Cpl Roman F. Klick 36620923
Co "A", 353rd Engr Regt
A.P.O. #502, c/o Postmaster
San Francisco, California
September 15, 1943
Dear Aunty Clara,
Blue Wednesday
Well, the payroll is being signed at last. Just for the fun of it, I checked the thing item for item this morning and it was a very good thing I did that because I located three mistakes, I guess it was intuition that told me to check it this month.
I have an added duty now. During any alerts it is my job to secure two privates from the Company and post them on guard on a certain part of the area assigned to our company. The reason Sgt Driscoll chose me for the job is because I 'm about the only stationary corporal in the company. It is certain that I will be in the regimental area from day to do whereas the other corporals in the company are continually shifting between this location and another one and therefore can not be depended on for being present at the time of an alert.
By the way, I go up the island tonight to show the movie at the other outfit. The name is as scheduled, "Mister Lucky". I'm not sure but I believe Alan Ladd plays in it. Lets hope that the thing goes off smoothly because I am in no humour to stay up far into the night patching film. It is bad enough to waste the time riding up the island. I would much rather run the show here on the other nights but the way things worked out, up to now Lt Yantis has been busy on both Wednesdays and Fridays thereby necessitating my presence up there.
The mail service is lousy. Although Hill gets the mail very much earlier than Burkard used to get it, he does not hold two separate mail calls and as it is I must wait until after supper to get the mail. Three nights of the week I can not linger for the mail so I will not get it until who knows when these days. I'll have to ask Edie or Mersing to get it for me and lay the mail on my bed.
Mersing came back from the recreational camp today and he claims it was great fun. All you have to have is a three day pass and you can walk right into the place. It is built expressly for that purpose on the order of a Service Club run by the Army. The entire set up was excellent, movies every night and nothing to do but sign in and out of the camp. They are supposed to have a regular information center so that you can find out where the nearest baseball games are, the nearest stables, the best swimming and so forth and so on. It is not far outside of town in the other direction from our camp which allows them to get into town as much as they want to during those three days.
I'm dead tired but I think I am going to go down to the river after this letter and take a dip. It will not only wake me up but will get the perspiration of the day off my body. You know, down here Spring is only a week off now and we are first now beginning to realize that what we have just lived thru was not this island's summer but its winter.
The PX had a new kind of chocolate bar of foreign make costing 10¢. It was very rich and sweet but well worth the dime. One of those really is enough at one time. I found an extra quarter kicking around my coin pocket so I bought a can of Planter's Peanuts but they weren't as fresh as the others I had a while back.
We had a distinguished celebrity pass by our camp today but it was just my luck to be away from the office at the time. She waved to the boys and they waved back and they tell me she looked just like she appears in the newsreels. Not only did she pass by one time but she came back the same way. The second time I was getting a drink of water and her car had passed our office; so that my only recollection of the whirlwind is a car escorted by motorcycles and jeeps first going one way and then the other. I'll ask Lt Podelwitz if it is alright to mention who our visitor was. If it is I will tell you tomorrow.
I hope to get back tonight soon enough to write a letter to you and another to Dolores and perhaps as quick one to Uncle Jack.
So-long,
/s/ Roman
Roman