Quote 1
"Hear that quiet, man?" he said. "That quiet – just listen. There's your moral." (How to Tell a True War Story.62)
The moral of a story doesn't need to make sense for it to work as a moral. Mitchell Sanders's moral here makes absolutely no literal sense, but like Tim O'Brien's stories, it feels right in a way that's difficult to articulate.
Quote 2
"The sound. You need to get a consistent sound, like slow or fast, funny or sad. All these digressions, they just screw up your story's sound. Stick to what happened." (Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong.114)
Mitchell Sanders is accusing Rat Kiley of making too many digressions, and of course that's a sin that Tim O'Brien is completely guilty of. Not only does the book as a whole not flow as a story, but Tim is constantly jumping into the middle of stories, jerking the tone around, and showing us that war is the antithesis of consistency. Nonetheless, the point is made—literary technique matters to O'Brien, and he's telling us here that it's something we should notice too.
Quote 3
"[Jorgenson]'s with us now."
"And I'm not?'
Sanders looked at me for a moment.
"No," he said. "I guess you're not." (The Ghost Soldiers.198)
The bonds of combat only really last while the soldiers are in combat. No matter how inept Jorgenson was at the beginning, he's become a member of the tribe, while O'Brien, who's in a cushy position at the rear, no longer is. This is true even though Jorgenson joined the group way after O'Brien did. It has nothing to do with seniority and everything to do with being part of the fighting group.