The Train Trip The isolation seemed more intense because there was no town before or after the water stop. When we got to the Feather River area in the Sierra Nevada Mountains you could see trees that were perfectly straight and unbelievably tall.

If that wasn't enough there would be perfectly straight stone channels carved in the side of the mountain. Another soldier from the area explained how water escaping from the top of the mountain had carved the channels. His name was Dumas. I was impressed by it all. I wrote my parents and told them that they should go just for the train ride and the scenery. That was another time.

My parents never did get to enjoy a trip like this. What a thrill this was for a city boy who had never seen trees that tall or mountains that high! Until then, I thought that going South was traveling, and now the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada, Mountains! Wow!

Off to Korea We finally arrived at Camp Stoneman, California and were only there for a day or two and then put on a ferry and taken to Oakland Army Pier where we boarded the General Mann, a four stacker for our trip to Yokohama, Japan. It was an uneventful four or five day journey. All of the GI'S, upon meeting a Japanese person, would immediately assume that if you put an "e" on the end of every word they would immediately understand English. An example is "youee speakee melican." Oh brother, then they learned "how muchee."