Born on the Fourth of July

Chapter 4 contains seven sections. In the first, Kovic, now living at his parents’ house in Massapequa, New York, is picked up by two members of the local American Legion chapter to be featured in the town’s Memorial Day parade. One tells Kovic’s father the military is “gonna make certain that [Kovic’s] sacrifice and any of the others weren’t in vain,” adding that the United States is “still in that war to win” (111). Kovic is joined in the Cadillac by another wounded veteran, Eddie Dugan. He notes that he doesn’t usually “like telling people about how bad he had been hurt, but for some reason it was different with Eddie” (115). At the parade, Eddie and Kovic are announced as wounded veterans, but Kovic notices the townspeople don’t seem to care about him or the parade in general, that “it was different” from the parades he remembers as a child, and that the crowd “just seemed to be standing staring at Eddie Dugan and himself like they weren’t even there” (116).

After the parade, the mayor of the town and other dignitaries make speeches about the war and the sacrifices Kovic and Eddie made. At one point, a military commander points at both men and says, “We have to win [.