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Tim O’Brien’s memoir shows a situation in which the general detachment of soldiers through comedy and irreverence creates an environment where soldiers can function and do their jobs. This detachment only works at times where there is no action but the perception of potential danger. By creating this detachment soldiers are able to view the war as ordinary rather than horrific. O’Brien does this through a number of ways including nicknaming his characters, euphemizing words like death and having the soldiers perform normal tasks in extreme situations.

When O’Brien recalls the names of his friends in Vietnam he very seldom says their full name. More often then not the names are ___, ___ and ___. This is a form of detachment that soldiers like O’Brien used in the war to try to distance themselves from the idea that these are people with emotions and lives back home. By nicknaming the other soldiers, often in a playful and satirical manner, O’Brien is showing that this helped detach each soldier from the other, this way they could continue on and not get wrapped up in the emotion of losing a friend.
The nicknames gave each soldier the identity as a well liked member of the squad while people who were not well liked were given plain names like “Johnson” or “Smith.” But even the ones who were given nicknames were still kept at a distance. The soldiers never really got to know each other as people who had lives before war and the nicknames enabled this to happen by giving a backdrop or stereotype as to who the person was without knowing them. For example, no one really knew much about Mad Mark, but his name already gave all the information that the soldiers needed to know about him without ever getting too close to him as an individual.

O’Brien also uses euphemisms which he describes as standard jargon among the soldiers. Words like killed, __ and ___ are replaced with “wasted” ___ and ___. This way if a fellow soldier was blown up by a mine the men didn’t have to ponder over him being killed, but rather “Jimmy was wasted.” These euphemisms create separation from the events that are happening and help the soldiers deal with the war, destruction and death rather than harp on it. The soldiers understand what the terms mean but at the same time it allows them to distance themselves from the actual significance of the euphemism.
O’Brien is trying to show that these soldiers needed to distance themselves from the war and its atrocities. Him and the other soldiers were in constant fear of being killed and by euphemizing the language it seemed as if death was more distant. When a man gets killed right next to you a soldier can wonder how easily that could have been him. By using this language it depersonalizes the situation and moves the soldiers away from their friends. The euphemisms take a phrase like “a soldier was ‘wasted’” and turn it into just another thing that happens rather than a sad death of a friend.

O’Brien also sets up scenes in which the soldiers perform normal tasks in unordinary situations. For example, when the alpha company is on an ambush mission O’Brien’s partner, Reno, lights up a cigarette in the middle of the ambush. The men were supposed to be in hiding to kill the enemy and in this scene of fear for the author, his partner casually smokes a cigarette, unfazed by the smoke that may be seen. This is an act that could be placed in a living room or a patio but is hard to be seen at the sight of a battle in a war. O’Brien even acknowledges that this is against procedure, but doesn’t say anything to Reno. This shows that this is not a wise decision because the light of the cigarette could tip off the enemy and sabotage the mission. The army took this into account by making it forbidden, yet it is as if Reno needs to have his cigarette to achieve some sort of normality in a scene of danger. This seems like an irrational action to a normal person because the cost of getting caught outweigh the benefits; however, this act makes sense when one takes into account the detached mentality that the soldiers had. Reno is not afraid in this scene; this act shows that he has detached himself enough so he can see the war as less dangerous at times of potential danger.