Cpl Roman F. Klick 36620923
Co "A", 353rd Engr Regt
A.P.O. #502, c/o Postmaster
San Francisco, California
29 November 1943
Dear Aunty Clara,
Monday
I received your letters of the 19th and the 20th today as well as the Daily News of the 29th. I worked hard this morning until shortly after ten o'clock when I had completed one of the first big jobs standing in my way. Since it was my day off and I was free to either stay in the office or leave, as I saw fit, I chose to walk over to the tent where I thought I might like to lay down for a few minutes. Those few minutes turned out to be a few hours and I wasn't awakened until chow time at twelve o'clock.
After lunch I had to return to the office to do several company reports and I remained to continue some work I had on the docket. Not long after that I was informed to busy myself with the records of two people in my company. Two of the best fellows in my company are going to leave us and they are none other than 1st Sgt Driscoll and Pvt James A. Harvey. Harvey was liked by everybody and everyone will be sorry to see him leave. Sgt Driscoll, on the other hand, as 1st Sgt, will naturally be cheered by some in his departure but as far as I am concerned, I will miss him. He was one of the most intelligent men we had and a person could get along very well with him if they really knew him. Naturally, at this time it will be impossible for me to tell you anything else concerning them but perhaps at a later date I can. It is probably a lucky break for Harvey because he may land someplace where he can get a high rating. Sgt Driscoll hasn't much to gain because he is at the top as far as an enlisted man can go.
It also appears as if Blumenfeld's transfer to the Service Command is finally going to pay dividends. The fellow who he was working with has been removed to another job or something of the sort and the Robbin is going to step into his shoes. While the other fellow was a staff sergeant, Blumenfeld can not expect to have the whole rating fall into his lap but may be given a buck sergeancy out of it and duplicate Cava's feat of jumping from Pfc to Sergeant.
Speaking of Cava, he is in camp tonight after coming in from town for the express purpose of being interviewed by Lt. Colonel Stelzenmuller before going before the OCS board. He is bound and determined to get into Officers Candidate School. He tried back in the States but they advised him to withdraw his application at that time since he did not have very much line experience.
Now all the bonds are in I'd like to know just how many I have. I've tried to back track counting the ones I purchased from the Army and the ones I b ought at work but I can't seem to remember. Not that it would do me any good to know but just to satisfy my curiosity instead of always putting a question mark behind the word bonds when I go off into my postwar planning. My planning these days have been handicapped by the fact that I can no longer name specific amounts and costs since so much h has changed with the war.
So Uncle Jack landed the job with the Pulman Company. That is the same place that the blonde girlfriend of Lopez works for, isn't it? I suppose that you will write and tell me just what Uncle Jack does and all that as you get to know it from him.
Why Aunty Clara, how cynical of you to think that the blackboard should be the incentive which makes Rosana so anxious to come up to see her Aunty Clara. Still that blackboard does have something irresistible about it which attracts little children. I can't remember either whether I got it from Aunty Stella before or after I started going to school but I k now I was awfully little at the time. At first it was a mere plaything and a toy but it wasn't so long before it became useful in writing down notes for each other and also for me to do my homework on like math problems.
Cpl Roman F. Klick 36620923
Co "A", 353rd Engr Regt
A.P.O. #502, c/o Postmaster
San Francisco, California
29 November 1943
A windfall of cigarettes hit the regiment today and everyone in Personnel was given a tin of some kind of cigarette by the name of Chelsea. They came in a sealed tin of 75 and please don't be alarmed when I say I smoked one because from time to time when they distributed all sorts of cigarettes out free to the men I have tried one or two and they leave such a terrible taste in my mouth that I still cant understand why fellows smoke. I take all these free cigarettes so that I can give them to my friends like John T. Edie or John J. Molyneaux but sometimes I look at them so nice and pretty looking that since they look good they must be good to smoke but it always turns out to be disillusioning. In some men it requires a high moral will to refrain from smoking and drinking but it seems I'm from these vices by a natural dislike of both those things.
Another thing in connection with cigarettes is this. Maybe people don't realize that I don't smoke so they send me cigarettes along like in Rose's package and in Aunty Lilly's package (I think) and I only have to give them away. That isn't so bad because they only enclosed two packages but some fellows receive cartons of cigarettes from home at regular intervals and it is really a big joke because the people at home have to pay good money for those cigarettes while in only costs a soldier 50¢ a carton overseas. In fact, they refuse to sell a single pack because they only cost 4½¢.
Gee that is terrible the way Bill seems to be doomed to such a miserable life. I wonder if he will ever get well again. Poor Anita hasn't had much luck with either of her husbands, has she? I wonder how things would have turned out for her had she married Anthony, her first real boyfriend?
Incidentally, I've finally figured out why I don't like the assortment of nuts which Milwaukee has sent to me. It is alright to have peanuts salted but to have cashew nuts and walnuts so heavily salted seems too much and they do not taste as good as they do plain.
After supper this evening we were instructed to lay a sand walk in front of our tents. It didn't take us very long (about twenty minutes) because all six of us put in our b it. The funny part about it was that we found the sand piles up on the hill above the tents. What had happened was that a truck k, loaded with sand, had turned off the road going up the hill to the officer's quarters and had navigated the bumpy terrain in the rear of our tents to drop off its load. It wasn't very advantageous for us to have it in that spot because we are on the second terrace and a load of sand dumped on the 1st terrace would have been only twenty-five feet from our tent door. As it was we had to go up above the forth terrace to get the material.
The radio broadcast this morning was terrible. They didn't say one brand new item but almost repeated word for word what they said the previous night. They talk about the high level of intelligence of the American soldier yet they try to buffalo us over that news program with senseless chatter. I wish they would come right out at the beginning of the program and say that the situation remains unchanged so that a person could go about his business. In a commercial program you can forgive such holding tactics when the object is to keep the listener glued to the radio but in a free government sponsored newscast they should use different and straight forward tactics.
From the looks of things, the Mrs Snyder's package and the box of hard candy is never going to arrive and will have to be counted as a casualty. Could you please satisfy my awakened interest as to what printing you enclosed in that package which was familiar, a bit more of home and which would make the package a bit more Christmassy.
So-long, /s/ Roman Roman