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Period: to
US involvment in the Vietnam war
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O'Brien gets drafted
"In June of 1968, a month after graduating from Macalester College, I was drafted to fight a war I hated" (O'Brien 38). "The draft notice arrived on June 17, 1968" (O'Brien 39). -
Mary Ann Bell visits Mark Fossie
"When he first arrived in country, before joining Alpha Company, Rat had been assigned to a small medical detachment up in the mountains west of Chu Lai, near the village of Tra Bong" (O'Brien 86). "At best, Rat said, she was seventeen years old, fresh out of Cleveland Heights Senior High" (O'Brien 89). We can tell by these quotes that it happened before O'Brien and Rat Kiley were assigned to Alpha Company. We also know that it happened around summer time when Mary Bell was out of school. -
O'Brien arrives in Vietnam
"I was brand-new to the war. It was my fourth day" (O'Brien 214). "It was February now, but the cookies tasted fine" (O'Brien 215). -
Azar blows up Ted Lavender's puppy
"Azar strapped the puppy to a Claymore antipersonnel mine and sqeezed th firing device" (O'Brien 35). We know it happend around this date because Ted Lavender was still alive and because O'Brien was there to witness it. -
Ted Lavender gets killed
"On April 16, when Lee Strunk drew the number 17" (O'Brien 10). "Right then Ted Lavender was shot in the head on his way back from peeing" (O'Brien 12). -
O'Brien kills a man
"I remember it was still dark when Kiowa shook me awake for the final watch" (O'Brien 126). "I had already thrown the grenade before telling myself to throw it" (O'Brien 127). We know by this quote it happend around this time because Kiowa is still alive. Ted Lavender was not involved so it was most likely after his death. -
O'Brien gets shot: First time
"When I got back to Alpha Company twenty-six days later, in mid-December, Rat Kiley had been wounded and shipped off to Japan" (O'Brien 181). We know it took O'Brien ~26 days to heal after being shot the first time so we can infer this happened ~26 days before mid-December. -
Rat Kiley shoots himself in the foot
"When I got back to Alpha Company twenty-six days later, in mid-December, Rat Kiley had been wounded and shipped off to Japan (O'Brien 181)." We know O'Brien was shot the first time in mid-November and was still healing when Rat shot himself. We can conclude this event happend somewhere between mid-November and mid-December. -
Curt Lemon has dentist pull a tooth
"In February we were working an area of operations called the Rocket Pocket" (O'Brien 83). "One afternoon an Army dentist was choppered in to check our teeth" (O'Brien 84). "(Curt) told him he had a monster toothache" (O'Brien 84). "The dentist couldn't find any problem, but Lemon kept insisting, so the man finally shrugged a shot in the Novocain and yanked out a perfectly good tooth" (O'Brien 84). -
Curt Lemon gets blown into a tree
"The dead guys name was Curt Lemon" (O'Brien 66). "Norman Bowker and Kiowa and Dave Jensen were dozing" (O'Brien 67). We can tell from these quotes that the event happened before Kiowas death. Lavender was not involved so we know it happened after his death. -
Rat Kiley kills a baby water buffalo
"Later, higher in the mountains, we came across a baby VC water buffalo" (O'Brien 74). "He shot it twice in the flanks. It wasn't to kill; it was to hurt" (O'Brien 75). We know this happened right after Curt Lemons death. -
Kiowa sinks in a feild of waste
"in October the monsoons began and the whole situation changed" (O'Brien 136).
"He pulled hard but Kiowa was gone" (O'Brien 143). We can see from the first quote Kiowa must have died in the mud some time around October. -
O'Brien gets shot: Second time
"I spent a month flat on my stomach" (O'Brien 181). "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 transfered me over to Headquarters Company" (O'Brien 182). We know it took O'Brien over a month to heal from this injury, and he was released from the hostpital near the end of December, so it must have happened around the end of November. -
Norman Bowker commits suicide
"Speaking of Courage was written in 1975 at the suggestion of Norman Bowker, who three years later hanged himself in the locker room of a YMCA in his hometown in central Iowa" (O'Brien 149). -
O'Brien returns to Vietnam with his daughter
"I returned with my daughter to Vietnam" (O'Brien 173). "Amazing, I thought. Twenty years" (O'Brien 173). We can conclude from this quote that he re-visited the site of Kiowas death ~20 years later.
