Sgt Roman F. Klick 36620923
HS 1393 Engr APO 75
c/p SF Cal
5 July 1945
Dear Aunty Clara,
Thursday
I did not write letters yesterday or the day before and it is most fortunate that I'm able to write this letter today because it really isn't today but tomorrow (Friday). Someday I'm going to get to bed at eleven o'clock the way a person should and not try to save up on time during the night time only to find out that you have to pay for it during the daylight hours by a drowsiness which sometimes is overpowering.
For one thing, I was awake for 50 consecutive hours and it was work which kept me on the go. I suppose I'm a dope but I had to get the work out and I did. During the course of the third day of wakefulness, I actually dozed off at my typewriter four times. And I also developed a little trick which so far has helped me but may backfire some day. I take off my time during the day to go to the latrine as any of the fellows do but instead of going down there, I go into my tent and for those ten or fifteen minutes I am taking a catnap and come back slightly refreshed. I'm afraid though that someday I'm just going to be so tired out that I won't wake up in short order. Tuesday night I came in after chow and just dozed off after getting into bed and slept until the next morning. That was to make up for the fifty hours. I never even woke up to write a letter or anything. And last night it was a different story. I was still tired and was intending to write and then hit the hay again but guess what? Larry Isaacson dropped in and I chewed the fat with him for hours and hours. We talked about this, that and the other until we must have covered every day of the last fifteen months since we saw each other. He has had the army made since his job as welder went on the fritz and he was appointed the head of the Bn Hobby Shop. All he had to do was take care of the shop and tinker around to his heart's content. He never did make his Tec 5 rating which he lost during the last days of company A. He doubts that they will have a Hobby Shop here in the Philippines and if they don't he is going to have to get back down to the old routine of working for his living. It will probably do him some good to get the excess fat off of him since he is chubbier than ever.
I drove Larry back to his outfit and also Walston, another fellow I used to know for he was then the Company Clerk of Company F (back in Camp White). Then after taking them back home, I had to go pick up Lewis and Bill at San Miguel's drive their girlfriends home and then go to Santa Ana to try to find Mersing and the boys on their way home from that dance. We didn't find them. By the time I got back I was too tired and went to bed about twelve-thirty or later - something I had planned to do about eight or nine o'clock.
In compliance with your request that I go to the Medics and get x-rayed, I did as I said I was going to do and went on sick call and from thence to the hospital to have the pix taken. So far (that was Tuesday morning) the plates have not come back and one of the Medics was kidding me at chow that he saw them and they were negative which means disgustingly healthy. My temperature is also perfectly normal 98.6. Darn it. Of course, you can be happy about it, but me, why I believe I could have fought off a touch of TB and had a vacation at home to boot. Okay so I shouldn't talk like that.
I received letter from you and from Blumenfeld and from Frances today but they are all down in the tent and not up here so I'll not be able to do any answering of them. We went out tonight and although it is early by other standards, it is really late for me right now for we are having an Orientation Class tomorrow morning and all the Morning Reports and allied reports are going to have to be ready tonight. I had instructed the clerks to come up here and do their reports but evidently three of them didn't show up since their reports are not here. I've got the information on them and now I'll have to busy myself to getting all that work out of the way which will take some more hours of my time.
Incidentally, our roof is perfect. They have lined it with tar and tar paper so there will be no more leaks. And, in addition, they have built awnings over all the windows so that when it rains next time, the wind won't come sweeping through and getting everything drenched as it did in the past.
Sackett has finally gotten around to the point where he is convinced he should try for TDR&R (which I was refused) and he will make it since both Adjutants believe he needs a rest. Now the question is who will take over if and when he goes? I suppose Jack will although it is human for me to wish I were one. O well what happens will happen, or words to that effect.
The chow continues to be excellent but a humorous event occurred in which Cooley had to fall out the company and tell us we were going to run out of food directly if we didn't stop feeding the whole island around us ---especially you fellows who have been inviting the guys in from the old outfit. He says it's a good idea and all that but our mess sergeant just couldn't keep it up.
Here is how come I happened to go out this evening. Bill Grauel was Charge of Quarters and had a date with his girlfriend at San Miguel's. I was going to relieve him but when I walked into the office, Major Ladley says to me, "Say Klick, are you going to help me with this typing tonight?". And I see a whole sheaf of papers to be typed up and quick like a flash I says, "No Sir, I've already made arrangements to go out and the fellows are waiting for me now." It was a lie at the time because they were waiting for Bill to come down but being a friend is one thing and getting stuck for a lot of work is another so I whispered to Bill that under the circumstances I didn't think he would blame me if I didn't stay. He didn't, so I went back down to the tent, dressed up in my best khakis and went out with Lewis and Sackett. This place they go to is San Miguel's where the owner hires girls as dancing partners and Bill and Lew have been dancing with these two steady. Pat is Bill's gal and Remy is Lew's. I asked Remy for a dance and I actually got by with a hot two-step with only one error (stepped on her foot). What I am hoping is that little by little I'll be able to catch on to this dancing and maybe (who knows) end up a jitterbug. My feet like that fast rhythm of the jitterbug music but they just don't know which way to go.
Another thing which makes going out pleasant and a relaxation from the Canal and New Cal. Is that for those several hours we are too preoccupied to talk shop and the office is completely forgotten. Also fellows from the old outfits keep dropping by and we have a regular get-together.
So-long, /s/ Roman Roman