I didn't like GOING AFTER CACCIATO, the book for which O'Brien won the National Book Award. Thought it was a rip-off of CATCH-22. The next thing of his I read was an excerpt from THE THINGS THEY CARRIED. It has to be some of the best writing I've ever read. Martin Brady of BOOKLIST refers to O'Brien's style as "faction." O'Brien served as a foot soldier in Vietnam from 1969 to 1970.
O'Brien literally describes the things the grunt soldiers carry: can openers, pocket knives, candy, cigarettes, a toothbrush, extra underwear, comic books. Henry Dobbins, a big man, carries canned peaches. Dave Jensen carries dental floss and bars of soap. Kiowa, a devout Baptist, carries a Bible.
But you know the "things" in the title are about more than just things. O'Brien says, "They carried the soldier's greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing. Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to."

Because the nights are cold, they also carry ponchos. Ted Lavender is afraid, the burden of fear adding to the twenty pounds of ammunition, his flak jacket, helmet, rations, water, toilet paper and tranquilizers he carries. When he's shot, they use his poncho to carry his dead body to the evacuation chopper.

Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carries letters from a coed named Martha. She's an English major; she writes about Chaucer and Virginia Woolf. They're not love letters; Cross dreams about making her love him when he gets back stateside.

O'Brien hooked me immediately when he wrote of Jimmy Cross and Martha. I remember USNTC Boot Camp, waiting for a letter from my girl. I could've been Jimmy Cross. I went in during the Cuban missile crisis, and I was a teletype operator serving at Polaris Missile Facility in Charleston, South Carolina, when President Johnson decided to escalate the war. When I got the message asking for volunteers, I immediately ran out and volunteered. Thankfully, BUPERS (Bureau of Personnel) saved me from my own stupidity.

Dave Schwinghammer is a navy veteran and author of the Fargo-esque novel, SOLDIER'S GAP, available on authorsden and at amazon.com, new and used. Thank you.