<P> O'Brien describes his time in Alpha Company and the various events that took place during his time there, as well as some of the people he encountered . Among the scenarios O'Brien describes is one about the various mines that are encountered by the infantrymen, and the indiscriminate way that these devices disfigure and maim both combatants and civilians . </P> <P> Not long after the accidental shelling of a lagoon village by the A Battery, 1st Battalion, 14th Field Artillery Regiment, that Alpha Company was protecting (near an American firebase), O'Brien is offered a job at the rear and is airlifted away from the fighting, where he encounters a rear echelon officer, Major Callicles (battalion executive officer), who deals with the investigation into the My Lai Massacre committed by the Charlie Company of the same battalion . The memoir ends with O'Brien being flown home . </P> <P> If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home received warm reviews from critics . Observed by the Washington Star as possibly "the single greatest piece of work to come out of Vietnam", with equally positive reviews from The Guardian, Gloria Emerson of the New York Times and was described as a personal account of "aching clarity...A beautiful, painful book," by the New York Times Book Review . Similar reviews were given from The Times, The Washington Post, The Sunday Times, The Financial Times and Time Magazine who cited O'Brien as "Perhaps the best writer about Vietnam". </P> <Ul> <Li> If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home <Ul> <Li> Delacorte Press, 1973, hardcover: ISBN 0 - 440 - 03853 - 7 </Li> <Li> Calder and Boyars, 1973 hardcover: ISBN 0 - 7145 - 1006 - 8 </Li> <Li> Delta, 1989 paperback: ISBN 0 - 385 - 29774 - 2 </Li> <Li> Laurel, 1992 mass market paperback: ISBN 0 - 440 - 34311 - 9 </Li> <Li> Flamingo (Paladin Books), 1995 paperback: ISBN 0 - 586 - 08799 - 0 </Li> <Li> Broadway, 1999 paperback: ISBN 0 - 7679 - 0443 - 5 (popular edition) </Li> <Li> Sagebrush, 2001 library binding: ISBN 0 - 613 - 08043 - 2 </Li> <Li> Flamingo, 2003 reprint: ISBN 0 - 00 - 716299 - 5 </Li> </Ul> </Li> </Ul>

If i die in a combat zone sparknotes