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

There was more mail delivered to the regiment today than ever before excepting the first few days after we arrived on the Island and the back mail was waiting for us. But with all that mail it was the same old story, I did not receive any of it. I hope that tomorrow they only have about a dozen V-mail letters and then I'll be sure to get three or four of them. The packages were not distributed at noon. They never are distributed then because it is not until evening that the mail clerks have them ready. Even though the volume of packages too is hitting an all time high, I refuse to believe that any of them could be for me.

Don't look now but by this time tomorrow night I may be the owner of a little puppy. The pups must be about three weeks old now and certainly can be taken away from their mother. No one seems to know just how long they should remain in the weaning stage but down in F Company the business of taking care of so many puppies is getting tiresome. The first thing that I must do is investigate the housing situation.

There was absolutely no swimming for me this afternoon after work because I can still feel that old cramp and it seems as if it is there in the leg for a good long stay.

The movie tonight is supposed to be "Woman of the Year" with Katherine Hepburn but at four o'clock this afternoon it had not as yet arrived. We investigated to find out its whereabouts and couldn't get to first base. As a result, Lt Carrozza has gone into town in his little truck and is either going to bring back that picture or something else. Gordon is scheduled to run the show this evening.

The office work this morning kept me rather busy but by the time the afternoon rolled around I had everything pretty well cleared up. It was then that it came to my attention that a disinterested party was wanted in the PX to help Lt Podelwitz with the monthly inventory of stock. The job was to recount all the items on the shelves to see if they tallied with the count taken by the PX clerks themselves.

By the way, the Army Institute has courses available here on the Island for free, as I probably told you before. This afternoon the courses came in and I am now the student in a course of Gregg Shorthand. I'm not even planning on any future in that field. After three attempts at various stages in my long life to learn Gregg Shorthand and with each attempt frustrated by some trick of fate, I have given up all hope of ever getting thru a complete course. I will however, go along with it as far as circumstances and my available time permit.

The book is a condensed version of the one I have at home which is the basic shorthand manual. But since this is a self instruction course, there is an accompanying text-book or rather work book which is at least three times the size and appears to be useful.

I've been wanting to get my two-week haircut ever since Saturday but my hair is so light and fluffy that I'll not be able to get the thing cut until it dirties up a bit.

The secret of how all these little notes about soldiers overseas gets into the hometown newspapers was finally revealed. The Special Services office of the Army actually goes around drumming up business and they have issued forms to use along with plenty of examples to follow so that you can write up some news for the fellows in the company together with the name of their home town newspaper. The Special Service office then forwards it to his locality and nine times out of ten the thing is printed. The way they drum up business is to watch for special orders on promotions and then writing a letter to us requesting that we write up a story on that particular individual receiving the promotion.

Maybe the chow line has me beat tonight because it is well past five o'clock.

So-long,
/s/ Roman
Roman