"I wrote this book primarily to come to terms with my own experiences of combat. So far - reading, writing, thinking - that has taken more than forty years" (Preface, p. xi).

"The Marine Corps taught me how to kill but it didn't teach me how to deal with killing" (Chapter 1, p. 3).

"When people come up to me and say, 'You must have felt horrible when you killed somebody," I have a very hard time giving the simplistic response they'd like to hear" (Chapter 2, p. 26).

"When I was in Vietnam killing people, I never felt evil or guilty of sin - and I was raised a Lutheran, so I definitely would have known a guilty feeling when I had one. however, when I returned to the States I got the message. Somebody had done something quite bad in Vietnam and it must have been us, since we were...