Earplug

A civilian once bombarded me with question over my war experience. As days began to drift by with no immediate end, I rebutted with a question. “When I say war, what do you think about?” He was hesitant, but he responded: Soldiers, enemy combatants, ships, tanks, Humvees, helicopters, jets, weapons, chemical weapons, the atom bomb, and death. I smiled, as if to say, that’s it. “The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien is largely celebrated since its publishing in 1990. But much of his short…