Orchard Grove, North Carolina, 1985. Beckett is attending his father's funeral when he flashes back to his childhood and then to Vietnam in 1967 where he was a grunt in a platoon commanded by Sarge Pepper. During Beckett's R&R at China Beach, he got his job by accident at the Graves Registration Unit, where he first met McMurphy, Dr. Richard, and Lila. Beckett's co-worker was a scared-to-death and scared-of-dying friend, named "Deadman" Crawford who eventually committed suicide rather than return to the jungle to fight.
—Anonymous