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

The time now is eleven o'clock in the evening and I am writing the letter I came down to write at eight o'clock this evening. My cold is very, very bad and I couldn't sleep so I thought I would try coming up to the office, write this letter, and then go back to bed; however, I felt rather good just sitting at the desk talking it over with the boys and skimming thru the magazines and newspapers laying around. Time passed and now it is late at night and I must write this and beat it.

The change has taken place and the "400" sleep in two separate barracks now containing only M/Sgts, T/Sgts and S/Sgts. Frazin and I took over the two "dry" spots belonging to Sackett and to Lewis for the rain doesn't come in there. Also, they were corner spots and allow for more living room than the places sandwiched in the line.

We thought the change might have been slightly beneficial by bringing Bill Grauel and Jack Molyneaux into the barracks but no such thing happened. In fact, even Bill and Jack were split up and assigned to different barracks. The Reason: They are barracks leaders. That isn't good because it requires the shouldering of the additional responsibilities of keeping the barracks in order, seeing that the fellows in it comply with all the rules etcetera. Both Bill and Jack dislike the job, tried to get relieved of it but couldn't.

The laugh of the night came when Jack moved into the barracks and found an open space at the end of the, I mean in the middle of the row. A little while later the end space was vacant and he moved in there. A fellow came up to him and tells him that he isn't going to stay there very long. Jack asks him where? And the fellow says in that corner position. Why? The Barracks Leader sleeps there. Says Jack, "I'm it." Says the fellow, "Oh." Cooley was kidding me along that I was the one in Charge of our barracks now that Sackett moved out but he couldn't do that to me I told him since there was one other fellow in the barracks who outranked me and he was Tec 4 Johnnie Marth who was a T/4 away back in Camp White when I was still a Pvt and that is whom the mantle of Leader fell upon. It is an honor most fellows could do without.

The rumor has it that tomorrow morning, Sunday, for breakfast we are having four eggs! For that I will get up even though I intended to sleep well into the noon in order to rest my cold. Once I am up, I might as well write the letters I have been promising to write all week long although I haven't much hope of completing the full job as it will add up to more letters than I could possibly type just sitting at the typewriter and pecking away without bothering to hunt around for words to say etcetera.

Just to give you a rough idea as to what I am up against in answering the letters this time I will list what I want to write: A fifteen page V-mail copy of a story which I believe Uncle Jack might be interested in, letters, copies and duplicates of and to Eleanor, Marion, Aunty Lilly, Myrtle, Mrs Reed, Uncle Jack, George, Blumenfeld, Joe Bana, Harvey Beaumont and others which I can't think of just now.

Usually when I get colds like this, there is some work to be done around the company and I find myself sweating it out on some detail. Therefore, with a pessimistic eye, I face the morrow, but with the hope that I can just sit alone in silence and be sickish.

Incidentally, I didn't get any nap at the appointed hour for two reasons. One was that Lewis and I moved the beds around together in the absence of Sackett and then Jonnie Marth came up to talk to me and stayed until five o'clock.

I managed to finish Cooley's OCS papers for him and they were the easiest ones to do yet since I've been typing up things like that. I also warned him that if Captain Hanton has any changes to make in them I would appreciate his writing a little note to that effect instead of correcting them in ink so that it has to be done over again.

So-long,   /s/ Roman   Roman