Cpl Roman F. Klick 36620923
HS 1393 Engr APO 709
c/o PM San Francisco, California
18 May 44

Gnash, Gnash and gnash --- those represent the sounds issuing from my mouth as a grind my teeth in anguish over what seems to have become a bad habit of not getting any more mail. Now if I was one of those senseless fellows, I would quit writing letters until some came in. But of course, that would be cutting off my nose to spite my face since maybe the letters at the other end would stop until an answer was received and soon there would be no more correspondence.

We just came back from chow (we, the big four, seem to eat together every day lately) where we had ice cream! But they are all down on me because I had two helpings. Here is how it happened. I was the first in line for the ice cream and Johnny Marth put a little bit in my plate and I went back to my table to eat it. Then, not fifteen seconds after sitting down and putting that first spoonful of ice cream into my mouth, Johnny calls over to me to come and get my ice cream. Well, I felt kind of funny eating ice cream and here is Johnny calling for me to come and get some. However, Elmer Solomon, who was passing out the atabrine and is a permanent cook's helper told me not to be a dope but go right up there and get some more so I did. When I got back to the table again, the first helping was gone along with my mess kit and spoon but they soon materialized from underneath one of the tables. The fellows were all saying, "I'm going to snitch" in school-boy fashion and they haven't let up on me yet.

We also had raisin pie today and it was as good as it always is. But there is one thing which still gets me although I've been in the army for over eighteen months now and that is the gross violations of sanitation which exist in every army mess hall I have ever been in. For instance, just today the KP breaks open his cigarette after finishing his smoke and then immediately hands me a slice of bread from his unwashed hands. Then too, that bread is handled like so much rags although that is also a common practice even back home when the breadmen make the deliveries of fresh bread to the grocery stores. Uncovered bread is set on the floor of a truck where shoes have walked over and then KPs carry it into the kitchen with it brushing up against their dirty fatigues. Yet in spite of these things going on I have kept my health so evidently I have either been lucky or my anti-germ cells have put down any uprising caused by unsanitary methods. Occasionally the fellows in the Army will get what they call the GI runs and I wouldn't doubt that it is caused by those conditions sometimes other than the most common cause which is a mess kit which still has soap or old food on it from a previous meal. Whereas these minor transgressions against health rules will not as a rule kill a person, I still contend that one of the reasons I seem to have had a sick-free life is for taking care not to get too many of these unwanted germs inside of me.

Now that I am no longer Company Clerk and therefore not included in the Company Headquarters they have made an official announcement that that section of the company need not stand the Reveille formation. So it appears that I was the only company clerk in the army to stand Reveille throughout my term of office. In all other companies and outfits I have ever seen, the company clerk had that privilege of missing that formation.

Well, I got out that work for Mike Nyalke and now have begun clearing up some more of these standing work jobs. Maybe someday in the far far future I'll get to the point where I will not know of anything to do next but I doubt if the day will be here for a long while because if I catch up in my section, I'll have to go over and give Leishman a hand and then soon it will be time for another payroll. And next time I'm going to clear out my officer pay vouchers in less than no time so that I can devote my full time to seeing the Leishman's payroll is a perfection.

The show tonight is with Judy Canova and the band so I guess I'll stay in and try to write some letters.

So-long,
/s/ Roman
Roman