Cpl Roman F. Klick 36620923
HS 1393 Engr APO 709
c/o PM San Francisco, California
24 May 1944

Dear Aunty Clara,

Wednesday



Well, that was quite a big job I cut out for myself in re-typing Aunt-Aunt's letter so that it could pass by the censor once again. I put in the usual carbon copy which I do with all my letters, as you know, and then never once looked at the page but copied it straight down as fast as I could. Imagine my chagrin when I discovered that the carbon paper had rolled itself, along with the duplicate copy, around the platen and by the time I reached the end of the letter, the print was going right over the top part of the letter once again. That meant I had to retype the thing which I did. However, in retyping it, I did not use a carbon but just typed it over to send to you and I copied it down exactly to the very same mis-spelled words etcetera so that it is just as good as a carbon.

During this afternoon I did not get to work on the officer pay vouchers as I planned to do during the previous evening. Rather than do that I decided I needed one of those small book size informational rosters of officers similar to the ones Jack and I made up for the men in our old companies. It took me all afternoon and there are still two pages to go on it before I finish it. Tomorrow I will begin the officer pay vouchers.

After four o'clock we went to our barracks where I found that it paid to put my shelter half over my cot today for when I got back there, a big pool of water had dripped down on the top of it and all I had to do was lift off the shelter half and let the water run off to the floor. We sat around the barracks reading magazines, talking and listening to the Bugler, Angert, blaring away with his trumpet when suddenly Cooley stormed into the barracks and began bawling us out for fair for not falling out for a formation when he blew his whistle. We hadn't heard it account of the noise and then Cooley tore into Angert telling him that the next time he plays a bugle while there is a formation going on, he is going to put him on hard labor for a week and that that also went to anyone else not falling out for a formation on time. That is one thing about Cooley and that is that he can put on a real tough first sergeant face and tone when he wants to which is one of the requirements for a first sergeant.

Lewis and I went to chow this evening rather than partake of our Canteen food consisting of bread and cheese because they had some extra good macaroni down in the mess hall. This afternoon we had an excellent piece of pineapple pie and that hit the spot but good. O yes, our Canteen is loaded down with food lately. The ration man managed to get a lot of extra canned goods today which they merely dumped out on the ground and told anyone and everyone to help themselves to. We of the Canteen brought in two cans of concentrated lemonade, two 7-pound cans of American Processed Cheese, 2 cans of Vienna sausages, I can of pears, 1 can of vegetable hash which is quite some haul. Once before they got in extra rations like that and anyone who happened along at the time were able to help themselves to gallon cans of battery acid (that's grapefruit juice).

This evening we spent several hours in the Canteen before coming in here to write our letters. We started off with a cup of milk and ended rather quickly with a cup of coffee but in between the drinks we certainly chewed the fat. It is a regular get together. We also had a guest whom I invited up to the Canteen, Johnny Gonzalez, of whom I have spoken of at several times previous to this. You will hear more about him in the letter I'm going to write to Uncle Jack for he played in baseball as a professional.

By the way, Lt London is really changing things around in B Company. Jack Molyneaux and his friends were worrying about transferring into H&S Company where they would have to stand Reveille but Lt London beat H&S to it and for the first time since the Spring of 1942 John Joseph Molyneaux had to attend that formation!

So-long,   /s/ Roman   Roman