My grandfather Pvt. Frank Gustaf Severin Erickson wrote this letter from Camp Kearny, California on July 21st, 1918 in Swedish to his mother Christine Brita (Olson) and father Anders Alfred Erickson in Wilton, North Dakota. They lived on the family farm in Regan.

Frank had begun his military training at Camp Lewis in Oregon and would continue on to Camp Kearny in California and then by train head to Camp Upton in Yaphank (Long Island) in Suffolk County, New York to complete his training. In a letter he wrote a couple weeks later, he talks of that train ride from California to New York.

When Frank left for England he was stationed at the debarkation Camp Mills in New York. Frank departed for Liverpool, England on August 8th, 1918 aboard the Steamer Nestor. The last leg of his journey would be in late August when he crossed the English Channel for France serving with the 308th Infantry - Company H and inevitability be a fortunate survivor of the soon-to-be-infamous "Lost Battalion."

Frank wrote many letters and postcards back home from 1910 through 1919. He had left home in 1910 and traveled out west looking for adventure and work. Frank was 18 years old when he boarded a train in Bismarck for California.

Before Frank joined the American Expeditionary Force in late Spring of 1917 in Baker, Oregon he had lived and worked up and down the west coast. He first lived in Daly City, California and then it was onto Phoenix, Arizona, then Polaris and Armstead, Montana, Port Huron, Michigan. He and his brother Ernest Julius Erickson then lived in the towns of Baker, White Pine and La Grande, Oregon and Tacoma, Washington.

Previous to their service, Frank and his brother Ernest Julius were experienced hunters and outdoorsman and worked as railroad deputies out of La Grande, Oregon. Their younger brother Anders Sebran Filimon Erickson served with the 101st Aero Squadron in the Air Corps in France from 1918-1919.

Frank's letter writing to his parents was always in Swedish, but wrote his sisters and brothers in English.

Translated from Swedish:

July 21, 1918
Camp Kearny
California

Dear Parents

I am now in Camp Kearny California, we traveled from Camp Lewis July 16. I don’t think we will be here longer than two weeks, but I don’t know where we are going after. Could be that we are going to France.

I sent the trunk before we left Tacoma, but I didn’t pay the shipping charge. The trunk is coming to Regan. Write to me and let me know the cost and I shall send money. The trunk was $10.00 and it costs me 6.81 a month to store. So best I send it to you.

I don’t like Camp Kearny as much as Camp Lewis, it is awfully hot and dusty. Next Monday we shall go to the rifle-range and shoot. I will now end my letter with a dear greeting to you all.

From your loved son,
Private Frank G.S. (Gustaf Severin)
Company H - 160 Infantry
Camp Kearny
California