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

Dear Aunty Clara,

Thursday

Well, here I am again although it is much later than I thought it would be -- ten o'clock and I'm first beginning the letters. The evening began rather slowly as I thumbed thru a pocket book of humor and then began reading a Daily News which arrived in this morning's mail. That plus chewing the fat with the fellows in the office who hung around this evening on CQ or to write some letters occupied all the time. I am rather disgusted in myself for allowing that horrible wastage. O yes, another factor entered into the scheme of things to waste my hour from four to five but more of that later.

What interested me the most was this Daily News. It was a rather late one dated the 10th of November and is the first one I have received now that the paper is under this new ownership and also the first paper I have received after the election was held. Personally, I feel that this fellow changed the style of the Daily News a bit too radically --- almost making it look like the Herald-American. In fact, the Daily News does not now have a distinctive type of set up which has for so long made it different from the other Chicago newspapers. However, if he succeeds in his determination to jack up the circulation of the sheet, I suppose it is alright. He also has got rid of a few standard comic strips and writers and in their place, substituted a few others which I do not approve of. Yet, no one ever cares for a change and in time it will become natural once again just as the old paper was. How does the new Daily News strike you, or haven't you paid much attention? Has Uncle Jack said anything about it?

What intrigued me this afternoon between the hours of four and five was the practice session the officers went thru as Captain Cook had them out on the baseball field going thru the procedure of forming a guard and relieving the old guard. Yesterday, when Captain Cook had me type up that letter because Norona wasn't here, that is what it concerned and at that time, I thought it might be interesting to watch. And I was not alone in that for the top of the hill became a regular gallery as the non-participating officers and enlisted men watched the proceedings. One thing that was funny to watch was when the 1st Sgt Hopkins of C Company inspected the New Guard which consisted of eight officers and Goldenberg. O yes, Hopkins Company Commander was his "sergeant" during the inspection. Something like that just doesn't happen every day and therefore is entertaining. And, as the roving reporter for the Bulldozer, I felt it my solemn duty to watch it and garner any printable happenings. Which I did. That should make a good item for the Home Edition which is coming out this next week Friday.

At ten o'clock I tried to get some bread and butter for a snack but it was no soap on account of because they are having toast for breakfast tomorrow morning and they need all the bread they've got. I would much rather have two untoasted slices of bread now than two toasted slices in the morning. First of all, the Army toast is nothing like what pops out of our Toastmaster in the first place and, in the second place, because of the mass production it is not exactly freshly toasted by the time you get it. But, come to think of it, I believe we are going to have another fresh egg tomorrow so it will be worthwhile going down to chow anyway. The eggs haven't been as frequent as they were and they come in singly now but that is no cause for complaint as a lot of places overseas don't get eggs, period.

The morning mail also brought a letter/note from Robbin with another Curly Casinita's Capital Roundup. Other than that there was no mail --- No V-mail at all today.

For that formation which the officers had to go thru this afternoon, they had to borrow rifles from the fellows and Lt Suiter borrowed my rifle and bayonet. He wanted it so that it could pass the inspection, so I took the oil off of it and now he hasn't returned it and I'll not get it until tomorrow morning. If there was oil on it, it wouldn't be so bad, but in this climate things rust overnight and undoubtedly, there will be a light film of rust where the oil rubbed off and in particular where the hands touched. You would be amazed how a person can touch his hand to a rifle and the moisture from that contact will cause rust to form. That is just another illustration of how this tropical weather is different than weather back home. That is why teeth decay faster here, why a person ages faster, and so forth. Those are the drawbacks to the tropics --- the advantage of course is the warm weather.

Bob Crosby is going to play with his band somewhere around here soon but I don't know as if his orchestra is so extra special that I should go out of my way to see it. Lt Suiter has a good idea and that is since our entire Battalion is off on Wednesday afternoons, he is going to try to contact for USO shows then on our stage, if they will not come during the night-time because of a too crowded schedule.

Holy cow, the time is passing by more swiftly than I anticipated and it is now twenty minutes to ten. That will mean I'll get into the barracks just in time to go to sleep.

Tomorrow they have "Summer Storm" with Linda Darnell and George Sanders at the movies. I may go to it sort of as a night off, that is, if I have my letter writing done before show time. You see, the band will play and the show will not begin until about eight o'clock. Under those circumstances I can go to bed immediately after the show. But tomorrow will have to roll around before I know just what I am going to do.

The work today was hardly worth mentioning. I did some of Captain Hanton's work which as I have mentioned before has become part of my assigned duties, so it seems, but I don't care so long as I don't have to work beyond four bells doing anything. In fact, today I would have welcomed work to keep me busy. There is one job I started to do on the officer's records but because it is such a vague job, I didn't get very far with it. I should do a little more thinking about it before I really get into it because I'd hate to do so much work only to find out that I did it wrong. I don't have to do this job but it is something which I thought up one day which would make keeping records a lot more simple that it is even now.

I'm polishing off the DeMauppassant short stories and they are mostly not so good and it is doubtful whether I'll send those home either. In fact, about the only one I think I'll send home is Hurricane and maybe not even that since this package situation isn't so good lately. Maybe the best way would be to have you buy the book --- but then I'd never buy a 25 cent pocket book bound in cardboard for my library --- it is only because I had them here with me that I considered putting them into my library in the first place.

There goes Mathis blowing Call to Quarters which means only fifteen minutes left before Taps sound off and since I haven't much more to say this evening, I'll close off here saying that temporarily the teeth stopped hurting, the fever is gone and while the spirits have come down from the pinnacle they were on a few days ago, I'm just going along as usual, just about average.

And, since this letter will probably reach you just before Christmas, I'll wish you a last minute,     Merry     Merry     Christmas.

So-long,   /s/ Roman   Roman