World War 1 Letter

Dear mom
    
           I miss you so much. The war is nothing like what I thought it would be and the amount of killed soldiers are uncountable. I happened to make a friend in the bunks a couple days ago; his name was William and he was from Virginia. I'm not sure if you saw that i put "was"... He died today, out of nowhere from this horrible sickness spreading around the camps. Many men are continuously dying from this small but deadly ailment. There are no symptoms though which is the scariest part about this sickness. People are walking around with no idea if they will fall ill or stay healthy enough to fight. It seems to be spreading through the air but other times it seems like its the germs on our filthy hands. Please pray for me mom I really need at least some hope.

        The weather sucks these days. Its rainy, cold and most of the times our tents flood and we end up sleeping on hard wet ground. We have set bed times by the commander which aren't very helpful because if he really thinks we can sleep after all the bloodshed, then he's straight up crazy. We aren't treated very nicely here either. Our food tastes of mold and mouse droppings (perhaps that's where the disease is coming from). The commanding officer pushes us for hours during our training and a bunch of men collapse in agony and exhaustion. Cuts and broken bones are taken care of in a horrid manner. A couple days ago I saw one of the runners come in with a mild fracture in his tibia and I guess they thought the only way to make it better was to completely saw off his leg with a rusty old saw while he lost a great amount of blood.
      I guess not all is bad though. We sit around the fire sometimes and share stories about our families and childhood experiences. I meet new people everyday and learn about new cultures I never  knew even existed. The people here push each other along and bring hope to the minds of everyone around us. I know I'm strong enough to make it through this. I will make you proud and I will come home to our family safe and sound.