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

Dear Aunty Clara,

Wednesday



The effect of having boarding and screening all around the tent plus a screen door will be to keep out most of the mice. At least the only ones we will have left will be those already living in our footlockers. One thing which gets me is that day after day I will go to get my mess kit only to find that a mouse has done his business on it. They must smell that there was food in it and then hang around the place trying to sniff their way inside.

The tent which is probably going to have the best construction is that one built by the fellows in Larry Isaacson's group. They have two professional carpenters in Klaas Land and George Duvall, both of whom hold ratings in the company as carpenters. Our tent, on the other hand, is being built by a farmer (Burkard), a mechanic (Mersing), a truck driver (Bauer) and three office workers (Edie, Censky and myself).

The mosquito menace seems to have subsided somewhat or else I am becoming immune to them but I haven't noticed them biting as much lately. Those screened in tents aren't going to be mosquito proof because the cracks between the floor boards are anywhere from a quarter of an inch to more than an inch wide and there isn't a mosquito in the world that would have any trouble getting thru that.

There was an occasion during the course of the day to locate Captain Hanton which I did a short way down the road. Mersing was sitting in the command car a short way off and when I had finished with the necessary business at hand, Captain Hanton told me that Mersing would drive me back. I asked him if he was kidding but he meant it alright and Mersing drove me out onto the road and all of the one hundred yards to the office.

There is a fellow in Company B who passed the Air Corps tests and is scheduled to go back to the United States and be home in time for Christmas. That would be a surprise for his parents if on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning he could walk in on them coming all the way from the Southwest Pacific. That would be a better surprise than coming home from Oregon, eh? Jack and I figured it out that with all the schooling the Air Corps will give him, it will be well into 1945 before he gets back into the war.

According to the last Daily News I received, Mayor Kelly has the idea that the city should buy up all the transportation facilities and run them on a low fare basis and with the mind for expanding the subway both to the Southside and a four tube subway to the Westside. That mayor, for all his bad points, his affiliation with a powerful machine and his being a Democrat, still comes up with some very good ideas. This is a good one and will probably not be accepted by the council of aldermen or if put up to a referendum it will be defeated. The other good idea was when he tried to license bookies in the city. That one was kicked out by Horner but would have sure saved a lot of taxes if they would have left it be.

In the future when I refer to the Southwest Pacific or the Southwest Pacific Daily News paper, I will use the abbreviation of Sopac. That is the common term employed on this Island and does save time. It will also help differentiate between the Daily News here and the Chicago Daily News.

This letter has taken quite some time to type out. More than an hour to be exact mainly because first Ralph Pfau kept pestering me with questions and then because Campbell walked into the office accompanied by Wally Moeller and the 1st Sgt of F Company, Petroccia. Then Forgosh walked in and now they are holding a big pow-wow within a few feet of this typewriter. Just in case my drowsiness today was due to more than just the stuffiness and the heat I believe it would be a good idea if I got to bed earlier than yesterday. I'll be seeing you tomorrow.

So-long,
/s/ Roman
Roman