Curt Lemon's Eulogy (Ch. 7)

This is not a speech it's a letter, but in this case I think the term fits it anyway. The soldiers in Vietnam become closer than family in the bush, I think, because they trust their lives to their comrades. They march through the muggy jungles, the swampy fields, and bug-infested country together. They huddle in foxholes and are under fire together and reminisce about what it was like before the war. This is why I think the death of a soldier hits his comrades harder than they expect especially in a war zone. The author describes a letter, eulogy, that his friend Rat Kiley sends to the sister of his best friend who died. He tells stories of how he was a "soldier's soldier" and one who volunteered for the most dangerous stuff. He author describes his friend pouring his heart into this letter because he wanted his friend's only sister to really feel the love he had for this guy, the respect he held for him, and to really get how much he missed him. Rat Kiley sends the letter and the sister never writes him back. I think that "sin of omission" really shows how separated the soldiers were from the rest of the United States. This soldier wrote a beautiful eulogy mourning his friend and the girl could not even bother to send a grieving soldier who was protecting the U.S. from communism, as the politicians said, a letter.