Imagine getting a letter in the mail saying that it was required to report to a designated area to be tested to see if qualifications were passed to go to war.  Hundreds of thousands of young men received that letter for the Vietnam War.  Although women were not put into battle, they still served, whether it was being a nurse, ambulance driver, or anything having to do with medical assistance.  War tests all of the possible abilities attained by the human body, with mental abilities being arguably the most strenuous. A study was done in the late 1980’s and showed that approximately every 15 soldiers that served in Vietnam out of 100 suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.  That study was then extrapolated in recent years and studies now show that about 30 Vietnam veterans out of 100 suffer from the same disorder (Gradus). By looking at Lieutenant Jimmy Cross in “The Things They Carried,” we can see that he is mentally preoccupied with the thought of Martha and he is taken away from his own crew in the war, which is not obvious to most readers.  This is important because mental emptiness is a symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and this shows that his disorder hurts his chances of being fully aware of the setting around him as he takes part in the war.  

It is never clearly stated that Lieutenant Jimmy Cross has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, but he shows multiple signs of the disorder.  It is approximated that 31% of male Vietnam veterans and 27% of female Vietnam veterans have experienced some sort of post-traumatic stress disorder in their life (Gradus).  A study called The National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study was conducted from November of 1986 to February of 1988.  This study consisted of interviews from about 3,000 Vietnam Veterans, and the results were astonishing.  The study showed that 15.2% of male veterans and 8.5% of female veterans had full-blown, post-traumatic stress disorder 20 years after being volunteers in the Vietnam War.  Also, 11.1% of male veterans and 7.8% of female veterans showed minor signs of post-traumatic stress disorder 20 years post-Vietnam War.  This study was estimated and then extrapolated to claim that around 30.9% of male Vietnam Veterans and about 26.9% of female Vietnam veterans have experienced post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, whether it was a minor symptom, or a major diagnosis (Post World War II & Vietnam).  Those data signify just how serious post-traumatic stress disorder really is.  Whether it manifests as simply just losing a train of thought, or severe anxiety about being followed, both are symptoms of PTSD.  Jimmy Cross spends over three-quarters of the story with his focus solely on Martha, and that shows to be detrimental to his squad when Ted Lavender is shot and killed.  

There are many things in battle that could trigger the start of post-traumatic stress disorder, such as loud bombs exploding or seeing a soldier’s dead body lying motionless.  Imagine seeing a fellow soldier get shot in the head and while his lifeless body is laying on the ground, with blood pouring out of his head.  While the blood rushes out of his skull, the other soldiers are sitting around laughing and making jokes about it.  This happens to Jimmy Cross when Ted Lavender is shot and the members of his platoon say he was “zapped while zipping” (336).  There are four main signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, and they are as follows: re-experiencing, avoidance, numbing, and hyperarousal (Steenkamp, et al.).  Some events that would qualify as re-experiencing would be nightmares, flashbacks, vivid memoires, and psychological reactivity.  Avoiding certain thoughts and activities would be avoidance.  The numbing events would be feeling detached, restricted affection, amnesia, and a loss of interest.  Last, the symptoms of hyperarousal would be irritability, insomnia, and hypervigilance (Steenkamp, et al.). Lieutenant Jimmy Cross suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder via two symptoms: re-experiencing, and numbing.  Cross re-experiences the shooting of his friend Ted Lavender because he thinks that his death was his fault because he did not properly inform him to be careful. He also encounters symptoms of numbing several times.  One key scene where numbing is eminent is when he is to watch when his friend goes underground to blow up a tunnel, and all he can think about is Martha.  He imagines that he is trapped underground with Martha and he actually likes this thought.  “Kneeling, watching the hole, he tried to concentrate on Lee Strunk and the war, all the dangers, but his love was too much for him, he felt paralyzed, he wanted to sleep inside her lungs and breathe her blood and be smothered.” (333).   This is clearly numbing because he is no longer mentally there.  Numbness and paralysis are synonymous, and he even feels like his mind is elsewhere, another strong symptom of PTSD.  

The responsibilities of a Lieutenant are to lead his or her platoon and to lay out the plans for the day.  This could take a mental toll of someone if they are trying to balance leading a team into battle and a preoccupation with a lover.  Jimmy Cross has to lead his team while all he can think about is Martha; therefore, his thoughts of her mentally drain him, leaving him empty-minded, a symptom of PTSD.   Imagine the stress of having to go underground into a tunnel to blow it up and destroy the tunnel so it can no longer be used for travel. Jimmy’s responsibility when Lee Strunk had the duty of going down and blowing up the tunnel was simply to watch around the tunnel to make sure nothing went wrong.  After about five minutes, he was already thinking about Martha.  He saw the tunnel may have caved in and he did not even think about his own soldier being buried alive, he wished it were him and Martha buried during the cave-in.  O’Brien says things like “he wanted to sleep inside her lungs and breathe her blood and be smothered” (333).  Jimmy was more concerned about if the girl he took on one date was a virgin or not, rather than if he just lost a member in his platoon.  He also pictured them buried under the white sand at the Jersey shore, and he envisioned the rock she sent him that was in his mouth to be her tongue.  He should be focused on his squad and if his soldier is safe and not buried alive instead of some pebble in his mouth.  This leads back to the ultimate conception that Jimmy is so set on being with Martha that she is physically taking him away from his team; this symptom of PTSD would be numbing.  

In the same tunnel scene, Ted Lavender is off urinating while Strunk had set up the explosives so they could blow up the tunnel, and due to the numbing symptom of PTSD, Jimmy does not even alert Lavender to be careful.  It is not until after Lavender’s death that he realizes he is responsible for the death of his friend because he was in charge of watching to see if anything was to go wrong and he did not even advise Ted to watch out or be careful.  Other members in Jimmy’s squad try to make light on the situation by making jokes about the death of Lavender such as “Zapped while zipping” (336) and Jimmy gets very angry and them and even curses at them to stop joking about it.  Cross said that he hated himself and that he loved Martha more than he did his own men and Lavender’s death would be something he would have to carry with him for the rest of his life.  Instead of carrying the pebble in his mouth from Martha, he now has to hold a theoretical stone in his stomach from Lavender.  This PTSD symptom here is re-experiencing because he will have to carry that emotional burden of his friend dying under his supervision; thus, he is re-living the moment he was shot.

If you were in war, would you rather your leader have full attention on you and your team or have their attention half on you and the squad and half on some girl across the globe?  Pretty easy question, right?  Jimmy Cross in no way, shape, or form has his mind set on protecting his group of soldiers.  His attention is solely on his pen-pal Martha and his deep love and affection towards her.  This empty mindedness is caused by post-traumatic stress disorder and this leaves him not fully aware of his surroundings in the war.  Post-traumatic stress disorder affects about 31 out of every 100 Vietnam veterans, and Jimmy being included on the number affected.  One of Jimmy’s men died by being shot because Jimmy did not tell him to be careful or to look out because he was too focused on Martha.  That is something that Jimmy has to live with the rest of his life.  It truly is a “thing he will have to carry.”
