The chapter starts with a letter from Erik. He reflects on he and O’Brien’s divergent fates in Vietnam: O'Brien is in the infantry, and Erik has a job in the rear. Along with nearly everyone else in Alpha Company, O'Brien longs for a job in the rear, far away from the fighting. He contrasts this wish with the "dreamy, faraway thoughts about returning home" (172).Unlike the fantasy of going home early, a job in the rear—a ticket to a safe tour of duty—is "right there, within grasp" (172), but it eludes O'Brien. In early August, he takes a three-day leave Smith has granted him, and he uses it trying to scare up a job in the rear. His search is fruitless. 

The main way to get such a job is through a connection to an officer. O'Brien notes this leaves the black soldiers mostly out of luck, since "the officer corps is dominated by white men" (173). O'Brien's analysis is that the black soldiers, watching jobs handed out to other white men, withdraw: "They sulk. They talk back, get angry" (173). The officers in turn complain about their insubordination and continue to give the jobs to white soldiers.