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

It looks like the official word now says that our entire tent will be vacated. Since all six of us are in Headquarters Platoon and our tent has been designated as a Second Platoon tent we will be required to move by Sunday morning to other quarters. As to the location of our new home we are uncertain. It will be a task to get all six of us into another tent but we are going to try hard enough. One good thing in our favor is that Censky, as one of the three buck sergeants in Headquarters Platoon, is on the board of directors composed of those three sergeants to place the fellows according to the new set up.

Mersing, Edie and I favor going up to the Headquarters Tent on the fourth terrace while Censky wants to get down to the bottom tier. One thing is certain now that it has come to a showdown, we would all like to remain together since we have been operating more or less as a unit for some time. The end tent on the bottom row has two occupants while the tent at the top flight has one. If these parties can not be relocated, it will be necessary to split up our little clique.

However, if we should move as a tent, I foresee a slight difficulty which I must school myself now to accept in order to keep peace in the family. Censky sleeps in the corner of the tent and there is no question that it is a bad spot because one is blocked off by the clothes racks and one half of a side is wedged in by another clothes rack. Mersing and I, on the other hand have the best set up o all with our cots as they are placed on the sides of the tent with the racks at either end which leaves the entire cot free. The difficulty is just this; Censky is not a bashful man when it comes to getting something for himself regardless of the feelings of the other fellow. He will demand a change, my place for his or something on that order. I know that almost for a certainty for his actions are predictable. To put up an argument will be of no use whatever because it will make for hard feelings, will keep us feuding for some time, and in the end he will have his will done. When he suggests the change (all this providing we move into the same tent again), I will surprise him by agreeing immediately and even saying that I would like to change. Dollars to doughnuts says that such an approach catches him flatfooted.

So much for that headline news. The boys, Kurtiss and Welling, are still busy constructing a cabinet of shelves and drawers and it is a honey. When the Colonel comes in to look the place over Monday, he will be knocked for a loop. It has a chest like arrangement on the top, with hinges, and a row of drawers beneath with the room for two more rows of drawers, (three drawers to a row).

Because of this changing around business we had to discuss things a bit in the tent and it is almost nine o'clock now. Also with the shake-up in tents came a shake-up in the Orderly Room instigated by the Colonel in his inspection this morning. Burkard's second term in office as Mail Clerk has been short lived and next week he goes out to work with the Company. The Colonel's orders were that two men will not be allowed in the Orderly Rooms and that the duties of the Mail Clerk will have to be assumed by some member of the Company already holding down a job. Our new Mail Clerk is the recently promoted T/5 Charles Murray who is also the Company A singer with the Band. T/5 Mersing will remain in the Orderly Room and fill in as the Assistant Mail Clerk, a job he originally held back in Camp White.

I think I'll have time to drop my no-answer Aunty (to quote Anita's famous expression) a short little note before Larry and I head up towards the showers. After the shower I hope to come back to the office and write a letter or two extra. My dream was to have been all caught up with the mail by Sunday.

So-long,   /s/ Roman   Roman