I just fnished with the lit. circle.  I really enjoyed the insights and input by everyone...as I am not much of a reader, it was great to see that I was intune with everyone else, but also learned new things about the story, "The Things They Carried," by Tim O'Brien.  One insight I liked, and learned, was the one where perhaps Martha is seeing her relationship with Lt. Cross as complicated...the part of the story where she writes to Cross about the pebble she sent from the beach...the place that gives light to being seperate but together. 
An observation, or link in the story I saw, that was interesting, is how the pebble Lt. Cross brings memories of Martha and home...which keeps him unfocused with the war at hand, particuliarly the men he is leading, but how later in the story, he will now carry a Rock in his stomache as a reminder of Ted's death, a death that he feels responsble for happening and which will now be the emotional weight he will bear for this, one that he will never be able to get rid of.  This Rock in the stomache, is also now his new focus on the war at hand and his men...a focus he will take seriously.
That was one part I really saw as a connection.  Perhaps others of you agree or perhaps not.