Page 34 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2017- Online Magazine

George Lewis
ubble and destruction
in Germany were
Reverywhere the fall of
1945, and George Lewis saw it
up close. He was a corporal and
squad leader with the 3458th
Quartermaster Truck Company
in charge of about 11 big trucks
(part of a convoy) and was “in
charge of teaching men how to
drive them.” His mission was
to help repair the infrastructure
after all the destruction to
Germany during WWII. He
remembers an especially arduous
14-day, 140-mile trek from
Bamburg to Munich. Most of the
railroads had been destroyed and
travel was extremely slow in the
months after the war.
34 Lubbock Senior Link
WWII Veteran -
Occupied Germany
George Sellers Lewis had
attended high school in
Broken Bow, Oklahoma, but
only made it through 11th
grade. In 1944 when he was
18, he met Lee Ester Yates at
church. They soon married
and their first child, George
Lee Lewis, was born on May
26, 1945. Unfortunately,
the young father received
his draft notice and was
inducted into the Army on
August 20, 1945. He was
sent for basic training to Ft.
Leonard Wood, Missouri
and additional training in
Cheyenne, Wyoming; then
on to South Carolina where
he and his company were
shipped out to Germany
aboard the U.S.S. Sea Devil. Ester
and baby George stayed with her
mother.
George spent the next several
months in Germany with his
convoy of trucks hauling gravel
to repair roads. After
a trip back across the
Atlantic, he “rode
a troop train all the
way from New York
to Ft. Sam Houston
in San Antonio” where he was
discharged. After only one year,
his service was over. He returned
to his family in Paris, Texas
where he enrolled in a vocational
school to be a tailor. George and
Lee moved to Lubbock in 1950
where the family continued to
grow and thrive. This writer was
thoroughly impressed as George,
after only a moment to reflect,
was able to quickly name his 11
children in order of their birth:
George Lee, James David, Mary,
Ester, Beverly, Sherry, Winnie,
Madeline, Curtis, Debbie and
Pam.
George raised his large family,
served in his church and worked
hard for several companies
throughout his career. Among
them were Featherlite Block
Company, T.G. & Y., the Social
Security office, LISD and Family
Promise. When his wife Ester
died in 1987, he met Rose
Higgins from Plainview at a