superstition

Dobbins and his girlfriends pantyhouse represents a faith that the soldiers believed in. The religion that they all followed, that sometype of faith that may help them through the war. At first Dobbins says that the stockings remind him of home, the smell and feel but then his girlfriend breaks up with him and he still keeps the stockings because there was still a feeling of protection over evil. Dobbins survives the war even after tripping a land mine, but maybe things like stockings and superstition gave the soldiers something to live for, something to believe might be keeping them safe.