The Things They Carried: In this chapter O'Brien describes the many things that his fellow solders in the platoon Alpha Company carried with them on their missions. Some of these things are physical like; matches, M-16 rifles, medicine. Other things were mental like; guilt and fear.
The first to die in the group is revealed in this chapter. Ted Lavender was shot in the head when returning from the bathroom. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross believes that the death was his fault because he was occupied while thinking about his crush from back home; Martha. Love: In this chapter, Jimmy Cross goes to visit O'Brien. They are looking through old photos from the war and stumble upon a picture of the deceased Ted Lavender. Cross still believes that he was the cause of Lavenders death because his mind was always occupied by his crush Martha. They talk about Martha, and it turns out that Jimmy actually saw Martha again at the college reunion. Cross still loves Martha he tells O'Brien but does not want to talk about her. Tom O'Brien asks for permission to write about him in a story, and eventually he agrees to let him.
Spin: O'Brien describes some of the more peaceful times of war. He writes about how Henry Dobbins and Norman Bowker play checkers with each other.
He now tells us that he is a forty-three year old writer. He describes how bad memories will never leave ones-self. H begins to describe the different types of war stories you can tell and uses examples with stories from the war. The platoon hires a old man from Vietnam to guide them through the forest. They were sad to see him go. Mitchell Sanders begins to tell a story of a man who went away so he could sleep with a nurse.Rat Kiley and Dave Jensen learn how to do the rain dance from Kiowa.
On the Rainy River: In this chapter Tom O'Brien describes his years before the war. A month after he graduated he received a draft notice to go and fight in the Vietnam War. During his years at college he was always against the war. He went into a state of shock when he received the notice and did not know what to do. During the summer, while trying to figure out whether or not to go and fight he worked at his hometowns meatpacking plant.
Tim O'Brien eventually decided to go away to Canada. He headed north and then followed along the Rainy River. He finds a fishing resort and decides to stay there. He stays there for six days and develops a relationship with the owner Elroy. On O'Brien's last day Elroy takes him out fishing. They go to the Canadian border and right there Tom O'Brien convinces himself that he needs to go to war.
Enemies: In this part of the book Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen get in a fight over a stolen jackknife. Strunk's nose is broken by the relentless hitting by Dave Jensen. Jensen afterwards is scared that one day Lee with try to get revenge and starts freaking out and eventually breaks his own nose. Lee Strunk actually did steal his jackknife.
Friends: Dave Jensen and Lee Strunk come to trust each other. They make an agreement that if either of them get hurt extremely bad that they would kill them and put them out of misery. Lee's leg gets blown off and Dave Jensen does not want to kill his friend. Lee gets on a helicopter, and it is later learned that he does not survive. How to Tell a True War Story: Rat Kiley writes a letter to his friends sisters. His friend was recently killed and he wanted his friends sister to know what a hero her brother was. The friend that died was Curt Lemon. He was killed while fooling around with a grenade.
O'Brien says that a true war story is very grueling and you don't want to believe it happened. He says that true war stories are almost impossible to tell. He talks about a story that Mitchell Sanders once told, and why it wasn't true. Sanders says that there really is no moral to the story, and O'Brien says that the moral of a real war story cannot be separated from the story itself.
To tell what a true war story is he talks about the death of his friend Curt Lemon. Kiley was so upset that he lost his friend that he shot and tortured a water buffalo to feel better. He talks about the story of a man who jumps in front of a grenade to save his three friends. The most true war stories never happened and gives another example of the same four men. That same man jumped in front of grenade but all four died anyway. The story of Curt Lemon, O'Brien says, is not a war story but a love story.
The Dentist: The author writes a short Curt Lemon story. One day an Army dentist comes to the base to check up on the soldiers. Curt Lemon is afraid of dentist because he had previous bad experiences. Curt Lemon would eventually go in, but he fainted before the dentist could do anything. He goes back later that night and demands that a dentist pulls a tooth.
Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong: Rat Kiley tells of his times when he was in the first aid station. It was a very remote area near a river. Eddie Diamond one day jokingly says that he wants to fly a girl to the station. Mark Fossie acts upon that and writes a letter to a girl from his elementary school Mary Anne Bell. She arrives weeks later. For a while the two get along very well. Mary Anne was a quick learner and wanted to everything about the war. Mark becomes worried and wants her to go home but she refuses. She starts going on mossions with the Special Forces. One night she goes straight to the Special Forces hut. Mark goes to see what she is doing and finds out that she is doing some weird ritual. One day Mary Anne disappears and no one knows what happened to her.
Stockings: Henry Dobbins sometimes wears his girlfriend's stockings around his neck. O'Brien says that there were many superstitions in Vietnam, and the stockings were Dobbins's good luck charm. He survived many hard times with those, and even when she broke up with him he still wore the stockings.
