- By the time Jamie gets home from Cindy's house, her dad is in the backyard gardening.
- She knows she has to find a way to ask the Colonel about Hollister, but she can't just rip off the Band-Aid.
- Instead she chooses to attack from the side angle.
- Jamie asks her dad whether it's right to send someone to war whose brother already died in the war.
- That depends, her dad says, and then asks whether he enlisted or was drafted, explaining that he doesn't think it's fine if the guy is drafted, but if he signed up for the war, well, then he knew what he was getting into.
- He tells her that sometimes soldiers sign up after their brothers are killed so they can get revenge on the enemy.
- That's when Jamie blurts out that Hollister isn't out for revenge.
- Oops… She let the cat out of the bag.
- Backtracking, Jamie explains the situation: She doesn't want her dad to sign the orders for Hollister to go to war because his brother died.
- The Colonel gets annoyed—this just means someone else will get killed instead of Hollister.
- Jamie never thought about it like that.
- Her dad explains to her that he's in a tough situation; no matter what he does, soldiers die.
- It turns out, he's not that fussed on the war—he knows they got into it for the right reasons, but it's been too long now.
- Things have changed, and they should get out before more people die. (For more on what he's talking about, check out our guide to the Vietnam War.)
- Jamie is surprised to hear her dad say this.
- But the Colonel doesn't stop there—apparently, before TJ shipped out, he tried to red light it.
- The guy doesn't want his kid dying over in Vietnam and went so far as to ask an army buddy for a favor to keep TJ out of it.
- It's too bad no one could do anything. Jamie didn't realize how much this was eating her dad up.
- She asks if he'll help Hollister out, and the Colonel tells her that he'll think about it.