A Rumor of War

Caputo, speaking in the first person, describes his feelings after the end of his three-year enlistment in the Marines, including sixteen months in Vietnam. In 1967, at age 24, Caputo found himself a civilian, with virtually no marketable job skills or practical knowledge of adult life. Instead, he had a university degree and in-depth knowledge of how to cause death and destruction, courtesy of his experiences in the Marine Corps.

He explains how the youthful idealism ignited in his generation by politicians, such as John F. Kennedy, and the post-WWII material abundance conspired to lure him into romantic notions of serving his country in the military. These notions died a speedy death in Vietnam, both for him and the men with whom he served.

Furthermore, Caputo explains his immature, hotheaded personality, which makes his enlistment in the Marines ROTC program, against his parents’ wishes, both an act of rebellion and patriotism. He also describes the Marines in terms that suggest the military is a form of priesthood or religion:

The monastic isolation was appropriate because the Marine Corps, as we quickly learned, was more than a branch of the armed services. It was a society unto itself, demanding total commitment to doctrines and values, rather like one of those quasi-religious military orders of ancient times, the Teutonic Knights or the Theban Band. We were novitiates, and the rigorous training, administered by high priests called drill instructors, was to be our ordeal of initiation (8)

The appeal of this “quasi-religious” lifestyle is explained by Caputo’s account of his childhood in a comfortable suburb outside Chicago. Caputo explores the boredom of that life, and his craving for excitement and heroism. He joined the Marine’s version of a college officer enlistment program, similar to ROTC, in 1960. His parents were suitably appalled; Caputo was thrilled at the heroic future awaiting him in the Marines.

Caputo describes his Officer Candidate training in the summer of 1961, and his advanced training in 1963 after graduation from college. Having proven himself there, he goes on to complete the six months’ training required before he is given his first command.

Newly-minted second Lieutenant Caputo joins his first command in Okinawa, Japan, in February 1964: 2nd platoon, C Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines. He reports that he is able to recall only a few of the members of his original command company, and he describes those men’s characters and idiosyncrasies. However, what remains with him most is an overall impression of his men as generous and violent, frequently coming from harsh, poverty-stricken backgrounds.

His platoon sergeant, William Campbell, begins to teach the raw second Lieutenant what he needs to know, including the fact that no one could top Sergeant Campbell. Caputo consistently struggles to demonstrate his leadership and command the troops ostensibly under his authority. His eagerness to please consistently robs him of the respect of his troops at this point in his career.

Rumors fly that Charlie Company is to be sent to Vietnam, and the company undergoes serious jungle training missions in the jungles of Okinawa. Caputo makes serious mistakes in leading his platoon, earning him reprimands from his commander. After these reprimands, Caputo determines that he will never be caught out again: he begins to tighten up his command of his troops, with some improvement in their performance. However, Caputo’s desire for praise and approval, he recollects, continued to determine his behavior in Vietnam.

Judged to be a hotheaded but eager officer, Caputo and his men are trained for jungle fighting. They also undergo training to develop the anti-social capacity required to kill without remorse. His instructors inculcate them with the saying: “AMBUSHES ARE MURDER AND MURDER IS FUN” (36). As prepared for fighting a war as they can be, Charlie Company is repeatedly ordered to prepare for transport to Danang, Vietnam, but the orders are always cancelled.

When, in March, the orders finally come to mount up for Vietnam, Caputo and his officers are on an extended “I-and-I” or “Intercourse and Intoxication” operation in the nearest town. Called back to prepare to leave that night, Caputo rushes to get his war-time gear squared away and his civilian goods stored. He meets up with his company in the confusion of an imminent departure to Danang, Vietnam by plane.

Once they arrive in Vietnam, Charley Company is assigned defensive perimeter duty around the airport in Danang. They are quickly introduced to the frustrating reality of the war, when they are warned not to fraternize with their ostensible allies, the AVRN or South Vietnamese army, in case they have been infiltrated by Viet Cong and Viet Cong sympathizers. How their enemies could be disguised as their allies is beyond Caputo’s, and his fellow soldiers’, understanding.

Because the enemy typically strikes at night, using snipers to pick off one man at a time during the day, or not fighting at all, the new recruits fear that they will see no real action. In addition, the Viet Cong have laid mines around the air field; the danger is constant but largely invisible.

Caputo and his fellow soldiers finally engage the enemy in April but have already discovered that the weather and terrain in Vietnam are their enemies too. The men endure the terrible heat and humidity, the mosquitoes that come with the jungle environment, and a thick, choking dust that comes with every gust of wind; they eat, breathe, and drink dust.

Caputo describes his commanders, General Karsch and Colonel Bain. Bain was, to Caputo’s mind, a “real” field Marine, having fought in Korea and distinguished himself there. Karsch, Caputo judges, is not a real soldier, but a rear-echelon careerist and politician. Meanwhile, a division of Viet Cong are said to be surrounding the airbase, but the soldiers do not see a single enemy. Deeply disturbed, Caputo realizes that he has not been trained to fight this kind of war.

Their company suffers its first casualty, when José Gonzalez steps on a mine and is flown out of Vietnam. His foot is amputated, but he will live. The only thing his men care about is that their friend, Gonzalez, will be OK. The men continue to endure hardships:  only one hot meal a day, inadequate drinking water, no bathing, and constant diarrhea. The men cannot bear their own stench.

The men listen carefully and attentively to the soldiers who emerge from the jungle; however, Caputo is disgusted and shocked when one of the Australian soldiers displays a gristly “trophy”: two brown, bloody human ears. Caputo, as narrator, comments that this trophy came to symbolize, for him, the type of war being fought in Vietnam.

