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The Things They Carried Timeline.
the things they carried -
O'Briens childhood friend Linda dies
In the summer going into fourth grade the girl O'brien loved died. She died of a brain tumor. That summer her and O'Brien hung out alot. he took her on a double date with his mom and dad.
" And so in the spring of 1956, when we were in the fourth grade, itook her out on the first real date of my life"(O'Brien 216). This happend before linda got a brain tumor. -
Tim O'Brien gets drafted
When O'Brien got drafted he immediatly froze up and got scared. he drove to the border of canada and michigan. while staying at a hotel he met a man that helped him make his descision on the war.This mans name was elroy." Off to my right was a rainy river, wide as a lake in places, and beyond the rainy river was Canada"(O'Brien 45) this is when O'Brien went to the canadian border to avoid the drft. -
Mary Ann Bell visits Mark Fossie
Mary Ann Bell visits Mark Fossie around the time O'Brien was drafted. This story is told by Rat Kiley, it was before he was with alpha company. Mary Ann was visiting her boyfriend when she got entranced with the need to be in combat."As Rat described it, the compound was situated at the top of a flat-crested hill along the norther outskirts ofTra Bong"(O'Brien 87). -
O'Brien arrives at alpha company
When O'Brien became part of alpha company he was still new to war. He was still scared to kill or be shot at. One of his first weeks there he saw his first dead body, an old man next to a pig pen."I was brand-new to the war"(O'Brien 214). -
Azar blows up Ted Lavenders puppy
When Azar blew up Ted Lavenders puppy lavender was still alive. This fact tells us that this event was earkly in O'Briens time in Vietnam. Azar probably felt bad about this event after Lavender died."Or Ted Lavender adopting an orphan puppy - feeding it from a plastic spoon and carrying it in his rucksack until the day Azar strapped the puppy to a Claymore antiperonal mine and squeeze the firing device(O'Brien 35). -
Ted Lavender is "zapped while zipping"
Ted Lavender dies after a pee break. Lavender was doped up so he didnt feel much. This was the first death O'Brien witnessed in vietnam. This affected the whole group because it was the first of the team to die." After the chopper took Lavender away Lieutenat Jimmy Cross led his men to the villlag of Than Khe(O'Brien 15). -
O'Brien kills a man
When O'Brien gets his first kill he feels stunned to the piont were he cant even move. He didnt know if the man deserved it or if he had a family. kiowa tried to reasure him but he wont listen to anybody."He had been born, maybe, in 1946 in the village of My Khe...."(O'Brien 119). -
O'Brien is shot for the first time
When O'Brien got shot the first time he was suprised. He was pleased that Rat Kiley took care of it in a good fashion even making jokes. He was fine after a stay at the medical facility."The First time, out by Tri Binh,..."(O'Brien 180). -
Rat Kiley shoots himself in the foot
Rat Kiley went crasy after they had to walk in the pitch black for awile. He couldent handle the night and believed the bugs were out to get him. He shot himself in the foot to escape Vietnam."The platoon had be working an AO out in the foothils west of quang Ngai city,..(O'Brien 208). -
O'Brien is shot a second time
When O'Brien is shot the second time he developes a grudge against the new medic< Bob Jorgenson. The medic forgot to treat for shock wich caused O'Brien to almost die. He is shot the bottom and describes the blood as soupish.' So when i got shot the sencond time, in the butt, along the Song Tra Bong,...(O'Brien 181). -
Curt Lemon gets tooth pulled by the dentist
He was scared the first time he came to the tent he got scared and fainted. Late that night he came back and made the dentist pull a tooth that seemed fine to the dentist.In Feburary we were working a area of operations called the Rocket Pocket,...(O'Brien 82). -
Curt Lemon is blown into a tree
after playing a smoke grenade game with rat curt lemon walkes out of the shade but then gets blown into a tree do to a land mine."What happend was we crossed a muddy river and marched west into the mountains, and on the third day we too a break along a Trail Junction in deep jungle"(O'Brien 66). -
Rat Kiley kills a baby buffalo
After curt lemon died rat kiley tortured a baby buffalo by shooting the buffolo in different places."Later higher in the mountains, we came across a baby VC water buffao"(O'Brien 74). -
Kiowa sinks into a field of waste
Lietenant jimmy cross said he should have camped higher despite his orders, or the soldgier that turned on his light to show kiowa a picture and norman bowker who was not stong enough to pull kiowa out of the muck all led to the death of kiowa."Then he would have told about the night they bivouacked in a field along the Song Tra Bong(O'Brien 138). -
Norman Bowker commits suicide
Norman bowker had trouble transitioning out of war,he held many different jobs.at night he would drive around in his dads car meaninglessly ,and during the day he played pick up basketball sometimes.he hanged himself at a YMCA in central Iowa"Speaking of courage was written in 1975 at the suggestion of Norman Bowker,Who three years later hanged him self....(O'Brien 149). -
O'Brien visits Vietnam with his daughter
O'Brien eturned to vietnam with his daaughter to tour the country.He went to many places including the field of Kiowa's death"A few months later after completeing "In the Field," I Returned with my daughter to Vietnam,...(O'Brien 173).
