Incredibly

When a soldier shot himself to get out of the war, he was treated sorta like a coward, I guess. It was considered pathetic. As unnatural and horrific as war is, soldiers realize that it is something that they just need to get used to for a while and when someone wimps out, it is a big deal. But in Rat Kiley's case, "No one blamed him..." (page 212). Being a medic, Kiley probably saw a lot of dead bodies and torn limbs.. and who knows what else. Everyone killed, but Kiley let his own people go. People he knew, he let slip away. (I'm not saying he liked killed anyone, but he couldn't save a lot of them).

I appreciated no one giving him a hard time about leaving.. He obviously had seen too much.

Reading about this change in Kiley got me thinking that every soldier mentioned in this story is probably a dynamic character. They all change in some important way as a result of the story's action. And the story's action just happens to be the Vietnam War.