Sgt Roman F. Klick 36620923
HS 1393 Engr APO 709
c/o PM SF Cal
12 August 1944

Dear Aunty Clara,

Saturday



I didn't go to that Illinois convention at the Service Club after all. What prevented me from going was that Jack went with the mail and Sackett went into Finance with the payrolls. All three of us couldn't go in for then there would be none of us left in Personnel and that would most definitely look bad; therefore, I remained.

And another thing. You probably think that I did a lot of letter writing this evening considering all my talking about the subject but that is where you are wrong. I went to the show with Jack Molyneaux and Vickers at a nearby outfit. The name of the show was "Hey Rookie" with Ann Miller. It was a musical and did have a few comic sketches in it although the entire picture seemed to be thrown together around the two dancing scenes of Miss Miller's.

Another important or at least newsy item of the day was that Colonel Trower has been awarded the Legion of Merit for meritorious service during the last year. Now what we fellows wanted to know was whether we shouldn't get a unit decoration for performing the work for which Trower received his medal for. Of course, that won't happen since the only way an outfit can receive a decoration is to be cited on two separate occasions by the President and that is some going. I guess the medals are awarded according to rank and according to what type of duties are required by your Army job and Colonel Trower has been "bucking" for his general's star for some time now; therefore, in the course of his industrious service, he must have worked hard enough to be brought to the attention of the higher ups and they gave him the medal. Perhaps he may get that Brigadier Generalship after all. Kiddingly, we say that he received his medal for the Retreat Parades and the Saturday Inspections.

Say, this army is okay. I've told you how we have ice cold water twice a day but today we received something which even tops that. We have an aluminum container which looks something like a fire extinguisher but isn't. It contains five gallons of water just as the water cans did but it is now protected by the thermos like container which keeps it cold the entire day long. But to top that off, it works as a fountain and by pressing a button, presto, a streak of ice cold water comes bubbling up into the air. And if we don't want to drink out of it as a fountain, we can use the paper cups which also came along with the contraption. Sometimes a person begins to wonder whether he is overseas or not for we aren't going thru any hardships or privations. That's a sure thing.

The afternoon mail was light and I received none. Coming back from the show at ten o'clock, I was almost discouraged from writing letters for I spent the first half hour trying to help Lewis, Grauel, and Ebner work a silly game they cooked up about seeing how many words they could make out of one given word. You've seen that type of game played before.

Anyhow, my heart or my conscience just wouldn't let me give up the ship that easily so I drew another "Dear Diary" cartoon and am sending it to Mrs. Boyer, another person who finds reading the V-mail very difficult and who will undoubtedly be amused by the sketch if she has not already seen it. Then I copied over Eleanor and Bob's letters but I find I made many mistakes in writing El's letter, which I'm not going to correct or else I'll never send it. Then, to top the bill, I wrote a two page V-mail to Uncle Jack but because it was so terrible, I haven't even had the heart to re-read it for fear that I would merely tear it up. Finally, I wrote a letter to Jerome Barta without saying anything much in particular.

Times aflying and it must be well past twelve o'clock and I want to get up before breakfast tomorrow to see if I can't get hold of a truck for recreational transportation tomorrow. We managed to get the approval for it. Now the job is to find the vehicle that is available.

So-long,
Roman