📜 The Pandemic That Changed the World In the spring of 1918 , as World War I tore across Europe, another enemy emerged—one that didn’t carry a rifle or wear a uniform. It started quietly, deep in the crowded barracks of Camp Funston, Kansas , where American soldiers trained for the frontlines. Within days, over a thousand troops were sick. Doctors called it a “three-day flu.” But they were wrong. The virus spread with terrifying speed—through troop trains, across oceans, and