How we cite our quotes: (Section.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"… I was in Nam."
"He never got off the West Coast." Lynette leaned back to me with a bleary confiding look. Not that she'd been drinking. She seemed punch-addled or half asleep. "We listen to him anyway." She winked. "How he does blab on." (16.2.4-5)
King Kashpaw also claims that he went to Vietnam, but according to Lynette, he never left the West Coast of the U.S. Whatever his actual wartime experience, he certainly acts as though he knows a lot.
Quote #8
I happened to take a close look around me at one point, and then I realized something. I realized that if I went in the army, and then if I got lucky enough to come out, I would be a veteran like these guys—gumming the stubble on their chins, dreaming of long-hocked medals, curling up around their secret war wounds to comfort a lonesome night. Not much in that, less than nothing. (16.2.70)
In a moment of impulsivity, Lipsha joined the military… and immediately regretted that choice. He regrets it even more when he gets a good look at the veterans surrounding him, who are clearly in financial trouble (hence the hocked medals) and have only wounds and stubble for company—and that's the good outcome (i.e., what Lipsha gets if he came back alive). So, Lipsha is already trying to think of ways to get out of his service.
Quote #9
An old Sioux vet who said he was at Iwo Jima with Ira Hayes passed me a bagged flask of whiskey underneath the sign PLEASE DON'T DRINK HERE. THIS IS YOUR LOBBY. I took a long pull, slugged it down. Then I started crying. That is, tears came out. I made no sound. (16.2.76)
Apparently, the vets Lipsha is hanging out with are also into alcohol, drinking on the down low in public. As you can see from the tears, Lipsha is getting increasingly tweaky in the wake of his decision to join the military.