If I Die in a Combat Zone: Box Me Up and Ship Me Home

The narrative shifts back to Vietnam, and a nighttime firefight. O'Brien and several others dive into a foxhole. A blond soldier suffers a minor cut on his hand, from a grenade, but the firefight turns out to have been staged by the blond soldier and his bored friends:"They shouted and squealed and fired their weapons and threw hand grenades and had a good time, making noise, scaring the hell out of everyone" (25).

The time of year is not specified; it is not clear how long O'Brien has been there. But it's long enough that things have become routine. He describes the routine of avoiding mines: "Never blink the eyes, tape them open" (27). He marches with Barney, Chip from Orlando, and Bates, who dreams about women while he marches.

The next night, O'Brien and the others take turns using a "starlight scope," a night-vision rifle scope (28). In a captivating and scientifically-imprecise way, O'Brien describes how the scope takes the night's "orphan light" and "juice[s] up the starlight, magically exposing the night's secrets" (29). The men go to sleep, and Bates has the last word: "Night" (31).