Dear James, How are things at home? I’m hoping everything is going O.K. I keep thinking of what it must be like back at home and how things have changed. It must be very difficult for my family to think of me being out here. I can not imagine what they are feeling and all I ask from you is that you keep watch over them, for me, if you could. You can’t imagine the horrors I go through everyday.
Horrors no man should ever have to face in this life time or any other for that matter. I have to stay in this god forsaken trench all day and night with almost no sleep and if I do it’s a light sleep for fear of an enemy sneak attack on the trench or the never ceasing sound of shelling of no mans land. There is almost no food here and some of the men have even started killing the rats that infest our trenches and eating them for food. I have not sunk to that level yet but I’m not sure how much longer I can go without something to eat. I write this letter today with fear that I could die any day just as easy as that. I fear every single day that a bomb could land next to me and end my life or that if I become a little too careless one day and stick my head up a little to far over the trench’s edge that a sniper will take my life without even so much as blinking an eye at the thought of it.
There are many things that have compiled my fear. For instance we were under heavy artillery fire three days ago when one of the squad members, who was also a friend of mine, was killed by a shell no less then fifty feet from me. And what did they do about his dead body? Nothing! They let him lay there like he was nobody. So yesterday I took out my shovel and gave him a proper burial or as best as I could given the current situation. And this doesn’t just happen to me there are bodies everywhere that no one cares about and just leaves to rot in the mud. They just don’t realize that everyone out here is someone’s son, brother, or husband.
I guess I should get back to my post now. I will write again soon. Keep everyone’s head up and pray for me and know that I will be home soon. Send my love to everyone back home.
