How does Tim O'Brien use imagery in The Things They Carried?

O'Brien uses descriptive, realistic, and detailed imagery to illustrate the physical realities of war. Ted Lavender's death, for example, is descirbed with precision (how much and what he was carrying, and that he had not even zipped up his pants). O'Brien also devotes the time to expose Lavender's death as a random and stupid accident...... not an act of heroism.