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

It is shortly after nine bells this Sunday evening and I'm sitting down at the typewriter for the first time in the day to see how much I can have written before I must stop and listen to the radio program Suspense, at nine-thirty The reason I have not written anything before this time is that I have been down in the barracks practically all day. In the morning until eleven o'clock I was either sleeping or trying to and after that I was either laying on my cot thinking about things or else reading the book Victory by Joseph Conrad. That is, I did those things when I wasn't in the mess hall eating lunch or supper. So you see, I spent a very lazy Sunday which is something I've been longing to do all week long and that is just stretch out and forget the world. I did come up to the office just before lunch and was disappointed to find that I had received no mail unless you want to call a post card from the Army Institute a letter. They say that they are aware of the fact that students run into many difficulties in maintaining their lessons and would like to have an answer from me on the other half of the card in regards to my course. The choice they give is (1) change the course being taken, (2) submit a lesson (3) write a letter explaining just what the situation is or (4) become disenrolled. So, tomorrow evening I am going to be Charge of Quarters and I will make an honest attempt to renew the lessons. If after two or three days I fail to find that I can renew my interest in it, I will ask for another course or maybe let myself become disenrolled. However, I am not just going to give it up now that they have called it to my specific attention.

The early morning sleep lasted until seven or eight o'clock and then I dozed off once again until nine o'clock. After that, any sleep that I got was spasmodic or at least it was not as deep or as restful as any of the preceding hours of slumber. However, I was in no mood to get up and around but was content to remain there until lunch.

After lunch I returned to listen to the latest news and decided that I might as well just remain there and read the book Victory which is become an intense novel of high adventure and suspense. The plot as it now stands is a band of three cutthroats on an island with a man, his wife and their Chinese servant. They are trying to get his money (which he doesn't have) but whether they get it or not they are going to kill him. Now the story hasn't reached the point of any action but its fun watching to see what happens next.

The picture this evening was a mlemle affair which I was going to walk out of. The name of it was "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" with a good cast of characters --- Lynn Bari, Donald Woods and Akim Tamiroff. Unfortunately, it was not very interesting and a person felt right along that he didn't give a hoot what happened to the characters in the play. The best parts of the picture were subtle comedy scenes between Akim Tamiroff and the viceroy of Peru.

Incidentally, the movies are going to be run off without a stop for changing reels. From somewhere or another, Lt Yantis managed to get two movie machines and we how have the synchronized films just as the Navy has and any movie house in the States has. It was very unusual to have the film flick from one reel to the next with just the slightest pause (he is not expert at it yet) and provoked quite some comment from the audience when they realized what was happening.

The ear has not been hurting as much today as it did yesterday but it is not normal. There is still a recurring pain there which I hope will disappear shortly as it is becoming annoying even if it is diminishing. I imagine that the three daily treatments will set it up again so that it will pain all week long while I go to the Medics. Isn't that just what we always said about the Reeds and the Stacks? They go to the doctors and feel worse for it. We never go and never have to.

Naturally, I did not write any other letters today but for some reason I'm in one of those writing slumps once again in which I don't care very much if I do write to other people or if I don't.

By the way, including today, there yet remain 51 days until October 24th, the day that I claimed the war with Germany will still be going on but every indication keeps pointing to a cessation of hostilities long before that date. Especially as today's news announced the Allied penetration of their forces into Belgium at two points, the extension of one of their armies to within a few miles of the Siegfried line, the southern invasion of Italy and the breaking thru of the Italian Gothic Line. There just has to be a limit as to how far they can push even if they have to push, push, push and push until they are looking the Russians in the face.

Looking at the whole thing realistically, I doubt if many of us are going to be out of this army until 1946 and then at the pessimistic write-ups on the procedure of discharge, it may take well into 1947 before everyone is out. O, oh, here comes Suspense. I take a break.

The pet peeve of everyone listening to a radio broadcast these days is other people making loud noises in your near vicinity so that you can not hear what is being said over the air. Another pet peeve is a person who listens to the first few words of the radio broadcast and then begins talking about it immediately without waiting for the following words. One begins wondering whether those people care what is said or whether they know it all. You should see the dirty looks Lewis gets when he trys to interrupt our listening to Suspense which he does every Sunday night. He'll come in with a cup of coffee from the mess hall and begin talking about something that happened down there and we will all try our very best to ignore him and keep our ears glued to the radio. That is just one instance of many.

The Suspense program was a little better this evening than it has been for a week or two when it was becoming a bit corny. Next week promises to be a thriller similar to the time Orson Welles held us all in Suspense for two weeks. That Orson Welles drama was entitled "Donovan's Brain" and someone says it is going to be made into a movie.

I was going to comment several times on the Burgess Meredith-Paulette Goddard marriage which I didn't think was going to last very long especially with all the publicity build-up it has been getting in the magazines and everything and sure enough, today it came over the radio that they were bust up. That let to quite a discussion in the barracks this afternoon and most of us marveled at the way Bing Crosby and his wife, a former glamour girl, made such a good name for themselves which is rather unusual in Hollywood. We commented on Ava Gardner's break up with Mickey Rooney and then said that Donald O'Connor would probably not have that misfortune with his young wife whom he married just before entering the army. Donald O'Connor, according to write-ups, has been in vaudeville all his life, has made two movie careers for himself and his entire family has always stuck together thru thick and thin so that if anyone should realize the value of a good home life and the unimportance of the Hollywood type of living, it should be he. Jack tells me that Donald O. is out of the Army. Is that true?

I have tried repeatedly to keep from having long conversations and you would be amazed at the number I have curtailed. It just isn't my natural way but I try my best. One of the best ways I found out is your "walking into the next room" trick. I'll devote all my attention to the person but walk out on him figuratively by carrying on with my own work or literally by picking myself up and saying I have to be somewhere. I used to become exasperated at you for doing that as you well know but I can see that it was a very practical and expedient way of meeting the problem when tied down by a very talkative person.

So-long,
/s/ Roman
Roman