
"On April 15, however, it was reported that at the army’s Camp Lewis south of Tacoma (now part of Joint Base Lewis-McChord), pneumonia has slightly increased during the week, most of the cases follow influenza, which was at its maximum two weeks ago.” (“Civilian Workers Fast Being Eliminated ...”). The 1918 ‘Spanish Flu’ Pandemic in Washington.
Another online article discusses the flu at Camp Lewis called "Now Part of JBLM, Was at the Center of the Beginning of the Lethal Disease in Washington State", HistoryLink.org, Nov 8, 2017. According to it, the flu of March 1918 was just a normal flu, with soldiers recovering quickly. But Josh was sick for weeks. It is still a mystery if he had the Spanish flu, mumps, scarlet fever, more than one health problem, or something else. We only know that he was very weak after the prolonged hospital stay.
The U.S. Army website relates the effects of the Spanish flu worldwide and throughout the American Expeditionary Force. Here is the link for those wishing to read more about the influenza worldwide plague of 1918. Speaking of plagues and pandemics, "The Plague," considering the smaller world population, was still a much greater pandemic than the Spanish Flu...but tell that to someone who lost a family member or who suffered through it and survived. Americans lost over 45,000 soldiers to the Spanish flu. My university campus turned over large classroom halls to house sick soldiers.
And here we are today, battling another influenza with deaths already mounting at the beginning of the flu season.