I wonder what it was like to witness the Vietnam War first hand in combat. Well, in the short story “The Things they Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, the theme was depicted as the physical and emotional burdens that soldiers faced during the Vietnam War. Throughout the story, the author goes into great detail about the heavy physical loads the soldiers had to carry with them. Even the way O'Brien describes the numerous loads seems to draw your attention to the extreme conditions these men had to face just to survive another day. The most interesting thing I discovered while reading this story was that even though the soldiers carried a ton of weight with them, they insisted on carrying as much as possible to insist that they were prepared for any situation. Furthermore, just as we are all different individuals, each soldier carried with him his own personal belongings which depended on his own habits and hobbies. Some examples of the necessities that soldiers had to carry with them include: "Among the necessities or near necessities were P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat pads, wrist watches, dog tags, mosquito repellent, chewing gum, candy, cigarettes, salt tablets, packets of Kool-Aid, lighters, matches, sewing kits, military payment certificates, C rations, and two or three canteens of water (O'Brien 125) These were just some of the things that these men had to carry with them just to undergo some of the conditions that surrounded them. In addition to these items, I explained that things like weapons and magazines made up the majority of the weight. What really shocked me at this point is that with all this weight that the soldiers had to carry with them, they were expected to be very mobile and able to carry everything for miles at a time. The only advantage I could see among all the things they were carrying is the protection that the backpack offered to the soldiers from the spray of bullets during the battle. In addition to this, the more the men brought, the more their morale dropped in those conditions. I think the author described this story brilliantly. It was almost as if I felt my backpack getting heavier as I continued reading and the items continued to increase. Towards the end of the story I felt just like the soldiers, weighed down and dead tired. The second half of the story relied on the emotional burdens the soldiers had to endure in addition to the physical tolls..