In John Kerry’s article he mentions all the horrible and unnatural activities took place with the soldiers in Vietnam. “They told stories that at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephone to human genitals and turned up the power..” these were just some of the activities that he mentioned (Kerry) When reading this passage it brought to mind the scene in which Rat Kiley was mourning the loss of his friend. “Later that night in the mountains, we came across a baby VC water buffalo….[and] He shot it twice in the flanks. It wasn’t to kill; it was to hurt. He put the rifle muzzle up against the mouth and shot the mouth away..[and] he shot off the tail. He shot away the chunks of meat below the ribs” (O’brien). This wasn’t the end he went on to continue shooting the buffalo until there was almost nothing left. The changes that occur in people while at war are uncontrollable and often never go away. War does these things to people, things they can never forget.

Thiswebsite,http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14529768,stresses how easy these horrific memories can be stirred up and how memories will never fade.