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Sgt Roman F. Klick 36620923
HS 1393 Engr APO 73
c/p SF Cal
31 May 1945

Dear Aunty Clara,

Thursday

Good grief, there wasn't any V-mail again today. It is evident that this station does not have a V-mail receiving station and therefore all incoming micro-film is processed elsewhere and then mailed by existing routes to us. And here we thought it was going to be so good at first. In fact, the air mail is surprising the boys by arriving in ten days although quite a few have arrived out of order, mainly because they are routed through our old APO. Say, maybe that is why the V-mail is taking so long, it is being photoed down there and then sent up here.

I took a good shower this evening - the first really good one since getting off the boat - and then I changed into some of the fresh wash which Pedro's sister did. It sure is washed good and he put creases in the pants and even creased the pleats. That is the first washed and pressed clothes in two years. Then I changed socks which I have been holding off on for every second or third day and put on my moccasins and am now typing this letter as I sit on my cot. I feel good - contented - and happy. It is amazing the way I can fall into the ways of living we have out here even though we are still in the roughing it stage. Other fellows get disgusted with me saying that I shouldn't feel good at any time in the army but, my goodness, if I hadn't been able to make the best of things during the last 31 months I would have been in a bad way. Of course, that doesn't make me want to come home any the less. The times I get the maddest at the army is at work when I'm told to do things which just go against my grain. Things which a person wouldn't tolerate during civilian life but in the army a person just has to swallow his pride and take it.

The sleeping must have been exceptionally good this morning for not one of us woke up when the bugle sounded and we slept until it was almost time to go to work. Usually I am up and have my bed all made up and am ready to eat before the third bugle call even though being away from the company we don't have to fall in for Reveille. It pays to get an early start in the morning and one needs every bit of the time from the First Call to Work Call to get up, dressed, washed and eat a breakfast. On account of sleeping late, I missed a very good breakfast of pancakes. Grauel came down and said it was just the kind of breakfast I liked too - he, however, just can't stand pancakes. What we did do was break open a few cans of pork loaf we had left from our 10 in 1 rations and that tided us over until dinner (lunch) time. And at lunch I ate every single scrap I received. Delicious macaroni and good beef stew plus fresh bread with butter. Also my favorite vitalizer - battery acid - in which liking I am singularly alone.

I worked the full five hours this morning on Morning Reports and on the officer's pay vouchers. I almost had them cleared up too and was ready to check them this afternoon when I was sidetracked and had to spend the time on some H&S work. And after the morning of steady typing, I was simply putrid all afternoon and what should have taken me about thirty-five minutes took me hours.

Last night we all tried to have a snack to eat but Captain Cook sent me out on an errand and then Captain London asked me to deliver a message to his mess hall so by the time I got back the chow was all gone with all those chow hounds at work. In a way, it turned out for the best for I went to fill up my canteen with water and the H&S kitchen was serving cocoa and I filled up the canteen with that instead. It was excellent. I feel that I deserved it and wasn't a free loader (as the term for fellows who eat but haven't worked goes) since I typed up that special work last night and then stayed awake until twelve waiting around to help Marsh on some work Captain Hanton wanted him to get out but the night dragged on and the work was called off so we all hit the hay.

Pedro came around last night with some washing and his two little nephews. Pedro and his tiny nephews certainly must be a better class of Filipino alright because they are always immaculately dressed. And his nephews will just sit without saying a word so we usually give them a bar of candy apiece. In fact Pedro's two nephews were waiting here this morning when we got up, he had sent them back for any laundry which may have been ready.

Pedro gave Norona a bunch of Japanese Invasion currency and as a result I have two more notes I did not have prior to this - a one and a ten centavo note which I will send to you in due time. Also Pedro gave Norona a map of the towns about here which is just like our map of Cicero with which you can point out actual places. And on top of that Pedro gave Norona a picture he had taken several years ago. It is a swell picture too with a colored tie and handkerchief and a pure white suit. But that was still not all. He brought Moreno, Norona and I three papaya which look like giant cucumbers. They weren't ripe yet so we will have to hold them for a week or so until they soften up. He says they taste swell when eaten with sugar and chopped up into a sort of a juice. We shall see what we shall see.

One thing I miss lately is the ice cream and coca-cola I had become so accustomed to back at the old place. Perhaps eventually we will have it again. While we are not having a bad time of it at all, I would like to be all set up and operating again. There are several reasons for that. One is that it hasn't really rained yet and when it does during the early stages of setting up camp, everything is a sea of mud. Then we are still living out of barracks bags and haven't our footlockers yet. And when we get set up we will have a PX operating, mattresses on our cots and maybe some recreational transportation to ride around the countryside in.

I did not answer George's letter on account of being busy with work last night but I may get a chance to answer it this evening. I do not know yet what I am going to do. You see, just know the light has faded to a point where the visibility is practically zero although in the next ward tent, with the office in it, the light is on. All the fellows are in what we call our squad room chewing the rag. Norona is outside with a Filipino boy trying to learn Tagalog.

So-long,   /s/ Roman   Roman