-
Tim O'Brien receives his draft notice
"The draft notice arrived on June 17, 1968. It was a humid mid afternoon." (O'Brien 39). -
O'Brien arrives in Vietnam and joins Alpha Company.
"I was brand new to the war... ... It was February now..." (O'Brien 214-215). -
Curt Lemon has the dentist pull a tooth.
"In February, we were working in an area of operations called the Rocket Pocket... ... Curt Lemon tensed up..." (O'Brien 82). -
Azar blows up Ted Lavender's puppy.
"Or Ted Lavender adopting an orphan puppy... ... until the day Azar strapped the puppy to a Claymore anitpersonnel mine and squeezed the firing device." (O'Brien 35). -
Ted Lavender's death
"In the first week of April, before Lavender died..." (O'Brien 7). -
O'Brien kills a man
"Later, Kiowa said, "I'm serious. Nothing anybody could do. Come on, stop staring.'" (O'Brien 120). -
Kiowa sinks in a field of waste
"Norman Bowker remembered how he had taken hold of Kiowa's boot and pulled hard, but the smell was too much..." (O'Brien 147). -
Curt Lemon gets blown into a tree
"On the third day, Curt Lemon stepped on a booby trapped 105 round" (O'Brien 74). -
Rat Kiley kills a baby buffalo
"Later, higher in the mountains, we came across a baby VC water buffalo." (O'Brien 75). -
O'Brien gets shot for the second time
"I guess the higher-ups decided I'd been shot enough. At the end of December, when I was released from the 91st Evac Hospital, they transferred me..." (O'Brien 182). -
O'Brien gets shot for the first time
"When I got back to Alpha Company twenty-six days later, in mid-December, Rat Kiley had been wounded..." (O'Brien 181). -
Mary Anne Bell visits Mark Fossie
"Six weeks later his girlfriend showed up." (O'Brien 89). -
"Rat" Kiley shoots himself in the foot
"A few words about Rat Kiley. I wasn't there when he got hurt..." (O'Brien 208). -
Norman Bowker kills himself
" 'Speaking of Courage' was written in 1975 at the suggestion of Norman Bowker, who three years later hanged himself in the locker room..." (O'Brien 149). -
O'Brien returns to Vietnam with his daughter
"In the second week of August, near the end of our stay..." (O'Brien 175).
" I stood there with my arms folded, feeling the grip of sentiment and time. Amazing, I thought. Twenty years." (O'Brien 173).
