Tim O’Brien is the main roles of a soldier in the Vietnam war in the “The Things They Carried”. He and the other soldiers carry around personal belongings that are individually important to one another. Sometimes the things they carry aren’t always physical. The Vietnam war took place back in the 1950s. This was the first war that a large percentage of African Americans fought in. The Vietnam war ended up leading to the cold war and it all ended around 1975 which was about twenty years of fighting. This was a time when pictures of loved ones were carried around instead of a screensaver in your pocket. For Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, he carried a photo of his crush Martha. Other soldiers carried similar meaningful items from “Kool-Aid to Bibles” (O’Brien 333). These items helped them handle all the madness occurring to help maintain their mental stability. Throughout the story we can start to see various PTSD symptoms from each character in their own way and to cope with the stress they just continuously look at their objects. PTSD or post-traumatic stress disorder is a condition commonly used when talking about war veterans who have current flashbacks or issues that occurred while they were stationed overseas. PTSD is commonly diagnosed to war veterans and many cases of post-traumatic stress disorder are affiliated with the Vietnam war. With the Vietnam war being the most recent major war majority of the soldiers diagnosed are veterans from the war. Another reason to why PTSD is mostly linked to the Vietnam war is because many men are afraid to express their emotions and admit to having PTSD so they don’t look weak. Around the 1960s there had been a lot of people starting to have full symptoms of PTSD who were also Vietnam veterans. Knowing this background of PTSD is important for understanding the story because the soldiers continuously are showing signs of their PTSD progressing as they witness the deaths of their friends and how everything that was once special to the soldiers are now far away.

The soldiers carrying around their objects was their sign of hope that everything would be okay. The word “carry” is used a lot throughout Tim O’Brien’s reading and its meaning evolves each time it is used, not only physically, but also mentally. Mentally, the men carried around sadness, fear of what’s to come, and were scared in case they could never return home. Disease and illnesses were constantly carried around by the soldiers from not being used to the environments they are put in. The constant deaths of close friends dying in battle was also carried in their mind along the way. Heavy excursions and illnesses would be a major reason for someone to develop posttraumatic stress disorder. Each one of those events alone could be a disaster in someone’s life to lead to mental issues. Overtime, Jimmy Cross can’t keep Martha off of his mind, he is constantly thinking about her and what his life would be like with her if he wasn’t in the war. This plays a large role in the development of Cross’s posttraumatic stress disorder. Even during the serious times, he daydreams of his love life; “After five minutes, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross moved to the tunnel, leaned down and examined the darkness. Trouble, he thought – a cave-in maybe. And then suddenly, without willing it, he was thinking about Martha” (O’Brien 333).  Even with Kiley in the cave Cross is still distracted by his constant day dreams of Martha. Physically they all carried guns and ammo, mandatory equipment, and sickness. Being forced to carry large loads of heavy equipment like guns add to the mental stress these soldiers where carrying around. While they all did have their own sentimental items, “some of the things they carried in common” (O’Brien 335). Having the added pressure of hauling around heavy machinery and the mental burden of isolation would drive anyone to extreme, debilitating levels of stress. 

While struggling through the tough times in the Vietnam war, the soldiers would make jokes to help get by and ease their minds for a few moments. As we see here… “Worms. Rat Kiley said. Right out of the grave like a fuckin’ zombie” (O’Brien 334). During this intense moment of Lee Strunk going into the cave to see what’s inside, the boys begin to panic and start to think he isn’t going to make it back out alive. But the mood is lifted when Strunk climbs out of the cave and Kiley begins to joke about what almost tragically went wrong. The men even take traumatic situations and turn them into phrases that entertain them. Jimmy Cross says, “You can never be more alive than when you’re almost dead” (O’Brien 339) implying that they would have a rush of adrenalin so intense that if they were to die they wouldn’t even notice the pain of it. They used euphemisms to make light of harsh situations softer such as “greased”, “offed”, or even saying “lit up” (O’Brien 338-339) when in the process of shooting someone. Henry Dobbins would say people were “mind blowers” when they had been shot in the head because there was nothing left but blood and brains. Joking about the deaths of people or the situation they were in eased their minds and made things easier instead of not making jokes and grieving.  

There have been many studies linking recent and current PTSD patients to the Vietnam war and their trauma experienced while serving for the military. Two twins were involved in a PTSD test and “There is a higher chance of twins fighting in the Vietnam war together and they both end up having posttraumatic stress disorder than all non-twins that have served anywhere but the Vietnam war” (Dohrenwend 2006). This was one of the most intense wars our country has gone through and the veterans who are still alive are now starting to suffer. The Vietnam war is one of our most recent wars and it makes sense for the clear majority population of veterans with PTSD to have gotten their trauma from Vietnam. While the percentages for PTSD in veterans may seem low 30% of the population is a large amount. “Around 30% of veterans have developed post-traumatic stress disorder after the Vietnam war and about 15% currently suffer from the disorder. Eleven to twelve years after the war the same rates for post-traumatic stress disorder decrease by 50%” (Dohrenwend 2006). This is surprising considering after reading about the group of soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder in Tim O’Brien’s short story about the Vietnam war. You would predict that a higher percentage of soldiers would have PTSD but most soldiers don’t ever seek psychiatric help. The rates of post-traumatic stress disorder in soldiers is rising with more intense scenarios occurring. 

While it is a common myth that PTSD only affects war veterans it’s true that it’s more common in soldiers than your average person. “More than seven out of ten people will experience some sort of a traumatic event in their lifetime” (Sidran Organization 1995-2016). Although soldiers have a higher percentage to get post-traumatic stress disorder this doesn’t mean no one else can have it. When reading “The Things They Carried” Martha, lieutenant Cross’s crush, also thinks about the possibility of him dying and her never seeing him again. If Jimmy Cross were to die while fighting in Vietnam that would leave Martha with the chance of having PTSD since she could never tell him how she feels about him in person. To be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder you don’t have to witness a death of someone close it could be as little as a car crash and then any time you’re in a car for the rest of your life you’re haunted that the same situation will reoccur. Veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder are often told to just move on and get over their feelings but it’s not that easy. PTSD is a type of mental issue and is not just caused by one person constantly reminding themselves on purpose of the past, it’s just an event that has occurred that is constantly haunting a person. “Post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms can start developing as early as three or four months after the traumatic event and can be short term or permanent” (Sidran Organization 1995-2016). It’s generally not instantaneously you have post-traumatic stress disorder after something happens, usually after you have recovered from the event is when you start worrying that it’s going to happen again. PTSD can also have many different levels of intenseness; some people can have fewer or more traumatic flashbacks than others. In conclusion PTSD is not specifically diagnosed to veterans it is possible for anyone to be diagnosed with this disorder. 