Church: The group finds a old pagoda. Everyday that the troops were there, two monks would tend to them, and clean their supplies. Kiowa says that he wouldn't want to be a priest, he just carries the Bible because he was raised that way. All that they can do is be nice to the monks.
The Man I Killed: O'Brien describes how the man looked when he killed him. He uses gruesome imagery to describe it. He starts to feel guilty because he cut this person's life short. He notices that the boy's nose is undamaged, and Kiowa tells him to stop staring at the body, but O'Brien can't. He starts to imagine what the boys life was and could be like. Kiowa tries to make him feel better, but nothing is working.
Ambush: Kathleen, O'Brien's daughter asks him if he has ever killed anyone. He tells her that he has never killed anyone. He thinks about telling her the whole story of My Khe. One night the group split into two and went to the ambush site right outside My Khe. O'Brien was with Kiowas when he saw a soldier come out of the distance with ammunition at his hand. Without hesitation he pulled a grenade and threw it. The man saw the grenade bounce and started to run. O'Brien new the young soldier was going to die. Twenty years later and Tom O'Brien still regrets pulling that pin, knowing he would have just walked by.
Style: The platoon sees a young girl dancing in her damaged village. They debate over whether or not it was a ritual or if she just likes to dance. Azar later mocks the dance and Dobbins threatens to dump him in a well if he does not do it properly.
Speaking of Courage: Norman Bowker is in Iowa, and is driving around the lake. He begins to think of his father, and how his father wanted him to come home from Vietnam with medals. He won seven medals. He tells of how he blew his chance at the Silver Star at the Song Tra Bong. One night the platoon accidentally set up camp in a sewage field. It was raining hard, and the ground sank beneath them. He saw Kiowa sink, and went to save him, but he was gone. Bowker left to save himself. He wants his father to think that winning seven medals was enough.
Notes: O'Brien said that Norman Bowker wanted the chapter "Speaking of Courage" to be written. Norman hung himself in the YMCA three years after the story was written. O'Brien received a letter from Norman saying that he didn't have a purpose for living after the war. He wanted O'Brien to write about a person whose life was robbed from Vietnam. He did write about Norman's request, and didn't use his name. Norman Bowker was upset with the story because Kiowa was not in it. He hung himself eight months later. O'Brien would revise the story according to the complaints.
In the Field: Jimmy Cross decides to write a letter to Kiowa's father explaining what a great soldier his son was. They find Kiowa's rucksack and start digging. In Cross' letter he writes that he never wanted a leadership role. He takes blame for the death, he should have removed them from the sewage field. Another soldier takes the blame, and wants to find the body because he was a picture of his ex-girlfriend. After a lot of pulling they get Kiowa's body out of the mud.
Good Form: The author writes about real and story truth. He says he saw a man die near My Khe, and later said that he did not kill that young soldier. He says he wants us to fell what he felt at that time. This chapter is just how he organized the book.
Field Trip: Tom O'Brien and his daughter go to the sight of Kiowa's death. It is not as it was when he was there. His daughter got tired of the trip and could not understand much of what the war was about. He goes for a swim in the river, and leaves a pair of moccasins there.
The Ghost Soldiers: The author remembers that he was shot twice during the war. The first time he was shot Kiley was a big help to him. When he returned fro recovery he learned that Kiley was injured and Bobby Jorgenson took his place. The second time he was shot, the new guy could not help him; thus, making it very painful for O'Brien. He spend a lot of time in the hospital, and begins to think that he wants Jorgenson to pay for his pain. O'Brien later runs into Jorgenson, and Jorgenson does a lot of apologizing, which makes O'Brien dislike Jorgenson a lot more. Him and Azar go and get revenge, by pulling ropes at night, and setting off flares to startle Jorgenson. O'Brien and Jorgenson eventually become friends, and decide to scare Azar.
Night Life: Mitchell Sanders tells the story of the time when Kiley was injured. There was a scare of an attack, so they slept in the day, and marched in the night. Nothing was happening, it was like they were chasing ghosts. Kiley says that he is not good enough to be a medic. He starts imaging dead bodies, and can't handle it. He shoots himself in the foot so he can be released.
The Lives of the Dead: In the first four days that O'Brien is in war, the platoon is under fire. They order a air strike, wiping out the enemy. the ask O'Brien if that is his first experience of a dead body. He says no, thinking of his first date, Linda. When they were young, he had his parents take the two of them to a movie. After they made a stop at a Dairy Queen. After they dropped Linda off, he new he was in love. Linda was always wearing a red cap, and one day in school, another classmate took off the cap. It revealed Linda with a balding head. Linda had a brain tumor, and later died. He went to the funeral. He would always think about Linda, anytime he could. During the war, soldiers kept the dead alive with stories. O'Brien concluded that the dead live.
