Cpl Roman F. Klick 36620923
HS 1393 Engr APO 709
c/o PM San Francisco, California
22May44
Dear Aunty Clara,
Monday
Today was a red letter day as my dearest, darling Patricia (hey, what am I saying) I mean that Pat wrote me a letter. And it was unauthorized! She wrote it on the 23rd of April and that was before I even had a chance to write her those letters I did. She said she hadn't heard from me for some time and decided to dash off a line. In the last line she becomes very affectionate and says "Hope my letter finds you in best of health". I seem to notice a certain difference in this letter than from the previous ones. Before this she wrote a nice, sociable and neat letter which was unusual for a girl of her age yet in spite of that there was something there that betrayed her youth. This letter on the other hand, while not her best letter, seems to have suddenly assumed a more mature attitude. She is growing up at last, darn it anyhow. Maybe before this war is over, I'll be writing to another married woman. The other one you most likely guessed is Dolores. Pat's mail takes an interminably long time to reach me. Just imagine, one day short of a month and she used an eight cent stamp once again. I'm going to have to write her a letter and tell her not to use eight cents worth of stamps. And another thing which looks bad. She is going to go on one of those Morton hay rides and I'll never forget that it was on one of those romantic trips that Ray jilted Stacey for Dot Watson. I'm talking like a jealous boyfriend but that is not the case. I merely would like to come back home and find an unattached girl who would be a good friend. As far as her meaning anything to me at the present time, other than a person who I would like to know better and to keep as a friend, she doesn't. How could she possibly be any thing else but a friend at this time when we left each other as casual acquaintances last April and then didn't correspond until this year? But there is, however, one thing that does attract me to her and that is the fact that before I even knew her or her name or anything about her but merely saw her walk down the street (57th Avenue) the first time, I liked her and thought she was just the kind of person she turned out to be --- studious, intelligent, sociable, well-mannered, liked by everyone, industrious and you know the rest. As a general rule, I go so far off on judging a person that it seems so odd to have been able to do it so unerringly in her case, within the first moment I ever laid eyes on her. She has dark eyes which are like jewels in her head and they were what I found had struck my attention. So there it is, I think I have dwelled on that one subject long enough for this evening.
That was the only letter I received, incidentally, and it is the funniest thing but just about fifteen minutes before I got it I had been talking with another fellow, Bill Grauel, about the letters we were expecting to receive and I had mentioned that any day now I would be getting a letter from her.
By the way, I've gone almost completely deaf in my right ear at last. Whether it is the gradual loss of hearing resulting from that hit by the baseball years ago or whether there is something stopping up the passage, I do know that I wash my ears out every morning and there shouldn't be any dirt in them. I tested it out this evening by blocking out as much sound as I could from my left ear and then trying to hear what a fellow said just 12 inches away from me and I could only hear a murmur and could not distinguish any words.
And another thing, Jack and I were almost assured of our technician ratings today but, in the end, they didn't go thru yet. Captain Hanton had told Sackett that he could type them up and have them signed so he did but when he brought them down to the Orderly Room Captain Hanton wasn't in so they will have to wait a few more days. No one can be promoted until the first of June anyway so one day more or less isn't going to hurt any. Gosh, but I sure am going to be outrated in our canteen. Sackett is a Technical Sergeant and both Myers and Lewis are going to be Technical Sergeants when the first day of June comes around. It may be on that day they will all be Tech nical and I'll be a Tech nician Sergeant so Lewis said we ought to call each other Tech for short. Lewis' job calls for a Master Sergeancy but he can not jump two grades under the present set-up but will have to take it one step at a time. When he does make Master which should be in July, he will be making over $180 a month all told including $15 extra from the government on family allowance, 20% for overseas pay and an extra 5% for his first hitch in the Army. That is an increase in pay of over $12 a week more than he is getting at the present time as Staff Sgt and he thinks he will not find it very difficult to take.
Have you been able to tell by the type that I am using my own typewriter once again? The lad got the spare parts today and fixed the two spots where it was on the blink. That typewriter which I was using yesterday and which belongs to Cpl Hipp is even a better typewriter than this one although it is not as sturdy nor has it the small type. I believe that when this war is over, I'm going to give my Woodstock Standard the old heave-hp and get myself one of these strong portable models which are easier to move around and are capable of putting out just as much work and just as fine a job as any standard there is. The only drawback to a portable machine is that its carriage length is limited but for typing letters one doesn't require more than a nine inch roller.
The afternoon meal in the mess hall was okay but the evening meal didn't look so good with hash on the menu so we drew our bread ration and brought it up to the Canteen where we had toasted cheese sandwiches and coffee. It was a good meal although I find myself still a bit on the sanitary side in spite of the fact that I know no matter how dirty my hands are or even if the food is set on a piece of unwashed wood, it couldn't become any worse than it already is. The human stomach and body must be a marvelous system when it can continually knock out all those unwanted germs which enter it each day.
It rained this evening and poured steady for quite some time and now the office floor looks like Mount Ararat after the Great Flood. Jack and I were going to go to an outfit towards the end of the island this evening to see Betty Hutton and Eddie Bracken in the picture, "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek" but the rain washed that out for us. The other theaters all over this island seem to be able to get much later shows than even we get here. However, the Colonel promised us that after our new theater area is built up we will not only have the best theater area on the whole island, but we will also have the latest pictures and the best stage shows. They are really making a project out of that show area and the boys are working on it night and day with Lt Yantis overseering the job and Jim Holliday of my company as the hired boss man. Lt Y antis had his basic training in stage building when he had Personnel construct that little (compared to this) affair in Dumbea and is now capable of handling the really immense job he now has on his hands.
Hardly a day seems to pass now that I don't get a chance to ride a jeep around the place. This morning I drove a few more fellows over to the Motor Pool and then later on in the morning I drove Goldy to his company Orderly Room from the Headquarters bldg. We were kidding Motor Sgt Davis that the next opening for a jeep driver should go to me.
My work today consisted mainly of bringing the officer 201 file up to date by finding out what orders, memos and bulletins are missing and then trying to dig them up out of my accumulated files or the extra copies in the headquarters files. Then, if I can't locate all of them I have to type up true extract copies of the original orders and that is a job I was doing this afternoon. That job is going to take quite some time as I will have to get extracts of all orders bringing the officers to this island.
So-long, /s/ Roman Roman