a friend of his gets killed, so about a week later rat sits down and writes a letter to the guy's sister. rat tells her what a great brother she had, how strack the guy was, a number one pal and comrade. a real soldier's soldier, rat says. then he tells a few stories to make the point, how her brother would always volunteer for stuff nobody else would volunteer for in a million years, dangerous stuff, like doing recon or going out on these really badass night patrols. stainless steel balls, rat tells her. they guy was a little crazy, for sure, but crazy in a good way, a real daredevil, because he like the challenge of it, he liked testing himself, just man against gook. a great, great guy, rat says.