The first to die in the group is revealed in this chapter. Ted Lavender was shot in the head when returning from the bathroom. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross believes that the death was his fault because he was occupied while thinking about his crush from back home; Martha.
Love: In this chapter, Jimmy Cross goes to visit O'Brien. They are looking through old photos from the war and stumble upon a picture of the deceased Ted Lavender. Cross still believes that he was the cause of Lavenders death because his mind was always occupied by his crush Martha. They talk about Martha, and it turns out that Jimmy actually saw Martha again at the college reunion. Cross still loves Martha he tells O'Brien but does not want to talk about her. Tom O'Brien asks for permission to write about him in a story, and eventually he agrees to let him.
Spin: O'Brien describes some of the more peaceful times of war. He writes about how Henry Dobbins and Norman Bowker play checkers with each other.
He now tells us that he is a forty-three year old writer. He describes how bad memories will never leave ones-self. H begins to describe the different types of war stories you can tell and uses examples with stories from the war. The platoon hires a old man from Vietnam to guide them through the forest. They were sad to see him go. Mitchell Sanders begins to tell a story of a man who went away so he could sleep with a nurse.Rat Kiley and Dave Jensen learn how to do the rain dance from Kiowa.
On the Rainy River: In this chapter Tom O'Brien describes his years before the war. A month after he graduated he received a draft notice to go and fight in the Vietnam War. During his years at college he was always against the war. He went into a state of shock when he received the notice and did not know what to do. During the summer, while trying to figure out whether or not to go and fight he worked at his hometowns meatpacking plant.
Tim O'Brien eventually decided to go away to Canada. He headed north and then followed along the Rainy River. He finds a fishing resort and decides to stay there. He stays there for six days and develops a relationship with the owner Elroy. On O'Brien's last day Elroy takes him out fishing. They go to the Canadian border and right there Tom O'Brien convinces himself that he needs to go to war.
Enemies: In this part of the book Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen get in a fight over a stolen jackknife. Strunk's nose is broken by the relentless hitting by Dave Jensen. Jensen afterwards is scared that one day Lee with try to get revenge and starts freaking out and eventually breaks his own nose. Lee Strunk actually did steal his jackknife.
Friends: Dave Jensen and Lee Strunk come to trust each other. They make an agreement that if either of them get hurt extremely bad that they would kill them and put them out of misery. Lee's leg gets blown off and Dave Jensen does not want to kill his friend. Lee gets on a helicopter, and it is later learned that he does not survive.
How to Tell a True War Story: Rat Kiley writes a letter to his friends sisters. His friend was recently killed and he wanted his friends sister to know what a hero her brother was. The friend that died was Curt Lemon. He was killed while fooling around with a grenade.
O'Brien says that a true war story is very grueling and you don't want to believe it happened. He says that true war stories are almost impossible to tell. He talks about a story that Mitchell Sanders once told, and why it wasn't true. Sanders says that there really is no moral to the story, and O'Brien says that the moral of a real war story cannot be separated from the story itself.
To tell what a true war story is he talks about the death of his friend Curt Lemon. Kiley was so upset that he lost his friend that he shot and tortured a water buffalo to feel better. He talks about the story of a man who jumps in front of a grenade to save his three friends. The most true war stories never happened and gives another example of the same four men. That same man jumped in front of grenade but all four died anyway. The story of Curt Lemon, O'Brien says, is not a war story but a love story.
The Dentist: The author writes a short Curt Lemon story. One day an Army dentist comes to the base to check up on the soldiers. Curt Lemon is afraid of dentist because he had previous bad experiences. Curt Lemon would eventually go in, but he fainted before the dentist could do anything. He goes back later that night and demands that a dentist pulls a tooth.
Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong: Rat Kiley tells of his times when he was in the first aid station. It was a very remote area near a river. Eddie Diamond one day jokingly says that he wants to fly a girl to the station. Mark Fossie acts upon that and writes a letter to a girl from his elementary school Mary Anne Bell. She arrives weeks later. For a while the two get along very well. Mary Anne was a quick learner and wanted to everything about the war. Mark becomes worried and wants her to go home but she refuses. She starts going on mossions with the Special Forces. One night she goes straight to the Special Forces hut. Mark goes to see what she is doing and finds out that she is doing some weird ritual. One day Mary Anne disappears and no one knows what happened to her.
Stockings: Henry Dobbins sometimes wears his girlfriend's stockings around his neck. O'Brien says that there were many superstitions in Vietnam, and the stockings were Dobbins's good luck charm. He survived many hard times with those, and even when she broke up with him he still wore the stockings.
