@@@@@And Gallagher, he's only been with us six
@@@@@And Gallagher, he's only been with us six months but he was in on the rubber boat deal and he counts too I suppose, he's scared, and Martinez is the best little scout you could ever want but he's even more scared than I am, and even Wilson although he don't let on much is none too happyBut Croft -- I tell you Croft loves combat, he loves itThere ain't a worse man you could be under or a better one, depending on how you look at itWe lost eleven guys out of seventeen in the platoon, counting the Lieutenant we had then, some of the best guys in the world and the rest of us weren't good for anything for a week, but Croft asked for a patrol the next day, and they assigned him to A Company on TDY until you and Ridges and Toglio came in as replacements and we had enough men to make up a squad
By now, Stanley was interested in only a facet of this"Do you think we'll get enough replacements to fill out the platoon?" he asked
"As far as I'm concerned," Brown said, "I hope we never get the replacementsUntil then, we're just an odd squad, but if we ever get up to T/O we'll still only be two squads of a lousy eight men apieceThat's the trouble with being in an I and R platoon, you're just those two undersize cavalry squads, and they send you out on missions where you really need an honest-to-God infantry platoon
"Yeah, and we get screwed on the ratings too," Stanley said"In any other platoon in the regiment you and Martinez would be staffs, and Croft would be a tech"I don't know, Stanley," he said, "if we get the replacements, there's still a corporal openYou wouldn't sneeze at that, now would you?"
Despite all his efforts, Stanley felt himself reddening"Ah, hell," he muttered, "who am I to be thinking of that?"
Brown laughed softly"Well, it's something to think about
Furiously, Stanley told himself that he would have to be more careful with Brown in the future

A psychologist in a famous experiment rang a bell every time he gave food to a dogNaturally, the dog's saliva flowed at the sight of the food
After a time the psychologist took away the food, but continued to ring the bellThe dog kept on salivating to the sound of itThe psychologist went one step further: he took away the bell and substituted many kinds of loud noisesThe saliva continued to form in the dog's mouth
There was a soldier on the ship who was like the dogHe had been overseas for a long time, and he had seen a great deal of combatAt first the sound of a shell and the impact it made were very much connected to the fear he felt