After reading these stories and struggling with the ambiguities of actual happenings vs. story happenings, I can honestly say that I have a different idea of the purpose of this book. In fact, I believe there are many purposes for it. Perhaps one of them is to serve as a response to generations of people that ask why Vietnam veterans continue to talk about the war and all of the sadness and terror it represents for them. Or maybe it is written in honor of all of the soldiers that served and died or were forever changed by the cruelties of what they witnessed and experienced, as well as the cruelties they faced in those that protested the war when they returned home. And perhaps it was written to mean all of these things and more. In the end, each person that sits down to read this book is likely to walk away with a different understanding of the stories told and the purpose behind telling them and maybe that is the sign of a classically written book.
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