Chapter Forty-One, Getting Shot, Chapter Forty-Two, The Observation Post Summary

Berlin is thinking of the day Buff was killed. The platoon was in a battle that took them through the paddies and into a village where Buff's head was blown off in a ditch. After a helicopter takes the body away, the men smoke a joint and argue about who should carry the big gun now. Cacciato goes into the ditch and gets the big gun and the helmet with Buff's head still in it. Harold Murphy starts carrying the big gun and Cacciato tosses the helmet and Buff's head into the tall grass surrounding the village. Oscar Johnson said the lesson with this is to never get shot.

Berlin is back at the observation post, and he has survived the deaths of eight men in his...