Sgt Roman F. Klick 36620923
HS 1393 Engr APO 709
c/o PM SF Cal
25 July 1944
Dear Aunty Clara,
Tuesday on Guadalcanal
The funniest thing happened today with the mail. I was looking into the mail room to see if by chance Lynd had sorted one out for a fellow named Klick. The top letter was addressed to Ebner and I couldn't see the ones below that. I looked away for a second and then looked back at the letters when I noticed a picture of a squirrel in the corner of the envelope. I thought that was mighty peculiar that Ebner should be getting a picture of a squirrel on his envelopes since the thing looked so much like a Buddy Squirrel. Just for the fun of it I looked at the postmark and it was from Milwaukee. Well, I'll be switched thought I, that another fellow in the office should be getting letters with Buddy Squirrels from Milwaukee when it dawned on me that Lynd might have put another letter on the pile and, sure enough, it was addressed to that aforementioned fellow named Klick. It was a letter from Aunt-Aunt with a dollar bill inside of it and another short note from Renee. Other than that, I received no mail.
Here is a tidbit which I forgot to mention in my previous letters. Lt Bellows found an empty bomb shell some time ago and the fellows had it painted with the red and white stripes of a barber pole, a real good job too, and it is now standing outside the barber shop just like any shop in the good old USA.
I haven't opened up the second box of mallow delights but am saving them for a few days. The PX meanwhile has continued to have quite a selection of candy and with the timely dollars that have been coming in, I've been able to continue to buy from three to six candy bars a day.
This was another good one. Just before leaving New Caledonia we had the Articles of War read to us in spite of the fact that the required six months wasn't up as yet. Now this evening we have to hear them all over again and once more not even four months have elapsed since our last hearing of them. We began talking it up and asked Lt Suiter who in the world thought that idea up. Imagine our embarrassment when he said he did! Jack and I made up some sample inserts for the Service Records in which we allowed a certain number of lines exclusively for those periodical lectures all GIs must hear and it is a good thing we were in a pessimistic mood when we made it up leaving room for some three and a half more years of service for at the rate we are getting these lectures, we will have four years of them inside a period of less than three years. Laughingly, of course, we can say that this our next to the last one with the idea that by this time next year we will be home. That, however, is just so much talk.
Here I was just thinking of putting in another request for recreational transportation next Sunday when it dawned on me that I'm the CQ for that day. I don't mind it, though, since I'll be able to read a book or write some letters that day and also be certain to be in the office for the second installment of that thrilling serial story "Suspense".
The biggest discussion in the international circle of the office is whether or not the Americans are going to try to take all the Marianas Islands or if they will be satisfied with the ones they have already invaded or are invading meaning, Saipan, Guam and Tinian. I think that they will sweep up and try to get all fifteen of the Islands while the others believe that the Americans will attempt to neutralize them with airpower and leave them uncaptured as they did to the others in the Carolines etcetera. It sure would be good if Admiral Nimitiz's statement about the possibility of the Americans hitting Japan proper would come true. Striking directly at Japan would settle beyond question the war in the Pacific.
One thing I would like to do is to get some hours of study or heavy reading in this last year or so of war so that I will be back in the swing of my civilian life when I return to it. Never have I let so much time go by without some sort of improvement.
So-long, /s/ Roman Roman