[citation needed] Rabe was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1965 and served in a medical unit during the Vietnam War.
After leaving the Army in 1967, Rabe returned to Villanova University, studying writing and earning an M.A.
During this time, he began work on the play Sticks and Bones, in which the family represents the ugly underbelly of the seemingly stereotypical Nelson family (whose names match the main characters of the sunny 1950s television series—Ozzie, Harriet, David and Ricky) when they are faced with their embittered and hopeless son David returning home from Vietnam as a blinded vet.
Rabe is known for his loose trilogy of plays drawing on his experiences as an Army draftee in Vietnam, Sticks and Bones (1969), the Tony Award-winning The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel (1971), and Streamers (1976).
[3] A collection of Rabe's manuscripts is housed in the Mugar Memorial Library, at Boston University.