O’Byrne has been quiet most of the interview. “Did anyone bring up the issue of walking at night?” he finally says. “On the way out, did anyone bring that up?” I know why he’s asking: Second Platoon left a hilltop position during the daytime once and got badly ambushed outside a town called Aliabad. A rifleman named Steiner took a round in the helmet, though he survived. “No—the lieutenant said, ‘We’re leaving now,’” Kalenits answers. “What are you going to say to him?” “Fuck off?” O’Byrne offers.
