Cpl Roman F. Klick 36620923
HS 1393 Engr APO 709
c/o PM San Francisco, California
29May1944

Since beginning to write at this rather late hour this evening, it has begun to rain cats and dogs. Lewis took my shelter half off my bed when we were going to the show, thinking that we might need it in case it rained. Well, now the water repellent fabric is sitting on my desk in front of me and, beyond a doubt, my blankets and cot is being drenched back in the barracks.

I received two letters today. One was from Corporal (Technician Fifth Grade) Reuben B. Blumenfeld of New Caledonia. The other one was from Staff Sergeant Harvey E. Beaumont of the 353rd Engineer Construction Battalion. Yes sirree, the two of them have gone up one notch in the scale of ratings. Blumenfeld puts it this way, "Other news is that I'm now tec 5 Blumenfeld. They suddenly got a large allotment of grades around here and, having difficulty in getting rid of them, decided to give me one so they wouldn't have too many unused. It took me fourteen months to get rid of that despicable Pfc stripe." Among other things, he tells me that he has finally become an accepted candidate for Adjutant General Officer Training School but can not even guess when he might return to the States for it is entirely up to if and when a quota allotment comes in for AG students from New Cal. Harvey Beaumont, in addition to saying "believe it or not I finally made staff" also says that Jose Cortez was also promoted to Tec 4. He also relates the usual inter-battalion gossip with one of them being a general cussing up and down of all the regulations sent out by Group Headquarters. They should talk --- we live on the next hill from Group Headquarters! They are still working in a tent but expect to move into buildings similar to ours in the near future. My inter-island mail is beginning to pile up on me as I now have answers to write to Charley, Robby and Harvey. Next thing you know I'll be getting a letter from Larry and from Jose. Or should I say Joey to have to fit in the rhyme scheme?

The Canteen operated this evening and we had cheese sandwiches with coffee for the main meal. I opened up a small tin of American cheese but those fellows insisted upon eating that moldy cheese out of a five pound can they opened last week. Ugh!

As far as the work went today, I don't know if I turned out a decent day's work or not since none of it except getting out the Morning Reports and the Strength Reports was what I had on the schedule. I did a flock of different type rosters of officers, several letters of transmittal (routine business) and several letters of application for transfer. In addition to that I was trying to dope out some way to make a 201 (dead file) index on all officers either present in the battalion now or departed from it. The idea is to just have a master card showing where to get the information instead of accumulating a lot of duplicate copies of the same orders and papers.

Incidentally, I woke up this morning stone deaf! I'm alright now but people were talking to me and all I saw was their mouths moving with no sound coming out of it. That is a strange silent world and I believe it could become maddening if it were a permanent condition. Each morning that deafness has become worse until it reached its worst this morning. What must be the matter is that I've caught a cold in my ears and just as your nose is stuffy and clogged up in the morning when you have a head cold, so your ears become the same way. It will undoubtedly disappear in time.

Not knowing just what day Father's Day falls on during the month of June, I'm talking no chances and am sending out a PX boughten Father's Day card to my Dad. It is rather humorous and I believe he will like it. Meanwhile, my buddy Molyneaux has drawn his Dad's card and it is a nifty. By the way, speaking of Jack, he ate his first meal in H&S today and everyone from Johnny Marth on down had a good time kidding him about it.

I guess this is all for this evening.

So-long,
/s/ Roman
Roman