Of these stories, five first appeared in Esquire: The Things They Carried, How to Tell a True War Story, Sweetheart of the SongTra Bong, The Ghost Soldiers and The Lives of the Dead. Speaking of Courage was first published in The Massachusetts Review, then later, in a revised version, in Granta. In the Field was first published in Gentlemens Quarterly. Style, Spin and The Man 1 Killed were first published, in different form, in The Quarterly. The Things They Carried appeared in The Best American Short Stories 1987. Speaking of Courage and The Ghost Soldiers appeared in Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards (1978 and 1982). On the Rainy River first appeared in Playboy.The author wishes to thank the editors of those publications and to express gratitudefor support received from the National Endowment for the Arts.Flamingo An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 7785 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, London w6 8JBFlamingo is a registered trade mark of HarperCollins Publishers Limitedwww.fireandwater.comPublished by Flamingo 1991 13First published in Great Britain by Collins 1990 Copyrigk Tim OBrien 1990The Author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this workAuthor photograph Jerry BauerISBN o 00654394 4Set in JansonPrinted and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives plcAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.This book is lovingly dedicated to the men of Alpha Company, and in particular to Jimmy Cross, Norman Bowker, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Henry Dobbins, and KiowaAcknowledgmentsMy thanks to Erik Hansen, Rust Hills, Camille Hykes, Seymour Lawrence, Andy McKillop, Ivan Nabokov, Les Ramirez, and, above all, to Ann OBrienThis is a work of fiction. Except for a few details regarding the authors own life, all the incidents, names and characters are imaginary.ContentsThe Things They Carried1 Love23 Spin29On the Rainy River37 Enemies57 Friends61 How to Tell a True War Story65 The Dentist81 Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong85 Stockings109 Church113 The Man I Killed119 Ambush127 Style133 Speaking of Courage137 Notes153 In the Field161 Good Form177 Field Trip181 The Ghost Soldiers189 Night Life213 The Lives of the Dead219This book is essentially different from any other that has been published concerning the late war or any of its incidents. Those who have had any such experience as the author will see its truthfulness at once, and to all other readers it is commended as a statement of actual things by one who experi- enced them to the fullest.John Ransoms Andersonville DiaryTHE THINGS THEY CARRIEDFIRST LIEUTENANT JIMMY CROSS carried letters from a girl named Martha, a junior at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey. They were not love letters, but Lieutenant Cross was hoping, so he kept them folded in plastic at the bottom of his rucksack. In the late afternoon, after a days march, he would dig his foxhole, wash his hands under a canteen, unwrap the letters, hold them with the tips of his fingers, and spend the last hour of light pretending. He would imagine romantic camping trips into the White Mountains in New Hampshire. He would sometimes taste the envelope flaps, knowing her tongue had been there. More than anything, he wanted Martha to love him as he loved her, but the letters were mostly chatty, elusive on the matter of love. She was a virgin, he was almost sure. She was an English major at Mount Sebastian, and she wrote beautifully about her professors and roommates and midterm exams, about her respect for Chaucer and her great affection for Virginia Woolf. She often quoted lines of poetry; she never mentioned the war, except to say, Jimmy, take care of yourself. The letters weighed 10 ounces. They were signed Love, Martha, but Lieutenant Cross understood that Love was only a way of signing and did not mean what he sometimes pretended it meant. At dusk, he would carefully return the letters to his rucksack. Slowly, a bit distracted, he would get up and move among his men, checking the perimeter, then at full dark he would return to his hole and watch the night and wonder if Martha was a virgin.The things they carried were largely determined by necessity. Among the necessities or near-necessities were P- 38 can openers.4 THK THINGS THKY CARRIKDpocket knives, heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags, mosquito repellent, chewing gum, candy,