Tonight is the night I die a disturbing death. Let's begin by telling you how the day started off. Henry Dobbins a member of my platoon wears his girlfriend’s pantyhose around his neck because they are supposed to be a good luck charm. He survives a couple of incidents and then when his girlfriend dumps him, he continues to wear the pantyhose saying that the magic hasn’t been lost. We stumble upon an old church and we decide to stay a few days and to use this as our “home base”. These two monks visit us everyday and bring us fresh drinking and bathing water to use. I tell Dobbins I wouldn’t enjoy being a preacher, because even though I carry a bible everywhere with me I really don’t like interacting with people. O’Brien lists some physical attributes and possible characteristics of the man who he killed in My Khe. I try to rationalize with him and to help him come to terms with the death of that young man. I try to explain to him that the young man was carrying a gun and that we are in the middle of a war and the point is to defend ourselves. I bend over the body and take the young man’s personal belongings including a picture of a young woman. We settled in a "shit" field so in a sewage field along a river and I settle down to go to sleep, and the next thing I know I am sinking and Bowker grabs my boot and that’s the last I see of any of my fellow platoon members.
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