Many of O'Brien's stories seem to have some element of fiction to them, whether it's something as trivial as a made-up name or as significant as an imaginary daughter. It seems like O'Brien cares more about conveying feelings and emotions to the reader than giving accurate accounts of his experiences in Vietnam, even if this means mixing real events with imagined ones.
Sometimes in the middle or end of stories, O'Brien explicitly points out specific parts that he has fabricated. Although he doesn't do this in "The Ghost Soldiers" some events from this story seem unbelievable.
Tim wants revenge on Jorgensen so badly that he decides to scare Jorgensen with suspicious noises while he is on watch duty. Granted, he isn't on the front lines of battle when he does this, but making noise still seems quite risky. If Jorgensen had mistakenly thought that Azar and Tim were enemy soldiers, he could have killed them.
Throughout The Things They Carried, O'Brien seems to use made up stories to teach the readers about war. Most readers are probably not veterans and are not familiar with the psychological effects of war. An outside reader might not understand why a soldier would want to kill a comrade. Perhaps "The Ghost Soldiers" was written to show what could possibly cause a major conflict within a troop. Maybe O'Brien wants the readers to feel the pain that he experienced because of a new medic and to understand why he might have considered killing Jorgensen.
