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Start of vietnam war
A cold war era military conflict in vietnam starts the war. -
Linda dies
Durring the spring of 1956, O'Brien's girlfriend dies when he was 10 years old from a brain tumor. -
Mary Ann Bell joins Mark Fossie in Vietnam
"Before joining Alpha Company, rat had been assigned to a small medical detachment up in the mountains west of Chu Lai, near the village of Tra Bong" (O'Brien 86). The paragraphs around this quote show that it was before O'Brien came to Vietnam. Mary was still in school at the time so it would have most likely been summer. -
O"Brien receives draft card
"The draft notice arrived on June 17, 1968. It was a humid mid afternoon." (O'Brien 39) O'Brien recieved his draft card in the mail. -
O'Brien arrives in Vietnam
"I was brand new to the war." "It was February now." (O'Brien 214, 215) O'Brien is transported to vietnam and joined alpha company. This occurs in February of 1969. -
Curt Lemon has tooth pulled by dentist.
"One afternoon an Army dentist was choppered in to check our teeth" (O'Brien 84). In mid February, Curt came to the dentist and said his tooth hurt. The dentist couldnt find anything wrong but Curt insisted it to be removed. -
Azar kills Ted Lavendar's puppy with an an anti-personel claymore
"Or Ted Lavender adopting an orphan puppy." "until the day Azar strapped the puppy to a Claymore antipersonel mine and squeezed the firing device." (O'Brien 35). Lavendar got a puppy and carried it around in the war. Azar grabbed it one day in may and put it on a claymore and pulled the trigger. -
Ted Lavender Zapped while Zipping
"Right then Ted Lavender was shot in the head on his way back from peeing" (O'Brien 12). After Ted took a tranquilizer and went off to pee, he was walking back when he got sniped in the head. It was a fast death but Sanders feels it was his fault. -
O'Brien Kills a Man
"Later, Kiowa said i'm serious. Nothing anybody could do. Come on, stop staring." (O'Brien 120) The book dosn't state when this event occored however we do know that kiowa is alive since he is talking. Ted wasn't in this area of the book at all so it was most likely after his death. This took place outside of a town in a firefight when O'Brien lobbed a grenade and killed the guy. -
O'Brien gets shot for first time.
"The first time, out by Tri Binh, it knocked me against the pagoda wall, and I bounced and spun around and ended up on Rat Kiley's lap. A lucky thing, because Rat wat the medic...just a side wound, no problem unless you're pregnant" (180). This shows they were at the pagoda when he was shot for the first time and it happened in November. -
Curt Lemon gets blown into a tree
"He laughed and said something to Rat Kiley. Then he took a perticular half step , moving from the shade to the sun light, and the booby-trapped 105 round blew him into the tree" (79, O'Brien). Lemon's death most likely happened after Ted Lavender's death since he is not mentioned and before Kiowa's death so it is most likely mid summer. His death happened when he was playing with Rat and stepped on a 105 round. -
Rat Kiley kills a baby buffalo
"He shot it twice in the flanks. It wasn't to kill; it was to hurt" (O'Brien 75). This happened shortly after Lemon was blown into a tree which was in July. -
Kiowa sinks in a field of waste
"In October the monsoons began and the whole situation changed" (O'Brien 136). This quote shows that when Kiowa drowned in the mud it was during October -
O'Brien gets shot the second time
"I guess the higher-ups decided I'd been shot enough. At the end of December, when I was released from the 91st Evac hospital, they transfered me over to Headquarters Company" (O'Brien 182). It took O'brien over a month to heal so it must have been during November. -
Rat Kiley shoots himself in the foot
"The next morning he shot himself. He took off his boots and socks, laid out his medical kit, doped himself up, and put a round through his foot" (O'Brien 212). O'Brien was shot the first time in mid-November and was still healing when Rat shot himself. This means it would have happened from mid-November to mid-December. -
End of vietnam war
The fall of Saigon marks the end of the war -
Norman Bowker commits suicide
"Speaking of Courage was written in 1975 at the suggestion of Norman Bowker, who three years later hanged himself in the locker room of a YMCA in his hometown in central Iowa" (O'Brien 149). Bowker went to get a drink and instead hung himself with a jumprope, hanging from a water pipe. -
O'Brien returns to Vietnam with his daughter
"Frowning, she squinted out at the field for a second, she shrugged and walked back to the jeep" (O'Brien 174). This shows that he had taken his daughter back to vietnam to show her what had happened 20 years ago.
