Summary on O’brien’s How to Tell a True War Story

Summary on O’Brien’s How to Tell a True War Story

“How to Tell a True War Story” by Tim O’Brien, first appeared in October 1987 in Esquire Magazine. O’Brien offers us three different stories. The first story is about Bob “Rat” Kiley. Kiley’s friend, Curt Lemon is killed, and he writes Lemon’s sister a letter. Rat informs Lemon’s sister what a great friend and comrade he was. “A real soldier’s soldier”, as Rat would say. He tells her stories to make his point clear, how her brother would always volunteer for the missions nobody else would dare to do. As Rat continues to write the letter he almost starts to cry. He gets all upset telling about the good times they had together, “How her brother made the war seem almost fun”. Rat pours his heart and soul in this letter, at least expecting for her to write him back. But she never does, possibly feeling the letter was inappropriate and disturbing. This made Rat angry calling Lemon’s sister a “dumb cooze”.

O’Brien starts his second story talking to Mitchell Sanders. Both of them were sitting in a foxhole along the river north of Quang Ngai. O’Brien remembers how peaceful the night was, a perfect setting for a good story. Sanders begin his story with the words “God Truth”. A six man patrol goes up into the mountains to monitor enemy movement for a week in that area. If they hear any suspicious noises there supposed to call in an artillery attack. Two days into the mission the guys start to hear a strange, uncanny noise which becomes an opera, weird chanting, and a cocktail party. They try to remain sane, but after a while they realize that these noises are not coming from the enemy, but instead from the trees, rocks, mountain and fog. This drives them mad. Sanders then get on the radio and reports enemy movement in that area. A few moments later the military sends in a massive air strike destroying everything in the area. For a while things becomes quiet again. Suddenly they start hearing the same sounds, so they pack up and leave for base.