Eighteen-year-old Amos Lewis of Ephrata, Pennsylvania, was a telephone lineman with the First Separate Battalion. He joined the outfit in February 1943 after completing his training at Camp Lejeune, and was assigned duty with Dog Company’s communications section. Lewis and his buddies maintained phone lines between the battalion’s 81mm mortars and units requiring supporting fire.
Barely a month after joining the battalion, Lewis boarded a train for the longest trip of his life thus far: a five-day cross-country voyage from North Carolina to California. The eye-opening experience – made more so by the luxury of traveling in Pullman coaches complete with porters and meal service – was a lasting memory for many Marines, many of whom had never been more than a few miles from home. Even comparatively well-traveled men like Lt. Philip E. Wood, Jr. (A Co) were impressed by the scenery, culture, and immensity of the country they had volunteered to defend with their lives.
Lewis would go on to see a lot more of the world, serving in all four of the Fourth Marine Division’s campaigns and spending months in Hawaii. For his service in the Pacific, he received two Purple Hearts and a letter of commendation.
This letter, written shortly after Amos Lews arrived at Camp Pendleton, California, was addressed to his mother and stepfather. It was printed in the Ephrata Review on 1 April 1943, with the following introduction.
Marine Tells of Trip to California
PFC Amos F. Lewis of the Marines, attached to Company D, First Sep. Battalion Reinforcement [sic] Camp Pendleton, Oceanside, Calif., has written a letter to Mr. and Mrs. Warren Royer, 24 Lincoln Avenue, in which he says:
As you can see, I am now in sunny California.
We had a swell trip out here. We left Monday about 4 o’clock. They had a nice sendoff for us, the band played the “Marines’ Hymn” as we said goodby to New River.
Now I’ll tell you about the trip. We passed through South Carolina Monday night. Before I go farther – we took the Southern Pacific route. We woke up the next morning and were in Georgia, next came Alabama and Mississippi. We really didn’t get to see the good parts of the South. When we did pass through the larger cities we hit the outskirts. During the day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, we got off the train to do exercises so we didn’t mind the trip so much.
Wednesday morning we went through Mississippi and I saw the Mississippi River. We went over the biggest railroad bridge I ever saw when we crossed the river. I didn’t get to see New Orleans, but we were very close. We passed through Louisiana and Texas. What a big state Texas is. Miles and miles of nothing but mountains and then miles and miles of flat country. Of course we saw a lot of cattle. Everything was hot and dry and there were a lot of dried-up river beds.
After Texas came New Mexico. Around those parts there are a lot of Mexicans who speak mostly Spanish. There were certainly a lot of small towns all through the Western states. You wonder how people can live so far from any large city. A lot of times there was only one ranch far from any other.
Arizona was our next state. Here we saw quite a few Indians and a lot of big cactus. Every now and then we passed an Army camp, too.
Friday afternoon we started to see some wonderful scenery, the snow-capped mountains of California. This was sure a change from what we had seen. Now there was plenty of green grass, orange groves, and sunshine.
You know this is what I always wanted to do – travel. I wish you could all make a trip like this one.
While on the train we got up at 6:30 every morning. We rode Pullman naturally and it was really swell. I slept in an upper berth. Did it ever feel nice to sleep in a soft bed like that. We had a Negro porter to every car. The meals were all very good but as you can guess we could have eaten a couple more. I don’t know what they took us to be – girls, I guess.
We are now between San Diego and Los Angeles, about 36 miles from San Diego and a little more than 80 miles from LA. We are located in the mountains, too.
Guess what I bought today – a swimming suit. They have a pool here and we are only a few miles from the beach, the way I hear. It’s warm enough, too. If you don’t believe it, come out.
Last night we layed over in Los Angeles for quite a while so they gave us a little over an hour to roam about the city. We were wearing our helmets and dungarees. That’s the way we travel. It was comfortable, too. It did makes us feel a little out of place to be dressed that way, especially in a big city like Los Angeles, but we didn’t care. It was good to get off that train.
The barracks here are swell. The outside of them don’t look so hot because they are painted a dull gray. They have air conditioning and plenty of room. There are several big coat racks with canvas all around to keep the dust off our clothes. We have locker boxes and nice showers. The food is darn good. They have olives, pickles, jam, and stuff on the tables all the time (jars of them). It’s nice to get a lot to eat again after being on the train.
They have girls working in the Post Exchange here and they are nice, too. I’ll tell you more later about our liberty. I don’t know anything about it yet. I’m anxious to go swimming but don’t know when. It’s Saturday night now and is 7:30 here – 10:30 where you are.
[letter unsigned in newspaper transcript]