As much classroom learning and field training LT McDonough had prior to his deployment to Vietnam, it becomes immediately evident to him upon his arrival that he still lacks the real, true experience of combat. The empty looks on soldiers’ faces– their distance from reality– is the first telltale sign that perhaps combat takes a toll unparalleled to anything he has ever known or imagined. As he narrates, he acknowledges his naivety, especially during his initial encounter with the crazed lieutenant from the 173d. Shortly after their conversation, he surmises that the soldier has been changed by the war– a conclusion confirmed by the scene of twenty-two North Vietnamese bodies splayed about a trail and a thorough recounting of their gruesome fate at the hands of the lieutenant. LT McDonough is tentative, perhaps even fearful, for what’s to come in his ominous future at LZ North English and the challenges that await him deep in the Southeast Asian jungles.

My takeaway from these four chapters is that LT McDonough was as best prepared as a soldier possibly could be: he’d graduated from the prestigious Military Academy, attended multiple training schools and (thus far) appeared to have a good head on his shoulders. Arriving in a foreign land, all he knows is tactics and rumors of what’s happening on the ground, leaving him little but an eager desire to join in on the action. It’s unfair to think that he should have known that war can break one in ways other than physically, but better to have him begin to comprehend that idea now than when he’s in the thick of battle.

Understanding the effects of war are essential in not only helping one’s soldiers but also helping one’s self cope with the devastating sights, sounds and actions required of a soldier in theater. The Army prepares soldiers to the best of its ability; however, no simulation or “what-if” scenario conveys the experience quite as effectively as the experience itself. Surely one can develop mental fortitude and stamina to help serve as a buffer between what he sees and what he knows and to  remind him of his values, but as LT McDonough notes, “Destiny is not born of decision; it is born of uncontrollable circumstances,” grappling with the understanding of one’s destiny is a task that is out of the Army’s hands.