- ^ O'Brien, Tim, NY Times, The Vietnam in Me, October 2, 1994
- ^ p.64, Heberle
- ^ Reading Group Guide
The rock band Big Country references the words "If I die in a combat zone / Box me up and ship me home" in the song Where The Rose Is Sown, as do The Screaming Blue Messiahs in their song Someone To Talk To as released on the Peel Sessions EP.
The title phrase "If I die in a combat zone, box me up and ship me home" is a military marching cadence, dating back to the Second World War. Cadences such as "C-130 rolling down the strip" and "If I die in the combat zone" are also used by the United States Marine Corps. The full stanza that is most commonly used in these cadences goes " If i die in a combat zone, box me up and ship me home, pin my medals upon my chest, tell my momma I done my best."
Actually, those marching cadences are attributable to the U.S. Army, specifically references to the C-130. That marching cadence references U.S. Army paratrooper units.
