Sgt Roman F. Klick 36620923
HS 1393 Engr APO 709
c/o PM SF Cal
1 September 1944

No matter when this war ends now, it sure has set the record for modern conflicts with today marking the beginning of the sixth year. Good grief, some of us like Jack Molyneaux complain about putting in one hitch in this Army and others like myself are beginning to think that two years are taking a mighty big slice out of our lives while there must be a few million soldiers that have been in this thing for all these five years and are going right along into the sixth. They are really being taken advantage by this day and age.

By the way, the big news of the day was that I finally made my first official visit to the Medics. Yes, after just about two years, I have hit the sick book. What for? Well, my right ear --- the deafish one --- began acting up. I was waking up in the morning stone deaf for a few minutes and then it began hurting until this morning I couldn't wash my ear account of because it was so tender to the touch. I decided that this nonsense about my trying to keep from going to sick call and all that was going to cease and from here on in, whenever anything goes wrong with my mechanisms, I'm not going to waste any time about wanting to keep up a record of having survived my army life without an official sickness.

Of course, they all said I was trying to pull a Lewis stunt and say something was wrong with the ear but Major Thomas thought that it was serious enough for me to report again tomorrow and go to the Eye, Ear & Nose Clinic at the hospital. He cleaned quite a bit of dirt out of the ear and kept poking around in there and asking questions like "Did you have any trouble with it?" "Does it run?" "Many Earaches?" Well, all of that was no because outside of being deaf, it hasn't bothered me until now. He asked me how long it has been that way and I spent about fifteen seconds trying to think how long it was and he asked me if it was a month and I said that it had been years. He said that there was something wrong which he did not want to handle and would let them investigate the situation down at the clinic. But then came the quite unexpected. He asked me if I felt any pain and "warns" me that it may hurt as he pokes something else into my ear. Well, my stomach started doing those old tricks and I could just feel my blood draining out of my head and the room began blacking out. I pulled away and he had thought he hurt me but I sat down, bent my head over and spent a few seconds recovering but was almost ready to give way again when I practically walked out on him to get out into the fresh air. He thought it was the ear which made me go but I had to tell him that my mind has a strange way of playing tricks on me at times but, personally, I think he thinks I was faking it or something for it just doesn't seem reasonable that a fellow should do anything like that. But what else was I supposed to do? Blackout? Here I have conquered my dentist problem but I have failed to realize that that isn't the only place I'm susceptible to my weakness.

But that isn't all that took place at the Dispensary. Major Thomas has always looked rather peculiarly at me and I have suspected at times that he saw in my face the same thing the doctor at the induction station did and sure enough, I walked right into his curiosity today for I mentioned the ear and what does he do? He asks me to look straight at him while he studies my face, then he asked to have me (1) open my mouth and bite (2) furrow my forehead (3) hold out my hands (4) close my eyes tightly and (5) cross my arms and grip his hands tightly. Later on I asked Sackett the meaning of that experiment he conducted on me and it was to find out if I had my proper equilibrium. That would also tie in with the ear in a way but it was too similar to the curiosity of the Induction Station docs who wanted to find out if more than just a congenital atrophy of the face was present. I guess the experts notice things like that

So-long,   /s/ Roman   Roman