Where Have You Gone, Charming Billy?

"Where Have You Gone, Charming Billy?" is about the Vietnam war. The main character is Private First Class Paul Berlin, a soldier who is new to the war. Paul faces a new kind of fear, one we don't encounter in everyday life.  The entire story is basically about how Paul reacts to the death of Billy Boy Watkins' death of heart attack. Billy Boy was "scared to death", literally. He had stepped on a land mine and his foot was blown off. Billy Boy thought he was going to die, and he did, but not because of his foot. Paul Berlin experiences a mental break down as he and his fellow soldiers trekked through the jungles of Vietnam. As they were waiting for cloud cover, Paul started thinking about how Bill died of fright. He broke out laughing, unable to control his fear. No one was able to stop his giggling until one of the soldiers pinned Paul down and shook him.