How to Tell a True War Story

The craziest part of this chapter, for me, was the story about Curt Lemon blowing up in to a tree. I mean, come on! First of all, not only is that overwhelmingly disturbing and gross, but it's just sick how Dave Jensen was singing "Lemon Tree" as they took down the body parts...I think I actually shuddered while reading this. And then there was the baby buffalo. Oh my gosh. It's so sad! And incredibly disturbing! And, as Tim O'Brien (the narrator) mentions, "hard to believe". I remember thinking "so everyone's really just standing around watching chunks of flesh being blown off this baby buffalo, and doing absolutely nothing about it?" That was like 6 different levels of messed up. Sorta makes me glad my dad doesn't share his war stories, and now I see why.

Oh the language of these soldiers, geez louise! I can understand Rat Kiley's feeling upset about Curt's sister not writing back, and I would've called her a "cooze" as well. I mean, after blowing up people (and buffaloes) all day long, and scraping your friend's body parts from a tree, I'd be pretty damn angry if I didn't get a letter back too. It's really not much to ask for at all. Soldiers are fascinating to me now. It's amazing how whenever someone dies, no one even blinks. That's scary that people can be trained to act that way, to be that way. It's almost like taking someone's soul from them. And I think by Rat Kiley shooting at that baby buffalo, he was in a way trying to make himself feel something. I think at that moment, he realized that he had a part of him taken away, and he's desperately trying to get it back by hurting the buffalo. O'Brien even mentions that he was only doing it to hurt the buffalo, not to kill it. It's such a shame.