My Life as a Soldier in World War I - Essay Example

Life in the trenches was extremely horrible for me. The possibilities of enemy attacks and diseases were haunted me and many other American soldiers who were in my battalion. Trench life prevented us from proper sleeping, bathing, and taking foods. The disturbance of rats, lice etc caused more trouble during my trench life. Some of the rats which caused disturbances to us during WW1 were of the size of a cat. Life casualties were more in WW1 and dead bodies of the soldiers were coming to our army camp quiet regularly.

It was difficult for us to give a proper funeral to our colleagues who fought bravely for the country. American government was not much interested in giving respect or paying homage to the dead bodies of the soldiers at that time. Many of the dead bodies were burned using petrol since it was difficult for us to give more attention to the normal funeral activities. I was a commander in American army during WW1. So I forced to take many decisions during the war period. In fact it was difficult for me to allocate different missions to different soldiers.

Different emotions that were passing through the faces of the soldiers while getting dangerous tasks were horrible experiences for me. It was evident that many of the soldiers who were sending for the dangerous missions may not come back alive. Being a commander, it was impossible for me to consider humanitarian issues during the war period. I remember many occasions in which I forced to compel even diseased soldiers to engage in some kind of works. On many occasions, I forced to advance further leaving the seriously wounded soldiers behind.

It should be noted that giving care to wounded soldiers at the time of intense fight may cause more casualties. Relatives of the soldiers who suffered death never got the information about their death in time. In fact, we had received many letters from the wives of the soldiers who were killed many weeks before. It was really a horrible experience to read all these letters and send any reply to them. I remember one instance in which I received a letter from a killed soldier’s wife. I realised the depth of their love and intimacy from this letter.

She was actually pregnant and the real intention of this letter was to convey the good news to her husband. Some tears filled in my eyes, and decided to send a reply to this woman. It should be noted that communication channels were not much developed during WW1 and sending letters was the major communication activity performed by the soldiers and their relatives. In my reply letter, I described her husband as a brave one and informed her about his death. I asked her to be proud of the heroics done by her husband and expressed the gratitude of American army to her for the great services extended by her husband.

It was really a touching moment in my life. At the time of wring the reply, I struggled to get suitable words. American society has changed a lot after WW1. Before WW1, many of the Americans supported wars. It should be noted that the first time use of sophisticated weapons caused more death casualties than anticipated in WW1. The loss of beloved ones forced American society to revise their views about wars. The huge destruction of properties forced Americans to think about the necessities of avoiding wars in future.

“In the 1920s, people seemed to be less interested in progress and were more interested in hedonism. It is like