Chapter/Story #20-The Ghost Soldiers

This story really shows the kindheartedness in Tim O' Brien and how he is really not meant for war. When him and Azar try to mess around with Jorgenson, O' Brien tells Azar to stop after a certain point and is horrified on behalf of Jorgenson. I think Azar did take it too far, and so did O' Brien. When he got shot and Jorgenson tried to heal him, he was brand new. I know O' Brien was facing death but he should eventually learn that brand new people in the military make mistakes all the time. I'm sure O' Brien made a mistake when he first came in the war. I found the scene when O' Brien talks about his gunshot wound disgusting, the imagery actually brung the scene to life unfortunately. I found the following statement true: "the presence of death and danger has a way of bringing you fully awake". This statement was stated earlier in the book but worded differently. Its easy for me to understand this somehow even though I haven't had any personal experiences that relate to it. It kind of reminds me of that cliche "you never know what you have until its gone". Humans fail to realize how precious their lives are everyday but I bet they'll quickly realize when they're facing death. The part where O' Brien describes the nature of Vietnam really brings the scene to life and it made me think of how scary it would be to fight on such a land. I couldn't imagine it. It seemed like it would've kind of fun to be in Tim O' Brien and Azar's positions when they were messing with Jorgenson because they said they felt like the VC and the land of Vietnam. I'm sure the VC felt like they had a certain control over their enemies because of their war tactics. I could tell that Tim O' Brien was deeply hurt when he realized he was not apart of the brotherhood with Dave Jensen, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, and Azar. The war forced them to become close and work together. The ending scene just goes to show you how most of O' Briens former "brothers" view him now: Azar states that O' Brien is the "sorriest fuckin' case I ever seen" and kicks him in the head. I know that had to hurt O' Brien physically and mentally. He has lost that connection with the former brotherhood.