British Army Lieutenant Mark Evison died on May 9 from wounds sustained during the allied forces’ latest push into Afghanistan. The 26-year-old platoon commander was killed just one month after being deployed from England to the Helmand Province, where he kept a detailed journal of his experiences. Evison’s mother has started a foundation on his behalf to keep her son’s legacy alive.

Passages from his personal journal were published for the first time in the UK’s Telegraph today, painting an all-too-human picture of a soldier’s struggles on the front lines.

On the Afghan people:

We held a mins’ shura [consultation, meeting] with three Afghans and moved back to the FOB. It really is true that they have nothing. The children are all smiling with beautiful faces. The men are more guarded and generally stand-offish. However they are willing to talk which goes against all the briefs I have been given.

On the conditions:

As it stands I have a lack of radios, water, food and medical equipment. This with manpower is what these missions lack. It is disgraceful to send a platoon into a very dangerous area with two weeks’ water and food and one team medics pack. Injuries will be sustained which I will not be able to treat and deaths could occur which could have been stopped. We are walking on a tightrope and from what it seems here are likely to fall unless drastic measures are undertaken.

On death:

Life is fragile and out here it feels like it can be removed in an instant. It almost makes life even more valuable and shows the fragility that many in the West I believe do not understand.

Read more from Lt. Mark Evison’s journal here.