The camaraderie among the members of the squad begins
to overcome their social prejudices. Lobel declares that he will
side with the black soldiers against the racist Dongan should the
need arise. Monaco displays similar loyalty to the black soldiers.
Johnson is indifferent toward Lobel’s sexual orientation, declaring
that any soldier who fights beside him is an ally, regardless of
his personal preferences. This statement of tolerance illustrates
the squad members’ need to support one another, despite their differences.
By living and fighting so closely, the soldiers become able to look
past superficial differences and appreciate one another for their
fundamental human qualities. Richie says that they are “trying to
keep each other alive,” suggesting that they fully appreciate each
other’s humanity above anything else.
Myers also suggests that wartime standards of morality
are dramatically different from civilian standards of morality.
The incident with the exploding child reminds us that there are
aspects of war that are unthinkable during peacetime. In the madness
of the war, a mother will sacrifice even her own child for the sake
of killing just one enemy soldier. The incident redraws the blurred
lines between the side of good and the side of bad, as the American
soldiers believe that their side would never encourage a mother
to use her child as a weapon. In this sense, the incident helps
the soldiers regain the feeling that they are on the side of good.
Yet the incident does not satisfy Richie’s questions about the moral
ambiguity of war. After all, the mother would never have been compelled
to perform such a horrible action if the Americans were not fighting
in Vietnam. Like all the other portrayals of battle in the novel,
the mother’s sacrifice of her child neither condemns nor justifies
the war in Vietnam, but it raises a new set of difficult and important
questions.
The loss of the dead soldiers’ dog tags has similarly
profound repercussions for Richie’s emotional state. The loss of
these tags is highly symbolic: with the bodies burned and the dog
tags lost, there is literally nothing left of the soldiers who have
died. Their identities have been erased as if they never existed
at all. Richie instantly recognizes that the event represents the
tragedy of any lost soldier. Although the idealized version of war
may claim that each soldier dies with dignity and meaning, in reality
most soldiers die in obscurity, with no meaning behind their deaths
other than bad luck. Every soldier’s situation is almost as drastic
as that of the soldiers whose bodies and dog tags are lost forever—their
sacrifices are anonymous and quickly forgotten.
