My grandfather Pvt. Frank Gustaf Severin Erickson wrote this letter from Tacoma, Washington on June 9th, 1918 in Swedish to his mother Christine Brita (Olson) and father Anders Alfred Erickson in Wilton, North Dakota.

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:

June 9th 1918
Tacoma
Washington

Dear Parents

I am writing a few lines to let you know that I am alive and well and wishing you the same. I am still working at the shipyard. Work will finish June 15. I have been given notice to go back to Baker Oregon on the 23rd of June to join the army.

I was happy to receive the notice to go back to Baker because I like to join the army. I could be given the chance to go to France and help beat up some Germans.

Ernest was in Tacoma yesterday, but I think he has traveled to Seattle, he is coming back tonight. I would like to stay in Camp Tacoma, but I think I will be sent to Vancouver Washington.
I shall now end with a dear greeting to you all from your son Frank.

1151 ½ South Tacoma Avenue

PS. If you write to me the same day you receive this letter, I might get it before I travel to Baker, Oregon.