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mirage of protection. A child's weapon cannot possibly combat against or defend him from a well-camouflaged sniper. It made him feel safer without any kind of reality behind it. Rat Kiley carried brandy and M and M's to keep him safe from the stress and pain of war and war injuries. In the actual event, these remedies would be poorly effective, but they eased his mind and provided him an escape from worry. Ted Lavender carried a star-light scope. Like to carotene vitamins, the scope will not help him because he may not be able to see many stars from beneath a thickly woven, jungle canopy. Superstition was another illusion of safety for the soldiers (13). Lt. Cross carried a good luck pebble given to him by a girl he knew from home. Dave Jensen carried a rabbit's foot. Norman Bowker carried a severed thumb. None of these "charms" gave the men "good luck." It was simply a shell of safety. They were wearing smoke for armor. It was mental safety. It kept their minds confident while escaping any fears that reality might deliver.

Unfortunately for Alpha Company, the illusion of safety offered no concrete protection. In fact, under the intense stresses of war, the imagination, whether focused upon safety or comic books, can prove to be deadly. This is a lesson that Lt. Cross had to learn. "Imagination was a killer" (11). Their imaginations distracted the men and thusly endangered their lives. No one understands this truth better than Lt. Jimmy Cross. Cross' medium for escape was a girl named Martha. He carried her letters with him. The letters were a transport for him to imagine that he was back in the States and in the arms of a young college co-ed. He carried his love for Martha like a physical burden, which he used to distract himself from his realities and duties of war. Martha embodied a fantasy realm for him. She was his mental and spiritual escape. He carried two photos of Martha. The first was signed "love" and made him fantasize about her. He pondered and imagined her social life, her virginity, and her physicality. He loses himself in imagining her body. The second photo is an action, yearbook pose, and reminded him of a date of theirs. He re-lives every detail in his imagination. He fantasizes about what he should have done. All of his remembering and fantasizing is a mental escape from the war in which he must be alert and responsible for others. His imagination runs wild, and it sadly results in Ted Lavender's death. Cross' mental distraction placed

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