- [first lines]
- Pvt. Roy Loomis: Once you get out of training, you're funneled into what's called the pipeline, and you become a number while you're traveling in it, until you get spewed out somewhere at the other end. After you land, you look for signs of war. A bullet scar in a wall, a bombed out building. You don't have to look very hard. You see a lot of poverty, kids starving. When you get out of the trucks after the ship and the train, you know the pipeline is carrying you further toward the front. You're going to be a combat infantryman, the tip of the spear. You don't know what it will be like or what will happen. You wonder whether you're going to get killed.
- Capt. Wallace Pratt: We're just here to help you, Raymond. You're confused. I understand. We all understand. We've all been confused at times, Raymond, but you'll come back with us now, won't you, son? The war is over.
- Pvt. Raymond Endore: There'll be another.