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Message: [QUOTE="Jason Schleisman, post: 52599, member: 136527"] Any troop ship during that time was a ripe breeding ground for spreading influenza. The "USS America" (over 50 dead on one crossing) and "USS Northern Pacific" (hundreds ill, over 7 dead, more died after arrival at port) were two such of the harder hit. The "USS Leviathan" was actually hit TWICE by the epidemic, once in late 1918 and once in Feb-March of 1919. Apparently, the same number of deaths due to influenza in the US armed forces were either the same or greater than the loss experienced from actual combat. Quite a number of soldiers either became ill or died on various ships before even reaching the war theater. I lost my relatively young great-great aunt in 1918 to the influenza epidemic after my great-great uncle kindly shared it with her. He survived, but died not too long after of what could be called "a broken heart". [/QUOTE]

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