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

I received two letters today. One was a V-mail from you dated the 16th of December and the other was an unphotographed V-mail from Bob Hesser. It seems that the letter could not be microfilmed because the address on the inside of the V-mail had been omitted; therefore, the form was resealed and sent to me via the outer address. That is an idea for you to follow if you want the letters to reach me sooner. His letter is dated the 19th of December. He doesn't have much to say so I'll copy it right down. "Dear Roman: I am sorry I took so long to answer your letter but I mislaid your address. Somehow it got in a box of Christmas cards and I did not find it until I began to send out the cards. I hope everything is OK with you and that you will have a nice Christmas wherever you are. I don't suppose you have much time to play chess where you are but try to keep in practice because I sure will want to "trim" you when you get home. I have been very busy lately Christmas shopping and working overtime, we have not had much time to chess. I will write you a long letter later and try to give you all the news I can as I suppose you are anxious to hear about us people at home. Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Yours, Bob"

Those Courts-Martial papers bounced right back at me again today with several changes so I had to type them up for the upteenth million time. I hope I've seen the last of them now. The regiment is getting eleven bottles of beer per man for New Year's Day but I think I'm going to do a Carrie Nation stunt and swing an axe at every single bottle. One or two fellows getting liquored up can sure start a lot of activity when they go out of bounds.

The rest of the working day was spent working on an informational roster. Long time ago I told you about how I was fixing one of them up but censorship regulations kept me from being explicit. However, both Jack and I made them up and Lt Yantis liked Jack's way of putting all the information into a little book and suggested all the clerks do the same. I'm trying to improve on it a little bit more but it is taking a lot of work. It will be well worth the while when it is done.

So far today I have had about five candy bars. I promise myself faithfully that I'll not take any with me to the show this evening because I have to draw the line somewhere or else I would eat all thirty of them.

Thanks for relaying the information about my finances. Now I can deal with concrete figures when I plan for various post war activities and the like. Incidentally, the sixty dollars is still coming out of my pay even though only forty will be sent home so I'll not be able to send the added twenty home. The other thing hasn't come thru yet on this end and I am beginning to wonder what happened to it. When it does come thru, it may have a retroactive deduction date on it so that these twenty dollars which neither of us is getting now can be applied to that instead. I sure wish it would come thru because if it doesn't, my finances are going to be awfully jumbled up for a long while.

Say, I'm glad Uncle Jack resubscribed to the Daily News for me for another three months but isn't it expensive? Meanwhile I am sticking to my schedule and today I am reading a Daily News dated October 12 and no other one.

I was also glad to hear that you bought Aunty Florence a nice gift like the muff which I am sure she will like.

This letter has been pretty much of a jumble because I started it rather late and trying to type at breakneck speed with a bum finger is just like trying to roller skate with one skate dragging along instead of fastened onto the bottom of your shoe. Until tonight

So-long,
/s/ Roman
Roman