Author

Tim O'Brien was born in Austin, Minnesota a town of about 20,000 people. When O'Brien was twelve, his family, including a younger sister and brother, moved to Worthington Minnesota, a place that once billed itself as "the turkey capital of the world." Worthington had a large influence on O’Brien’s imagination and early development as an author. The town is located on Lake Okabena in the western portion of the state and serves as the setting for some of his stories, especially those in the collection titled The Things They Carried He earned his BA in Political Science from Macalester College. That same year he was drafted into the Army and was sent to Vietnam where he served from 1968 to 1970 in 3rd Platoon, A Co., 5th Batt. 46th Inf., as an infantry foot soldier. O'Brien's tour of duty was 1969-70. He served in the American Division a platoon of which participated in the infamous My Lai Massacre O'Brien has said that when his unit got to the area around My Lai. During his service in Pinkville, (the area around My Lai) no one knew that the massacre had happened and could not figure out why the people were so hostile.