How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"I'm Army through and through," I told him. "I mean it, if they'd let me go to Vietnam tomorrow, I'd go. I could be an ambulance driver or something like that." (1.34)
Jamie desperately wants to sign up for war. It doesn't matter that she's only twelve… or that she's still in school. She feels a sense of duty to the army since it practically raised her. So it comes as no surprise that she's ready to officially join the ranks. Too bad she can't do anything about her deep-seeded obligation.
Quote #2
"It's about duty, it's about honor, it's about sacrifice." If you weren't an Army brat, that kind of talk would probably have you rolling your eyes. But we believed it. I believed it. It made me proud to hear the Colonel say it. (2.7)
When Jamie and TJ would get sad about moving over and over again, this is what the Colonel would say to them. He paints a nice picture of the army, right? People sacrificing for one another and the country out of the duty they feel is certainly admirable. Yet subtly, Jamie realizes not everyone buys into this. Hence the eye-rolling.
Quote #3
When he'd saved that soldier's life out in the field, in the middle of combat exercises with artillery and tanks, he'd risked his own life, came a hair's width away from getting killed. Sometimes at night in bed I'd get cold and still all over thinking about that, how the Colonel might be dead right now. But in the daylight I wore his bravery like a badge of honor. (2.26)
To the Colonel, that's just how it is. He knew his duty to his fellow soldiers when he signed up, and he kept his end of the deal. It's one thing to pay lip service to duty and sacrifice, but it's quite another to live it out in the heat of the battle. Jamie feels simultaneously intimated and inspired by her dad's heroism.
Quote #4
Now TJ said, "I want to go to Vietnam because it's the right thing to do, sir. That's the only reason. I'll go to college when I get back." (2.29)
Even though the Colonel fears that TJ is only signing up for the army out of revenge for his buddy or compulsion, TJ assures his dad that's not the case—not even close. Check out what he says about it being the right thing to do. That sounds an awful lot like a sense of duty to us.
Quote #5
He'd raised us to believe in the Army way. And as far as I was concerned, he'd raised us right. (2.38)
Since Jamie's already told us that the army values duty, sacrifice, and honor, we know that's what she means here. She thinks duty is super important because it's valued in the army. Okay, we can get behind that. What about elsewhere in life? Does Jamie have any experiences with duty that aren't a part of the army?
Quote #6
When we were stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, he'd driven me and TJ to the veterans' hospital over in Durham one Christmas just to pay our respects to the soldiers there, a lot of whom had fought in World War II. We owe them our gratitude and respect, the Colonel had said. The very least we can do is wish them a Merry Christmas. (8.4)
The Colonel is really big on duty, and not just in the army, but in everyday life, too. He doesn't care whether his kids want to move around, relocate to Germany, or visit war veterans in the hospital. He takes them along anyway because he firmly believes it is there duty to do so.
Quote #7
My biggest obstacle was plain and simple Army protocol, which of course the Colonel was a stickler for. (11.2)
We appreciate the fact that the Colonel is a rule-follower. As fellow rule lovers, we see the stability in that—and for the most part, Jamie respects this about her dad, too. That is, until she tries to bend the rules a little bit. She knows the Colonel feels it's his duty to follow every rule the army has, but that doesn't stop her from pleading Hollister's case to the guy anyway.
Quote #8
"An enlisted man has chosen the military, and he's responsible for fulfilling the duties of his enlistment agreement. It might be taken into consideration that his brother has been killed, but that doesn't mean he won't be sent if he's needed." (13.10)
When Jamie's talking to her dad about Hollister, he tells her that anyone who enlists in the army has a duty to serve because that's what he's signed up for. Fair enough. To Jamie, however, it's not that simple. She thinks Hollister should be able to reconsider his commitment because of what happened to his brother. Do you agree?
Quote #9
I couldn't quite take in the fact that the Colonel had tried to pull strings to keep TJ out of Vietnam. That went against protocol. It went against everything he'd ever told me about the Army way of doing things. Honor, duty, sacrifice, wasn't that what he'd been preaching to me all my life? (13.19)
What happens when you no longer agree with the rules you've promised to uphold? Do you still follow them? For the Colonel, the answer is yes…sort of. His sense of duty to the army and his own son come head to head when he has to figure out how to keep TJ from entering battle in Vietnam.
Quote #10
I printed every one of them, over and over. I blew them up until moons filled the frames. I blew them up until the only thing you could see were millions of tiny grains of light. Somewhere in there was a clue. (16.7)
Jamie has a different type of duty—this one is to her brother, and it involves printing his pictures. At first she's not particularly interested in the images from Vietnam that he sends, but before long, she takes this task up as her personal duty to her brother. She's responsible for making sure his photos see the light of day, whether she likes it or not.