Charlie Company is informed that they are now to engage the enemy, a change from their orders to simply secure and defend the perimeter of the air base. They are assigned a hill position to defend and to seek and destroy enemy combatants. Initially, Caputo and his men are thrilled to finally be a part of the war.

Their first glimpse of the war is watching B Company fight the guerillas from their new position on a ridgeline. Anxious for a chance to fight, Charlie Company receives its first real combat orders: they are to be dropped into known Viet Cong held territory to chase the Viet Cong battalion hiding in the valley toward D Company’s position. The rules of engagement confuse the soldiers, for they are ordered to shoot any unarmed male Vietnamese person who happens to be running. Disturbed by these vague and contradictory rules of engagement, so different from those with which they have been trained, the troops learn that any Vietnamese man was to be considered VC and therefore to be killed, even those who were obviously civilians.

Caputo nervously prepares for his company’s first engagement in battle. He is terrified of making a mistake in front of his men, so he rehearses battle plans and strategies over and over in his mind. They get their first decent meal in seven weeks—steak and eggs for breakfast—on the morning of their drop. They eat to the sound of giant guns shooting mortars into what will soon be Charlie Company’s landing zone.

To Caputo’s relief and surprise, his nervousness leaves him immediately as he enters the helicopter. He is joyous and unafraid, looking forward to the battle ahead, unaware of the hellish experiences that await him.

As Charlie Company flies over the land and is dropped off, Caputo begins to realize the vastness of the jungle and the difficulty of the task at hand. They were looking for a battalion of approximately 100 men in a huge expanse of mountainous jungle. It was an impossible task, but it was not to be the last impossible task asked of him or his men.

In four hours, Charlie Company moves four miles, facing no enemy resistance. They face sniper fire when they close in on the village that was one of their objectives. Charlie Company searches the village, finding nothing. The Vietnamese interpreter insists that an old woman sharpening stakes is VC and nearly shoots her head off, but Peterson, the head officer of the mission, stops him. Only the stakes are to be destroyed.

Snipers open up on the company just outside the village and they exchange fire to little effect. They find a few bullet casings at the sniper’s location but he is long gone. C Company meets up with D Company and flies back to base camp, not sure that their mission accomplished anything. 

For the next several weeks, C Company continues its sorties into VC territory near the base camp, out in the bush for two or three days at a time, with little result and few casualties. However, these weeks make professional soldiers out of the approximately thousand men in the battalion, including Charlie Company. During this period, the spring of 1965, Caputo has only disjointed memories of what occurred. He recounts several disconnected vignettes.

Caputo describes stage two of the cufard, or battle weariness defined by the French soldiers: hatred of everything around him. Recognizing his thoughts as dangerous, Caputo assigns himself some duties to relieve the boredom. Each vignette highlights the men’s fear, caused by the invisibility of their enemies, and the unpredictability and instability of the fighting. They seem to be fighting ghosts. One of the men contracts heat stroke so severe that he will have brain damage, if he lives. The heat and the land are in league with the Viet Cong to kill them, Caputo decides.

The 3rd platoon goes crazy in a village, burning the huts and killing the animals. Their frustration with the slow pace of the war, and the inconsequential daily raids into villages to search for weapons and VC, has taken its toll. In revenge for the villagers’ cooperation with the VC, 3rd platoon destroys the village. Luckily, none of the villagers are hurt. However, Caputo finds that he cannot summon any sympathy for them; he reports that the soldiers, including himself, are learning to hate.

Fighting primarily small skirmishes with invisible enemies, Charlie Company continues to fulfill its assignments though there is no visible progress in terms of larger military objectives. The enemy remains as wraith-like as ever. Caputo reports his company’s participation in daily attempts to engage the enemy, which are largely unsuccessful. More often than not, the enemy finds them; ambushes, snipers, and mines are constant threats. When the American forces do find VC, they kill them rather than taking them prisoner. These actions seem to be sanctioned by the commanders.

Caputo describes, in grisly detail, the sight of the wounded and dead, both VC and American. In one village, they find a cache of the VC’s personal items, including pictures of women who must be the VC’s wives and girlfriends. This humanization of the enemy disturbs Caputo and many of the other men, who realize that the VC are just like them: young men caught up in a war. One of the Viet Cong soldiers killed was only fifteen years old.

All of the men are shocked and sickened by the mutilations caused by the weapons of modern warfare. Caputo describes the wounds in specific and minute detail. The chapter provides an account of a typical day in the life of a soldier fighting in Vietnam, giving an overall impression of severe psychological strain in an atmosphere of confusion, violence, killing, and remorse.

C Company continues its search-and-destroy mission away from base camp. In the total darkness, any movement the soldiers hear could be an enemy or simply an animal. There is no way to know. Fear is every soldier’s constant companion.

On the fourth day, the company passes through the village, Giao-Tri, which the 3rd battalion, in a vengeful rage had burned to the ground. Many of the people were still there, trying to find their belongings amongst the destruction. Caputo finds the villagers indifferent, their cool acceptance of their fate seems inhuman and he loses compassion for them. By enduring the impossible devastation of war, stoically, and not as Americans would have, these villagers earn Caputo’s hatred.

Next, the men go on liberty, and spend a great deal of time in bars and brothels. When they return, they immediately resume their search-and-destroy missions in the villages where the Viet Cong are thought to be hiding. Caputo and his company alternate between search-and-destroy missions, debauched liberties, and the boredom that comes with waiting to be sent out into the bush again.

The chapter ends with a successful clearance of a valuable VC cache of arms, and Caputo’s reassignment to a desk job at the Regimental Headquarters Company. He fights this reassignment, but he is unsuccessful. At the end of May 1965, he is sent to the back lines.