How does the telling of traumatic experiences through stories act as a method of healing and redemption for individuals who struggle to cope with the past in The Things They Carried?

Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried is a fictionalized account of the experiences of a group of soldiers during the Vietnam War. The collection of stories bluntly depicts the brutality of war and the struggle soldiers face while serving and after returning from battle.
One story that deals explicitly with storytelling and trauma is "Speaking of Courage." In this story, Norman Bowker has survived Vietnam and returned home, but he feels he is responsible for the death of his friend Kiowa. Bowker spends his days driving around a circular body of water in his hometown. While driving, he imagines himself having conversations with people he feels he cannot yet talk to about his experiences. For example, he wants to tell his father about what happened to Kiowa. However, Bowker struggles to talk to anyone. The story's narrator tells us what Bowker is thinking, but he is never able to share it with other characters. This story suggests how difficult it is for soldiers to make sense of and work through their traumatic war experiences.
"How to Tell a True War Story" is another tale in the collection that deals explicitly with storytelling. In this story, the narrator claims it is impossible to tell a "true" tale of war, because its horrors and nuances cannot be conveyed to someone who has not experienced it directly. Ironically, the story could be interpreted to stand as evidence to the contrary.
According to theories about traumatic experience, survivors need to express their stories to a supportive listener; the telling also allows them to organize and understand their own experiences. O'Brien's The Things They Carried illustrates how difficult that task can be.

The Things They Carried is an account of the character Tim O'Brien's experiences as a solider during the Vietnam War. The account blurs fact and fiction as the author (a veteran) attempts to recall and honor the experience of war through a series of stories. The answer to this question lies in the title of the book: The Things They Carried, indicating that the items the men chose to take on their journey as well as those munitions and gear carried by all soldiers were ways for them to buffer, and even emotionally escape, the trauma they were enduring. The men carried sentimental mementos that one might expect men to carry on a life-threatening venture into a war zone (photos, notes from a girlfriend, pantyhose). But there were other things they carried that were more practical ...insect repellent, cigarettes, chewing gum, pocket knives and extra rations. In addition to the physical items, each man also carries his own emotional baggage throughout his journey. The things they carried are things that provide a framework of meaning and logic to the most chaotic and unpredictable of experiences during war. The human ability to ascribe meaning is what separates us from animals, it is how we interpret life (and death). Meaning is created in story and story becomes a mechanism for painful experiences to be given an arms length objectivity. In reframing these experience into stories to be shared collectively, they thereby help to understand, to forgive, and ultimately, to heal.