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

I received two letters from you today. One was written in Milwaukee on Sunday and the other on the 7th when you came home. So my guess that their new home was near the downtown district was all wet, eh? It's funny how nowadays you say the cabbies give you a dirty look if you give them an address way out on the other end of town where they can't get other passengers for the trip. Remember how different that was during the World's Fair years? We were coming from the Fair late at night out of the 22nd St gate and I hailed a cab. It stopped quite a bit ahead of us and some people had already started to climb into it. The cabbie said it was for us he stopped and not for them and even though you said to him it would be alright for them to ride with us to the Elevated Station, he would not hear of it.

Only to receive two letters, an allotment check and the letter to Bob Hesser on the Tuesday after Labor Day after the Saturday on which you didn't receive any letters sure wasn't much. I can't understand how that mail works sometimes. After a three day period of not having received any mail, it must have been disappointing to only get two letters.

You know, Aunty Clara, you don't know much about organization of an army and I doubt if it would help much to explain it to you via letters because I remember even I had trouble trying to understand Tommy Mashos will about regiments, battalions, companies, platoons, squads and the rest of them while he was home on furlough. Now these other outfits I have been mentioning from time to time are organizations similar to our regiment but I haven't said what their names are because I believe it to be censorable. Now, if Mae's nephew doesn't have any organization after his address and yet he has this same APO he must belong to the Island Command. Blumenfeld's new address probably is the same type. Since this Charles Matcha is in the Medics, he may belong to the Service Command in town but could be, as you say, at the other end of the island on detached service. I didn't think for a minute that he might have been in the 353rd just because he had our APO because the thing just doesn't work that way. This is all a rather touchy subject because of censorship regulations so we can reserve a few boring evening's in the Peace for me to explain to you just what the situation was.

The officers are having a dance up in their club and I can hear the band's music floating down here from away up there on Snob Hill. Now that most all the tents are being framed and other structures going up like the canopy, our regimental area resembles a small town with its downtown district all ablaze with lights at night.

I guess in Anita's case I am a bit to blame. She has written me on three different occasions and I have never acknowledged the receipt of any of the letters.

This week end I am going to either write fifteen letters to people in answer to the ones they have sent me and which I have never answered or I will send out fifteen little short notes asking them to be patient and wait a few more years for the answers.

Larry's wife sent him a box of candy but the candy just melted to nothingness during its trip across the equator. I don't see how she is doing it but she is sending him stuff he never even asked for. Maybe she has a postman like the one you go to who doesn't even bother to look at the letter of request.

Say, we are leading a rugged life. Yesterday afternoon we rolled the sides of our tent to get some breezes blowing thru it to keep out the hotbox air and then came nighttime we just left them rolled up. I fell asleep soon and was too tired to appreciate being able to look up at the sky etcetera.

I'll be writing to you tomorrow. I missed my guess and it is now 11:45 and I'm tired.

So-long,
/s/ Roman
Roman