Cpl Roman F. Klick 36620923
Co "A", 353rd Engr Regt
A.P.O. #502, c/o Postmaster
San Francisco, California
June 23, 1943

Dear Aunty Clara:

To continue with a second page of V-mail of this date. Jack Molyneaux has retyped his application for the Air Corps and will turn it in in the near future. If he makes the grade and enters pilot training, he will probably wash out --- not because he isn't capable but because all my friends just seem to be jinxed in that line.

Can you beat this? I was lined up for a job as an interpreter! I sure do wish I could speak and understand French well enough to carry on that line of work but it would probably take a couple of years before I could carry on a half way decent conversation with the natives. And who knows but that in some future year a speaking knowledge of French may come in handy. However, my ear for French sound is terrible. And as for speaking it you can possibly recall the trouble I had with that French paragraph each one of us had to recite in French class at Morton. Somehow or other sounds don't make the sense they should in my ear. Am I doomed to a passive French of reading and writing?

I do not believe I ever told you about the hoax that was pulled on the Army men by the sailors aboard the ship coming over here. Along about the middle of the voyage or thereabouts one of the fellows spread the rumor of the sea mail buoy. It was supposed to be possible to write letters, have them censored and mail them at sea. A sea plane would then stop and pick up the mail and carry it back to the States. Regardless of the improbability of it all, the fellows started writing letters and prepared to send them. Later on it became a standard joke among us and even now we refer to mail that went out on the sea mail buoy.

We were all set to watch some moving pictures tonight but there was some difficulty in the loudspeaking system so it has been postponed temporarily until later in the evening.

Speaking of the time made me look at my watch. My watch, you say? Well, it really isn't mine but it belongs to Harvey Beaumont. He has been doing some fixing up around the office and has loaned me the watch temporarily. It is O.K. to have the time handy once again. His wrist band is this type which you might call elastic metal and it slips on the wrist instead of clasping.

Either tomorrow or this evening I am sending you a request for the flashlight and then another one for the Fraser and Squair grammar. If the Fraser and Squair grammar weighs less than five pounds you might send along the book I bought from Miss Belle on Oral French. If it is still less than five pounds you can send the French novel about Gil Blas.

The flashlight naturally will have priority over the other items.

I also promise that tomorrow, if I have the time to write as I have had time today, I will answer your letters which I have so flagrantly neglected up to this time.

Solong,
/s/ Roman
Roman