As women serving in Vietnam we contributed and extracted what we could from an unbelievably bizarre year's tour of duty. It was beyond uncommon. Our emotions took a beating from the intensity and peculiarity of our positions, and it was those emotions that would form the indelible mirage -- a reflection in the here and now of a reality far removed.

Excerpt from page 235:

The puzzle that began a few weeks ago had almost been Scrooge’s undoing. In fact, he was not yet convinced it hadn’t been, since there were times he felt his reason was hanging by a thread. For all of its convolutions, it had begun so simply. He had attended a party and met a woman he truly admired from the time of their introduction.

Excerpt from page 83:

Duff jumped up and cried, “I didn’t do nothin’ wrong! I told you b’fore, I run a ‘onest game and I didn’t know nothin’ ‘bout no body in me boat!” He had heard enough and was not going to pay the price for something he did not do. With that, he glared at Wigley, pointed his index finger close to his face and demanded, “Tell ‘em! You tell ‘em what you jus’ told’ me. Do it!”

Excerpt from page 219:

One dance with Miss Willard was enough for most men to decide against her. She talked incessantly but had no wit, and she often left men’s shoes scuffed from the soles of her own as she stepped lively all over their feet! Only one time was Scrooge trapped into a dance with her, and he vowed such a thing would never again come about.