Paniqui, Tarlac, Luzon, P.I.
18th September 1945, Tuesday

Dear Aunty Clara,

I give up. I'm not going to complain about the Army any more but just give you the cold facts and let you judge for yourself. Since quarter to two this afternoon I have been absent from the office with no work accomplished since that time. The time now is exactly eleven bells. I suspect now I'll be reported absent for bed check but let them go ahead and report me absent. I'm going to write this letter if it takes me until Reveille tomorrow morning.

Here is an account of the day. We came down in our fatigues this morning ready for the parade BUT the personnel section never did go out because we actually were too busy working that it was past the scheduled time before we realized that the time had come and gone. The headquarters section had taken off without letting us know and Kuras was out of the office at the time.

However, a change in the schedule brought the entire Battalion out for another practice session of the parade in Paniqui Square again in the afternoon and the first thing Lt Kuras said to me when I came down at one o'clock was that I should tell "my chickadees" that they will fall out for the parade at two o'clock; therefore, at quarter to twelve I mean quarter to two I told them to vamoose out.

We went parading and it is just one waste of time for most of the time you are laying on the grass resting or standing at rest. We got back a little after three but I was bound I wasn't going back to the office and didn't. I fell asleep on the cot and woke up in time for chow. Then after chow I discovered something. The bulletin board had my name down for show guard so my evening was shot. I may be the Battalion Sergeant Major but as long as my rank is only Tec 4, I'm subject to those details. The shows were corny and long. The one was "A Royal Scandal" with Tallulah Bankhead, Anne Baxter, William Eythe and the other one was "Diamond Horseshoe" with Betty Grable and Dick Haymes. The first show was corny but so ridiculous in spots that we had to laugh. The second show was strictly no good except that Betty Grable is definitely not hard to look at. But all in all it was a waste of time and I hope that by the time I'm due for show guard again I'll be ineligible.

Do you know that I've only been to the show three times on Luzon? Once in Batangas, once in Manila and now once in Paniqui? That is a far cry from those four to six times a week that we spent at the movies in Guadalcanal.

Say, lest I forget, thank Uncle Jack, if I don't send him a letter first, for the subscription to the Daily News AND THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE. They both arrived today to Sgt R. F. Klick APO 75. They weren't very recent though because the atomic bomb wasn't even suspected yet and the Potsdam Declaration filled the front pages.

We went out to play a little catch again this evening and I committed one of the errors Uncle Jack used to warn me against and which he taught me how to combat. I have the habit of holding the fingers of my ungloved hand outstretched when catching a ball instead of curled up into a loose fist. So-when I closed in on the ball before I caught it in the glove it jammed up my fingers with the result that I have to type sort of flat like instead of hitting that finger straight down on the keys.

Another thing I ought to mention is an explanation for the recommencing of a Class E Allotment which you should receive along about the first week in November and which you can deposit in the Western National Bank in our account. The reason for starting it up again is that I no longer have any reason to salt money away in soldier's deposits at this end any more because with me getting out of the army in March of 1945, I won't have any more deposits in the required six months to collect the 4% interest on them so I might as well collect the interest at home in the bank.

The reason for the sudden switch to pencil is that that first class LOUSE Joe Blow walked into the office with his watch in his hand and said it was after eleven o'clock and we were supposed to be present for bed check and with that he ordered us out of the office. What I did was to go down to the darkened corner of the building in the S-3 section and am writing on a chair --- out of sight. If they want to court-martial me or break me or gig me for that reason just let them go ahead and do it. I said at the beginning that I was going to write this letter and I am going to do it too!

It seems to me that if the War Department really wants to recruit volunteers for the peace time army from the men now in the service, they had better tell their officers to tone down their high handed tactics for the men are certainly not going to be induced into enslaving themselves into anything like this.

Well, the old National League Race has sure boiled down to a scrap with the Cubs and the Cards locked in a death struggle. It will actually be necessary for the Cubs to whip the Cardinals themselves if they want that pennant. And if they can't do that, the Cubs don't deserve to win it.

Actually my own work in Personnel has caught up in fine style and had we not been called off work this afternoon & myself this evening, I could have gotten to some of the "extra" things I have been hoping to have time for such as making model extracts and sample forms so that the clerks could handle them with uniformity instead of each doing a different way.

Bill came back from Manila & his three day pass today & he caught a lift all the way up from an old 353 man now in the 1177th Group. Trower is supposed to be in Japan already & the 1177th is at Lingayen already waiting to shove off for Honshu. They also got themselves hooked up with the 6th Army.

So-long,
/s/ Roman