"Speaking of Courage" "was written in 1975 at the suggestion of Norman Bowker, who three years later hanged himself in the locker room of a YMCA in his hometown in central Iowa." Page 155

"Norman Bowker mights have listed the seven metals he did win: the combat infantryman's badge, the Air Metal th Army Commendation metal, the good conduct mental, Vietnam campaign metal, the bronze star, and the purple heart" Page Page 141

"By telling stories, you objectify your own experience. You separate it from yourself. You pin down certain truths. You make up others. You start sometimes with an incident that truly happened, like the night in the crud field, and you carry it forward by inventing incidents that did not in fact occur but that nonetheless help to clarify what happened." Page 158