Kolin is a noted authority on the Vietnam War. In this essay, he evaluates Rabe's play, the final in a trilogy. Kolin finds Streamers to be "a brutal and realistic portrait of young men coming of age."

The last play in his Viet Nam trilogy, David Rabe's Streamers (1976) explores an archetypical theme the rite of passage into manhood in the lives of four young soldiers (Billy, Roger, Richie, Carlyle) who are in a period of transition from stateside Army life to Viet Nam combat. The testing ground for these young men is a barracks frequently described as "a home," "my house," or a "happy family" where they are to learn the "obligations" of soldiering. An essential character in their drama of manhood is the father (or father figure); and multiple examples in Streamers underscore Rabe's message about the failure of fatherhood for a Viet Nam generation. The...