12/18/43–From Wikipedia: Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943) is an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, best-selling memoirist and founding member of the rock band the Rolling Stones. The magazine of the same name credited Richards for “rock’s greatest single body of riffs” on guitar and ranked him 4th on its list of 100 best guitarists.[1] Fourteen songs that Richards wrote with the Rolling Stones’ lead vocalist Mick Jagger are listed among Rolling Stone magazine’s “500 Greatest Songs of All Time“.[2] The Stones are generally known for their guitar interplay of rhythm and lead (“weaving”) between Richards and Brian Jones, Mick Taylor and Ronnie Wood over the years. In spite of this, Richards plays the only guitar tracks on some of their most famous songs including “Paint It Black“, “Ruby Tuesday“, “Sympathy for the Devil“, “Gimme Shelter“, and “Angie“.
12/19/43 Miami Beach, FL.
From: Robert Stedman
Dear Mrs. Stafford:
Your letter of the 15th of December was just received…My wife sent it on to me from Chicago. I am very pleased over receiving it and will attempt now to try and answer all the questions I can for you….
First…I left the major on the morning of Nov. 8th… He was in very fine health and looked great…He gave me a copy of the Daily News to read on the way home.
I flew my first mission with the major on that one in April that made the papers*…(Incidentally…there was no coffee served on our return, as the paper stated…) I got a very slight scratch and was awarded the Purple Heart. Major Stafford proved himself a very capable pilot to me…bringing that ship home like he did…From then until August, I flew as gunner with both Capt. Jackson…the operations officer, and the major…from August till I left, I flew with the major…
Our missions are fairly easy…they are ground support targets that we hit… A few small towns and maybe and airfield…We don’t go deep into enemy country and never hit large cities…So you see… it is fairly easy….
Another thing which you…as the major’s wife should like is the fact that…as C.O. he is only allowed to fly on a few missions a month… The situation..as it was when I left.. may make him fly a few more… But you needn’t worry… I flew in the same lead ship with him many times and I didn’t worry… Not with him flying the ship and leading the formation.
His quarters, when I left…was a tent… The country was pretty barren…and the food was pretty good… It is pretty cold up there now and probably pretty wet most of the time. But, stoves have been made and he, as well as the men of his command, have pretty comfortable living quarters… They are good oil stoves…
Oh yes… I can promise you that the major had not been wounded when I saw him last… He had around 30 missions I believe..
I’m sure sorry I didn’t get to see you during my stay in Chicago… I’m sure you will understand though when I tell you.. I was married there..and had so many relations to see.. and different things to do.. It was almost impossible… Plus that… My running around had to be done by street car.. which isn’t too nice.
You mentioned in your letter that you expected to leave for Florida the day after Christmas… Maybe we can get to see each other down here… If your visit here in Florida brings you anywhere close to Miami Beach… try to drop over and I’m sure I could answer many more questions for you…
I’m staying at the President Madison Hotel…One of the army hotels.
Sincerely:
S/SGT Robert Stedman
P.S. The major is flying A.20’s…commonly called Bostons by the newspapers…or, light bombers…He was only a few miles from Foggia when I saw him last.
*See post for April 20, 1943 where Robert is quoted in the newspaper article referred to.
