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Cpl Roman F. Klick 36620923
Co "A", 353rd Engr Regt
A.P.O. #502, c/o Postmaster
San Francisco, California
June 17, 1943

Dear Aunty Clara,

I did not write a letter to you yesterday because we were busy working from dawn to dusk. I was going to try to write a bit last night before going to bed but I didn(t get the chance then either. I would like to answer your 14 letters which have now accumulated but it seems that your letters are either in my barracks bags when I am in the office or just vice versus with me in my quarters while the letters are in the desk. The latter is the case at the present time. It sure has been swell to get all those letters from you but I am sorry that I have given you a few moments of worry. Even if I were sick I would still find someway to drop a line to you letting you know all the dope. But there I go trying to answer your letters without having them right in front of me at the time.

I am glad to say that a bulletin was put out the other day explaining just what was to be considered censorable information and what was not considered such. As a result I will be able to tell you a lot more about the new place we live in than I thought would be possible.

For instance, if and when I get a chance to get into town or to talk with some of the inhabitants of this island, I will thank my lucky stars for having taken up French in college. Yes, can you beat that! French is spoken on this island! Miss Belle would be interested in hearing that, eh? I had to laugh inwardly as we passed signs and bulletins and store fronts all in French because ever since college I have wanted to go someplace where I could brush up on the language ( and here I was.

O yes, it was just a casual mention about that island business but that is just what it is. Ever since getting into this man(s army I have been landing in spots that I never even dreamed of being. But now comes another laugh. We are surrounded by the same ring of hills as we were at Camp White. It was the same at our two week stop before leaving the country. No matter where we go we seem to run into that type of country. After twenty-odd years of living on the flat plains of Illinois, these different surroundings are something to be marveled at.

The one thing I know that neither you nor Aunty Florence (or for that matter myself) would like about this place are the insects. We have cockroaches, small lizards, ants, mosquitoes, and a whole slew of spiders. However, according to my philosophy of living one just gets used to those things when it becomes a necessity to do so. That all just goes to prove that man is the highly adaptable creature we have always known him to be.

To continue along the line of the sensational: The dark-skinned natives down here have --- believe it or not --- orange hair! It is one of the craziest things you could see. Dark bodies and long orange hair.

When Edie, Larry and I went walking along the creek Sunday looking for wild fruit we all seemed to think at the same time that the place reminded us of the Garfield Park Conservatory with its dense vegetation and the conglomeration of banana, lemon, coconut and orange trees.

To be continued on another sheet of V-mail.

Solong (temporarily),
/s/ Roman
Roman

Cpl Roman F. Klick 36620923
Co "A", 353rd Engr Regt
A.P.O. #502, c/o Postmaster
San Francisco, California
June 17, 1943

Dear Aunty Clara: (a continuation and the second page of a letter of who knows how many pages)

I wrote the first page of this letter in the fading sunlight just before our supper meal and have begun this second sheet well after night time has fallen. Incidentally, I had anticipated going over to the office to get your letters, reread them and answer them but the weather wasn(t favorable for such an expedition.

You know that we now receive an additional 20% of our base pay for foreign service. That is what makes possible the huge increase in the class E allotment. By the time you receive this letter you should have received the larger check.

I forgot to mention that my Dad sent me a letter dated May 25 or 26. It was delivered by airmail and I received it June 15. From the looks of things it will take about 10 to 14 days for letters to reach us. How long it will take mail to reach you is something which you will be able to find out as these letters begin arriving. Speaking of letters: Besides the other letter dated today, my last letter to you should be dated June 15, 1943. I(m sorry that my letter has lacked coherency on this sheet but between the conversations of the other Roman F. and Edie I am having a difficult time in concentrating upon what is going down in type. I also sent Aunty Florence a letter dated the 15th of June.

Notes on the advantages accrued to soldiers having overseas service: The main advantage is the financial one of the additional 20% which in the case of $66 a month men amounts to $13.20 or the new monthly pay of $79.20 . . . upon return to civilian life they can belong to the Veteran(s of Foreign Wars in addition to belonging to the American Legion if they so choose . . . An additional ribbon is given to the soldier to wear on his uniform signifying the theater of operations in which he served . . . An overseas stripe can be worn on the blouse . . . He becomes literally a man of the world . . . The experience itself makes the soldier(s life fuller and more interesting . . . He has many pleasant (and, of course, some unpleasant) memories to look back to during the post war era . . . And so forth and so on along similar lines . . .

Naturally there are disadvantages such as the slower mail service . . . the natural tendency for the folks back home to worry a bit more . . . being further from home . . . being away from the American cities which are grand amusement centers for soldiers . . . the added restrictions such as censorship and the limitations as to packages which were so good to receive . . . this list cold be expanded also but why look at that side of things?

In one of your letters you mentioned that you were looking up at the star-studded sky and thought that maybe I too were looking up at that same sky that night. I might have been for during the past weeks I have star gazed quite a bit as my letters mentioned. There was a feeling of closeness in knowing that those very stars the one of us was looking at could be looked upon by the other at the same time. Now it is not so. You see the northern sky while I look at the southern one. One thing though is that the moon, sun and planets are visible to both of us.

Solong,
/s/ Roman
Roman