Figurative Language in Letters

The poem "APO 96225" was one that I found pretty easy to read and understand. I feel like I also picked up on the understatements and situational irony of the poem rather quickly too. Clearly, the soldier makes understatement's when he writes his mother saying, "Dear Mom, sure rains a lot here," and "Wow! You ought to see the funny monkeys," and finally, "The sunsets here are spectacular!" The audience knows these are understatements because this man is fighting in a war; our thoughts are confirmed when the soldier gives into his mother writing, "Today I killed a man. Yesterday, I helped drop napalm on women and children." It is in this sentence that we can be certain that the soldier is not experiencing wonderful things like as butterflies and sunsets, but terrible things like bombing.
We see situational irony in the writing between the soldier and his mother. The mother nags her son to tell her what he is truly going through in the war. However, when she receives the truth, the soldier's father tells him that he (soldier) cannot say these things; he must hold back. The effect is a clear example of situational irony, intending to show to the audience that we cannot handle what soldiers do, even though we act as if we wish to know.