspberries by the acre, all over everything and are soon going to be ripe and then I will really be walking in the woods as often as possible.  I am very seriously contemplating obtaining a bicycle and using it for seeing the country and doing things in my spare time, which I hope to have a little bit of in the future.

I will have to adapt myself to(o),although it really is not to(o) hard(to) understand if a person puts their mind to it.

The accent is not as strange to me as I thought it would be, although some find it quite difficult to understand/

Some distance from here there is a very beautiful mere (lake) and across from that are the typical pastoral rolling knolls with sheep and caule(?) graying and in the distance the church steeple without which no scene here is complete.

Yesterday Sunday we could hear the bells tolling and that was all we needed to complete the scene of tranquil beauty.  I am going to try some sketching again and see what I can do with them.  So some day you may see some of my masterpieces.

I heard from Margaret Ashley, received your last letter regarding them on the day after hers which was about four weeks ago.

Well enough for now and more later. As ever,

Love, Your son

See new address

November 5, 1942

Pvt Stanley Safford
US Army
Co A “-62” Med Tng Bn
Camp Barkeley
Texas

Nov 5, 1942

Dear Mother,

Arrived here safe and sound last evening about 12:00 o’clock after one of the most awful trips I think I have ever made and across some of the most awful looking country in the US, I think. Before and after we left Phoenix there were some very nice looking country with very nice looking ranches of maise, kafir corn, peanuts, cotton and 2 or 3 other things I had never seen before. The cotton is sure pretty. We crossed New Mexico in the dark and I don’t think we missed very much if it was any thing like the other desert. We came through El Paso about 5o’clock yesterday morning. I looked out my birth window and it is a pretty good sized town, larger than I expected.

The train stopped for any freight, passengers and other types of trains on the tracks, so we were therefore late to pick up the Texas & Pacific diner that was waiting for us. We then only had two meals yesterday but what we had was very good except the eggs.

We traveled under army orders under a very nice lieutenant who had two aides. Also on the same train in 4 or 5 cars in the rear were colored boys. When we were switching for the diner we backed up along side of them and low and behold if I didn’t know two or three. Went to McKinley and Jefferson with them and they were quite pleased that I spoke to them and they then introduced me to two or three of their friends out the car window.

We then went on until we came to Sweetwater when we then put on an O P engine then switched around North of Sweetwater and came up to Abeline which I didn’t see much of(f), where very large army trucks picked us up and drove like mad around corners, over ditches etc until we came into the quarantine section of Camp Barkeley which is a large tent section, the largest I have ever seen. The tents hold six beds. To give you an idea of their size, on one side they go up a slope and disappear over the edge and they wind up for probably a distance of 1 ½ miles in each of the other three directions and beyond them on the barracks etc as far as the eye can see, of course remember it was 12:00 o’clock and it had been raining sometimes during the day for the ground was quite moist and in some places quite muddy as well as strictly and vol.(?)
I thought for sure that we never would get to bed because the seargents corporals etc were cursing and plowing through amusing(?) and one of the nastiest cold cutting winds coming from the north I had ever seen, then towards morning it came from the south and it was just as cold.

Then we got up this morning at 6 o’clock and the sky was the blackest I had ever seen a sky and we prepared for a downpour but it never came. We had a breakfast(s) that I thought would kill me. Two hot cakes about 1 inch thick that you couldn’t cut with a fork and 1 very good piece of bacon and that was it. Then we went in to be placed in our final groups and then we had to turn in our blankets which had been issued for the other tents and changed tents to the new one which I am now in.
It also has six beds around the side and a stone in the center which is about 1 ½ feet tall and all about the same in width and we are to(o) burn coal in it and we have it all fixed this evening.

I understand from the scores that I received on my tests at the Fort that it will qual(l)ify me for officers training after I have been in the army 4 months which I am sure glad to see after seeing what officers are treated like here. Their tents have floors in them and desks etc. Also I do not wish to hang with rabble t(o) long for a person comes in contact with some none to(o) desirable characters here. I sure feel sorry for some of the fellows here that cannot even make a bed and have no more idea of nice things or the finer things of life than a wild animal and their table manners are something awful. Some roll their bread up in a roll and hold it in one hand and shovel the food on their fork with it etc.

They do more reaching here than I have ever seen before.

We have just had evening meal, ham, macaroni, salad of lettuce, potatoes, corn, bread and a finish of pumpkin pie. There were only two or three of them that was any good and I haven’t seen any milk since I have been here.

There are supposed to be approximately ?5,000 here in this camp. They of course are not all in the medical branch.
We, after we finish our course of from 2 to 8 weeks, are then sent to hospitals all over the country but none that I know of or have heard of in California so I do not think that I will be home very soon at least not for a few weeks. How many I do not know and will not know until probably the night before.

I may get a 10 or 12 hour leave when perhaps then I will spend it in Abeline. It is eleven miles away and very small at that. Of course Texas has not many towns of any size. We are quarantined here in our section for the next two weeks.
How did you like your trip to the desert? I thought about you quite often.
Could you by any chance get me a small sheep skin, brown shoe polish and a soft cloth or two? They have the polish here but nothing else. I did get myself some more ink today. I may send home a couple things later because I want to carry my dress shoes in my case.

The flashlight Miss Mosher gave me sure has come in handy a couple of times, and the stationary case has sure helped me out a lot, in fact the whole case has come in handy. It may be a little nuisance but it is sure worth it.

Do you think that I could get a bible about half the size the one I have now?
And I want you to look around and see what kind of a camera I might be able to get or get for me if I am unable to. There is a few pictures that I would like to have. How are Boots’ little rabbits and have you received Marshall’s address. I would like to have written to him in Arizona.

With Love,
Don’t worry.

Stanley

Postcard Dated Nov 2-42

Mother
Called home.
Grandpa answered.
On way through Depot to Abilena, Texas.
Medical Replacement Corps.
Reason do not know.
I will write.
Stanley