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Sgt Roman F. Klick 36620923
HS 1393 Engr APO 709
c/o PM San Francisco, California
6 July 1944

Dear Aunty Clara,

Thursday

At least I accomplished one thing this evening and that is that I answered Eleanor's letter. Perhaps I did that the wrong way about for she is the last person I received a letter from and the first one to get a return letter from me.

This barracks business is definitely not good. I'm firmly convinced of that. For one thing, the pyramidal tents gave a person more room for himself since a person not only had a cot with space for his clothes but also a desk and a chair in the tent. In a pyramidal there was some privacy or at least a moderate degree of privacy. And it was a simple task for six men to keep a tent clean and ready to pass any inspection no matter when it came. In the tents, we had racks for our guns and the rifle inspections were easily made by the Company Commander. We also had more air in a tent, could stretch out a lot more conveniently in our little corners, had a better view of the surrounding area thru our screen walls. Our tent office was fairly easy to keep in order, and, in fact, was only inspected by the Colonel on one occasion.

The barracks on the other hand are no good at all since there are so many men in each of them and the job of keeping it clean is that much harder. The space per man is much smaller, for outside of the cot space, there is just the empty aisle running from end to end. For inspections, things have to be laid out on the bed and then replaced later on in the day to their proper places. The offices is a job to clean even with thirteen men working at the job as it took us some three hours before it was all done. It is just as bad as cleaning a house for there is the woodwork to clean, the screens to get the dust out of, a number of trash cans to empty, chairs to wash, desks to wash and so on and so forth. Of course, it sure does look nice, there is no getting away from that but all it goes to prove is that the simpler life is, the happier it is. We begin by getting complicated and finer with the better living conditions, the better furniture and what happens but it takes up additional time, worry and that. Back home that is alright but the Army isn't the place for that. Yet a person wouldn't want to give it up for pup tents or anything like that because when the wind blows the buildings don't half way fall down the way tents try to do although the buildings leak and the tents never did. Each one has its advantages I suppose and it would be a hard time deciding just which of the two was really the best.

I've definitely got a peach of a cold. I'm sniffly and miserable right now and I suppose I will continue to be so for a few days while the worst gets over. Because of all this cleaning we did this evening, I did not get the chance to really give my rifle a good going over as I planned today for tomorrow inspection. Possibly tomorrow noon I may get the chance to clean it and my bayonet. Along with that, I'm going to have to get myself a haircut if I want to pass the inspection too for it is getting to the rather long stage once more.

In spite of everything, we did have our glass of milk this evening. Did I tell you that when an individual cup of milk is wanted, the egg-beater just fits into the Canteen Cup? That is an added benefit I hadn't thought possible.

So-long,   /s/ Roman   Roman