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

The situation is just this: I received your letter of August 31 today. So you are having your troubles too on the home front, eh? That was just about the same time Censky and I became a bit heated up over trivials. Perhaps it's something in our blood. By the way, Censky and I talked it over one day this week and agreed that we had both been on edge that day we built the floor of the tent and that we were equally to blame in the flare-up. We aren't bosom buddies but we know we have to live with each other and are not going to let the situation get out of hand if we can help it.

I sure do wish that Anna would get herself settled someplace over on the far north side of the city and forget about coming into Cicero. How a person can carry around petty jealousies and other trivial complaints so soon after the death of their father is beyond my reasoning. In the old days before Clarence's death I thought it would be easy to take something like that and that the death would be soon forgotten. It took me four months in the Army to jolt me out of the lethargy I had fallen into after Clarence's death yet he was only a boyfriend. It's no use kidding myself anymore because I now know perfectly well just about how "easily" I could take your death. That is why I can't understand how Anna can quarrel, argue, hold grudges, be petty and things like that so soon after her father died. As time goes by one forgets and begins to become a small human again but in her it seems to have had no reaction whatsoever.

When I argued violently with Censky, I had been more peeved with myself than with him. People just aren't built to go around in a turbulent state like that. All I can say is that I feel sorry for her because she has to be that way but at the same time I don't like it one bit that she should be coming into your life that way causing you unpleasant moments.

Well, well and double well. Today the staff of experts got together and turned out a masterpiece. By that I mean the staff in charge of French translation for the 353rd Engr GS Regt. Captain Terry, Company Commander of H & S Company, gave Cpl Joseph Kurtiss, his Company Clerk, a two page report of an automobile accident written entirely in the French language. From then on it was a matter for Campbell, Kurtiss and Klick. We three were all manned with our French dictionaries and I with the additional French grammar. We tackled the problem and ended up with amazing results. Only four paragraphs in the entire report were easily translated without the aid of the dictionary. At all other times we were busy as bees hunting up every other word, trying to translate idioms of speech and getting the correct verb tense. One confugalty was not having dictionaries with all the words. A few words had to be manufactured out of our noggins to fit the thread of the story.

Later on we asked a soldier who is French and can use both languages if our translation had been satisfactory. Ah, but yes, was the reply and he could add nothing to improve on it. That pepped us up quite a bit and we are thinking of publishing a book of translations as taken under actual conditions in the field. If we could do something like that once a week, we would soon be getting hold of a fairly good practical vocabulary but it won't happen that way.

We found out that there are two newspapers on the island so perhaps soon we will be able to arrange the delivery of one of the journals to us for translation.

Its getting late again so I guess this will be all for tonight. I'll try to send out that personal financial information tomorrow. It requires a bit of explanation and might take a while to write. You know, that will go to the base censor in a blue envelope and it will be opened and censored at that point.

I'll be seeing you tomorrow.

So-long,
/s/ Roman
Roman