Characterize Ray Kiley. After reading the entirety of the story, why does this story seem particularly "true" to Rat? What meaning might he derive from it?

In reading the novel we're told that Rat was a storyteller, and that he tended to exaggerate the facts a bit. They say that the story told in this chapter is one that never changed, and that he never backed down from the way he told it.

I'm not quite sure what you mean about this story being particularly true to Rat? It's a sad story, but it also seems to symbolize the way war changes people, and not just soldiers. Mary's story, to me, couldn't be sadder......... for the men....... she was symbolic of what they were fighting for; she represented all of the things they'd left behind, and yet she got to Vietnam and succumbed to a way of life that would never have been acceptable in the states. Maybe that's how Rat saw it.........