Cpl Roman F. Klick 36620923
Co "A", 353rd Engr Regt
A.P.O. #502, c/o Postmaster
San Francisco, California
15 November 1943
Dear Aunty Clara,
Monday
The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray is a saying which applies very well in my situation today. Not five minutes ago (and it is four thirty now) I was still putting some last minute touches to my payroll. With all the interruptions and last minute changes during the day, it is fortunate that I managed to get it finished today. The next obstacle is getting it signed on time.
I received two letters from you today dated the 5th and 6th of November. It seems that either as letter writers we are becoming more lax and therefore the censor has to return the letter for rewriting or he must blot out various parts of the letter. Either that or else the censors are instructed to become more critical of the contents of the letters. However, it seems that during those times when parts of my letter have been censored it was only idle chatter, which could have been left unsaid without missing much; so the censorship isn't what we could call severe. I try to keep my letters within the lines because I know it isn't any fun to read along and find a word missing here and there thus leaving you hanging in the air over what I may or may not have been trying to say.
From what you tell me, though, I do a much better job of censoring my V-mails by using such light ribbons that the print does not photograph at all. This ribbon itself may be rather bad but I haven't had time to change it but will do so either this evening or tomorrow. New ribbons aren't the easiest thing to get so I try to hold off changing them until it is absolutely necessary.
The PX today put on sale a one pound tin of Whitman's Chocolates. That is the same brand we used to buy in the boxes when we first arrived on the Island. Now the candy is canned and cost 90 cents instead of the previous 80 cents. It is special and has a label "Land, Sea and Air". With such an opportunity after going two days without candy, how could I resist buying a can?
It is up to me to take the new fellow across the river with the movie projector this evening to rerun "Wake Island" for the outfit over there. I'll let him run the show so that he can get as much experience as possible. It should never take a fellow more than three or four times to get the hang of things because I think that is how long it took Gordon and myself to solo.
Say, from the latest news reports, the Russians are almost within cannon range of the Old Polish frontier. I guess there isn't anything people would like to see better than to have the Russians go on into Poland and then Germany, giving them just what they gave out and more. It is going to be a close race in the final stages of the war to see whether we will make peace with Germany before we have made her suffer or whether four years of planning to crush her with bombs and guns will prevail. Sometimes I think maybe a good beating right down to her very door step of Berlin would be more effective than an Armistice without having torn the nation up a little bit.
That hospitalization plan seems rather steep doesn't it? From the 15cents Tribune policy to a $1.50 monthly policy is quite a jump. But then, too, you say that you had to pay double for an extra Tribune each morning so it is only a jump from about 75cents to $1.50. That is one policy which we would rather keep paying on without ever having to get any return from, eh?
We now have Ray Gradler and Porfirio Zamora lined up as buglers on our Company A program and we may run a little humorous skit with them. Lt Weisman has asked Cain and I to assemble all the talent together in the big tent this Wednesday night. One difficulty we are going to run into is the different shifts. Larry, for instance, has guard duty Wednesday evening and will not be able to come.
So-long,
/s/ Roman
Roman