 Orchard Grove, North Carolina, 1985. Beckett is attending his father s funeral when he flashes back 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 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.