Uhh… yes, he does. Here you have it, right from the horse’s mouth:
http://www.tnt.tv/DramaLounge/Feature/Article/0,17420,5260,00.html
Shepherd originally wrote the story for Playboy magazine, and he intended it as an anti-war allegory.
Nope, sorry. He comes close, true. From “In God We Trust, All Other Pay Cash”- Jean Shepard Dell, 1966. Chapter II “Duel in the snow, or Red Ryder Nails the Cleveland Street Kid”, pg 47
“The ricocheting BB had missed my eye by perhps half an inch, and a long angry bloody welt extended from my cheekbone almost to me ear. It was divine retribution”.
He also broke his glasses, as in the film. Note “Ralphie” goes on to many many adventures as Jean’s semi-autobiographal alter ego, and in none of them is a missing eye mentioned.
It is true that Chapter II “originally appeared in Playboy”, but “not a word has been changed”.
What? They’ve been doing this for years, and I didn’t know about it.
FUDGE!
[sub]except I didn’t really say fudge.[/sub]
One more from me…
“It’s a CLINK-EEERRRRRR!!! That blasted stupid furnace dadgummit!” 
I used to have the sounclip when the old man yells at the dogs near the end on my computer, and it would play this at ever critical stop, or error.