As I was reading the last lingering pages, I came across this passage. Yes, I must admit, I did find another ROCKET parallel!
On page 760 it reads, "The title is New Dope, and that's what it is about, a brand new kind of dope that nobody's ever heard of. One of the most annoying characteristics of the shit is that the minute you take it you are rendered incapable of ever telling anybody what it's like or worse, where to get any. Dealers are as in the dark as anybody. " I thought this passage was so interesting because it was just another rocket metaphor and, I think, a strong theme for this book. Just like this new drug they are mentioning, this new type of warfare-- with rockets-- is undetectable! It is has so sound and is so clandestine that nobody knows it has hit until they have survived it. This drug works the same way. Nobody who has truly experienced can ever tell another what it was like. The book specifies this too. The rocket is followed by so much decimation, obliteration in a certain area that all who inhabit that area do not live to tell the tale. Also, the people who shoot the rockets are also " as in the dark as anybody". Nobody can truly image what the rocket is really like-- and that is what makes it so scary.