The Things They Carried

I have a feeling you would know I’d respond to The Things They Carried for it is quite similar to experiences I have had. The major difference is the actual things that they carried vs what I carried as a grunt in Afghanistan. There were a few that brought back memories like the many times I applied powder to my feet or had extra socks to change them out in the attempt to keep my feet from falling apart. The one thing O’Brien does is he not only tells the reader the things that are being carried but he adds in the weight of what is being carried, giving the reader a sense of the weight that these grunts carried and what they took with them. Also the descriptions of what was carried and the terms used to describe them, like the M-60 being a killer 23 lbs unloaded and then going on to say it was always loaded. It gives the reader not only a sense of the weight but the context of it all, a war where one must always be prepared to fight. In Infantry school they teach you that when you set a perimeter the heavy machine guns are always the first to be cleaned and put back out on the line because they are the most casualty producing weapons. I know that is something that I know from my training but it is also something and anyone could understand of infer from the description that O’Brien gives. When O’Brien goes on to mention the extra things the men carried it really gives the reader the sense of fear that these men have to carry so many weapons and gear and things that can kill and wound the enemy, even to the point of one man having a hatchet. The terminology is also something I liked, not pandering to the civilian audience O’Brien throws military terms, like when he talked about dustoff instead of saying an evacuation helicopter. It keeps the story going with quick explanations and answers which in essence is what combat operations and orders are all about. It is one of my favorite stories and is a great tale of the war in Vietnam.