Reality vs. Fiction: Tim O'Brien the Author vs. Tim O'Brien the Character

O'Brien's favorite device in TTTC (The Things They Carried) is without a doubt the play on truth and reality.
Lets start with Tim O'Brien himself:

O'Brien not only authors the book, but serves as the "fictional" protagonist within it. Both author Tim and fictional Tim are forty something Minnesota natives, drafted into Vietnam, who attended Harvard grad and authored several books. The only disparity is that fictional Tim has a 9 year old daughter named Kathleen and author Tim does not. This is where we first jump down the reality vs. fiction rabbit hole..and it's going to be a deep hole.O'Brien's use of his real self as a fictional character sets up the reader to immediately begin to question TTTC's status as fiction. This uncertainty is elevated by the dedication at the beginning of the book that reads:

"This book is lovingly dedicated to the men of Alpha Company, and in particular to Jimmy Cross, Norman Bowker, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Henry Dobbins, and Kiowa"

So wait..what just happened here? Is Tim O'Brien writing a fictitious combat novel or a memoir? Is fictional Tim simply based on author Tim, or are we on the middle of author Tim's elusive autobiography? If this is a work of fiction, why is there a dedication to people that don't exist?

ahhhh, metafiction. How you confuse and disorient with your sneaky, sneaky devices.