Church: The group finds a old pagoda. Everyday that the troops were there, two monks would tend to them, and clean their supplies. Kiowa says that he wouldn't want to be a priest, he just carries the Bible because he was raised that way. All that they can do is be nice to the monks.
The Man I Killed: O'Brien describes how the man looked when he killed him. He uses gruesome imagery to describe it. He starts to feel guilty because he cut this person's life short. He notices that the boy's nose is undamaged, and Kiowa tells him to stop staring at the body, but O'Brien can't. He starts to imagine what the boys life was and could be like. Kiowa tries to make him feel better, but nothing is working.
Ambush: Kathleen, O'Brien's daughter asks him if he has ever killed anyone. He tells her that he has never killed anyone. He thinks about telling her the whole story of My Khe. One night the group split into two and went to the ambush site right outside My Khe. O'Brien was with Kiowas when he saw a soldier come out of the distance with ammunition at his hand. Without hesitation he pulled a grenade and threw it. The man saw the grenade bounce and started to run. O'Brien new the young soldier was going to die. Twenty years later and Tom O'Brien still regrets pulling that pin, knowing he would have just walked by.
Style: The platoon sees a young girl dancing in her damaged village. They debate over whether or not it was a ritual or if she just likes to dance. Azar later mocks the dance and Dobbins threatens to dump him in a well if he does not do it properly.
Speaking of Courage: Norman Bowker is in Iowa, and is driving around the lake. He begins to think of his father, and how his father wanted him to come home from Vietnam with medals. He won seven medals. He tells of how he blew his chance at the Silver Star at the Song Tra Bong. One night the platoon accidentally set up camp in a sewage field. It was raining hard, and the ground sank beneath them. He saw Kiowa sink, and went to save him, but he was gone. Bowker left to save himself. He wants his father to think that winning seven medals was enough.
Notes: O'Brien said that Norman Bowker wanted the chapter "Speaking of Courage" to be written. Norman hung himself in the YMCA three years after the story was written. O'Brien received a letter from Norman saying that he didn't have a purpose for living after the war. He wanted O'Brien to write about a person whose life was robbed from Vietnam. He did write about Norman's request, and didn't use his name. Norman Bowker was upset with the story because Kiowa was not in it. He hung himself eight months later. O'Brien would revise the story according to the complaints.
In the Field: Jimmy Cross decides to write a letter to Kiowa's father explaining what a great soldier his son was. They find Kiowa's rucksack and start digging. In Cross' letter he writes that he never wanted a leadership role. He takes blame for the death, he should have removed them from the sewage field. Another soldier takes the blame, and wants to find the body because he was a picture of his ex-girlfriend. After a lot of pulling they get Kiowa's body out of the mud.
Good Form: The author writes about real and story truth. He says he saw a man die near My Khe, and later said that he did not kill that young soldier. He says he wants us to fell what he felt at that time. This chapter is just how he organized the book.
Field Trip: Tom O'Brien and his daughter go to the sight of Kiowa's death. It is not as it was when he was there. His daughter got tired of the trip and could not understand much of what the war was about. He goes for a swim in the river, and leaves a pair of moccasins there.
The Ghost Soldiers: The author remembers that he was shot twice during the war. The first time he was shot Kiley was a big help to him. When he returned fro recovery he learned that Kiley was injured and Bobby Jorgenson took his place. The second time he was shot, the new guy could not help him; thus, making it very painful for O'Brien. He spend a lot of time in the hospital, and begins to think that he wants Jorgenson to pay for his pain. O'Brien later runs into Jorgenson, and Jorgenson does a lot of apologizing, which makes O'Brien dislike Jorgenson a lot more. Him and Azar go and get revenge, by pulling ropes at night, and setting off flares to startle Jorgenson. O'Brien and Jorgenson eventually become friends, and decide to scare Azar.
Night Life: Mitchell Sanders tells the story of the time when Kiley was injured. There was a scare of an attack, so they slept in the day, and marched in the night. Nothing was happening, it was like they were chasing ghosts. Kiley says that he is not good enough to be a medic. He starts imaging dead bodies, and can't handle it. He shoots himself in the foot so he can be released.
The Lives of the Dead: In the first four days that O'Brien is in war, the platoon is under fire. They order a air strike, wiping out the enemy. the ask O'Brien if that is his first experience of a dead body. He says no, thinking of his first date, Linda. When they were young, he had his parents take the two of them to a movie. After they made a stop at a Dairy Queen. After they dropped Linda off, he new he was in love. Linda was always wearing a red cap, and one day in school, another classmate took off the cap. It revealed Linda with a balding head. Linda had a brain tumor, and later died. He went to the funeral. He would always think about Linda, anytime he could. During the war, soldiers kept the dead alive with stories. O'Brien concluded that the dead live.