Noah Lewis was born in March 1925 in Lake Charles, Louisiana. He had a normal life growing up. His mother was a house wife and his father was a common laborer, which was all most black men at the time were allowed to do. He lived in a mixed neighborhood with local grocery stores being run by Italians. He grew up with five siblings. They all played with the neighborhood kids. As a child, he cleaned yards around the house. The Great Depression did not bother his family because they were already poor. His family never went hungry. Lewis experienced racism all the time. It did not bother him because he was raised to expect that treatment and learned how to engage white people. There were two schools in the town for black children, an elementary school and a high school. He had to walk to school. Lewis heard about Japan and the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] in school. The kids were told the Japanese would take over the United States and he would have to speak Japanese. He was later drafted into the military. The attack on Pearl Harbor did not bother him because he did not think black people would be allowed to serve. There were no black servicemen at the time, Lewis only ever saw white servicemen. When the war started, his family thought there would be an upgrade for black people in the country. Lewis did not think it mattered who won because black people would still be common laborers.

Noah Lewis was drafted and inducted into the Navy in Lafayette, Louisiana. He was examined by military doctors and then received a letter telling him to report to Lafayette. From there, he went to Gulfport, Mississippi, where he trained in loading and unloading a ship, how to rig a boom, and various other things. There was a dummy ship he was taught on. After that, he did advanced training in Port Hueneme, California, where he learned how to shoot a rifle and hand-to-hand combat. That is when Lewis knew he would be going overseas. He was excited about going overseas because he had never been outside of Lake Charles [Annotator's Note: Lake Charles, Louisiana]. It became more serious when he got to California. Some of the men did not want to go overseas because they might never come back. Lewis was not worried about dying, he wanted to see the world. When he left California, he went to Hawaii for eight months. He then went to Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands], where he stayed until the atomic bomb was dropped. Lewis was on the runway waving as the B-29 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] Enola Gay [Annotator's Note: the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945] passed by. He could see the nose art on the plane. The bomb did not end the war, it took another atomic attack to force Hirohito [Annotator's Note: Emperor Hirohito of Japan] to surrender.

When Noah Lewis got to Hawaii, there was only one hotel near Waikiki Beach [Annotator's Note: Honolulu, Hawaii], but he was not allowed to go there. He thought it was a beautiful island all year round. Lewis went to Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii] and saw the damage there. He saw a ship's bow sticking out of the water. He thought it was payback time. He was told the Japanese did not believe the United States could build another atomic bomb and could hold out another year. In Hawaii, Lewis loaded and unloaded ships and built barracks. He was a Seabee [Annotator's Note: members of US naval construction battalions]. He built bridges and country roads and anything else he was asked to build. Lewis operated a crane, bulldozer, road grader, and anything else needed for construction. His battalion, the 16th Special Battalion [Annotator's Note: 16th Special Naval Construction Battalion], had people in it that could do pipe fitting, building, plumbing, and various other things. The battalion motto was "Can Do." The battalion was an all African-American unit, except the white officers. The officers would lay out the plans and the enlisted men did the work. Lewis did not mind working in a segregated unit, except they got all the menial jobs. Before the unit was created, the Navy asked for ten men to work as officer's help. Some men decided to do that job so they could eat better food. Lewis did not want to clean an officer's quarters, and that his how he ended up in the 16th Special Battalion.

Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands] reminded Noah Lewis of Hawaii. It was hot all the time. On Guam, Lewis was taught how to use heavy equipment. He unloaded materials from boats onto LSMs [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Medium] because there were no docks for large ships. Various things like lumber, oil, and parts for building were trucked onto the island. The buildings on Guam had been flattened, except for a bank vault which still stood. Guam was barren until Lewis got there and started building barracks. He thinks they made a nice place out of the destruction. There were two towns left, Sumay and Hagatna [Annotator's Note: Hagåtña]. The local Chamorros lived on the island. When Lewis first got to Guam, there were Japanese soldiers hiding in the caves. While on the ship, Lewis was told they would be helping the Marines on the island. However, before they could load into their transports, the Marines secured the island. After that, there was not much of a fear of the Japanese. Lewis never had any close calls with the enemy. Guam was a nice place when he left. Every day, he would get up early in the morning and find out how many ships needed to be unloaded. He would then go out on an LSM to start unloading. If there were no ships, he would stay in the barracks. He worked on bombed roads with bulldozers and road graders.

Noah Lewis remembers the people on Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands] were friendly towards black people. They were not as friendly towards white people. Due to racism, some of the buildings he built would not allow African-Americans in them. If there was a white serviceman in a bowling alley, Lewis would have to leave. The people that ran the buildings welcomed black servicemen, but if white men were in the building, the black men would go somewhere else. It did not bother Lewis much because he was used to that treatment. He thought the segregation in the military would be different. In the chow hall [Annotator's Note: cafeteria or mess hall] whites and blacks sat on opposite sides of the building, but they ate the same food. The Marines liked to go to the Seabee's [Annotator's Note: members of US naval construction battalions] area because they had fresh food. The 124th Seabees [Annotator's Note: 124th Naval Construction Battalion] and the 16th Special Seabees [Annotator's Note: 16th Special Naval Construction Battalion] unloaded materials to build the barracks. Lewis never saw combat, but he saw the aftermath. He saw dead bodies around, some of them were his friends. He was trained for combat by the Marines. Some of his white officers were nice, but others were not. The nice ones got more work out of their men than the mean officers. Lewis was in "Charlie's Company," named after his officer, Charlie Crawford. Charlie did not allow other officers to mess with his men, so they liked him. When Lewis was discharged, he lost contact with Crawford. A number of men he did keep in touch with have passed away.

Noah Lewis could not believe how many people were killed by the atomic bomb. He was shown a before and after picture of Hiroshima [Annotator's Note: Hiroshima, Japan] and it was completely leveled. By that time, Truman [Annotator's Note: Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States] was in the White House because Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] died. Truman vowed not to use an atomic bomb ever again. Lewis was eager to leave Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands] and return to the United States. He wanted to use the skills he learned in the service. When he got back, he applied for a job as a heavy equipment operator. When he arrived for his interview, the guard informed the interviewers that Lewis is a black man. He was not given the job as a heavy equipment operator, instead he was offered a janitorial position, which he accepted. He worked or the company for 36 years, eventually working his way up the chain to analyst. Lewis did not feel good knowing he had done good work in the military, even with white people, just to return home to the old racism. It hurt him, but he learned to live with it.

Noah Lewis thinks the white servicemen were promoted to better positions than their black counterparts. He knows in the Army there were black officers, but there were far less in the Navy. He remembers reading about Colin Powell [Annotator's Note: US Army General Colin L. Powell, 65th United States Secretary of State]. Lewis thinks his time in the service and the things he did was a step up. He is glad he got to serve. He learned more about the white race and found out they were just like him, just a different color. As a kid, he was taught to obey white people, so he thought they were different. Once he worked with them, he realized that was not the case. He had always thought white people were smarter than him, but the military showed him that they just had more opportunities. He is happy he learned those things. He thinks it made him a better man to know he was not dumb. Lewis wants people to learn that all people are the same, and that if people knew that, then there would be peace. All people want the same thing, to love and be loved. He believes if the world realized that, it would be a better place to live. Before his military service, he had worked around white people, but never with white people. He definitely never mingled with them like he did in the military.