This first part of the novel introduces several members of the intelligence and reconnaissance platoon, one of the two main groups of people that the novel will focus on. The invasion is the inciting incident of the story, beginning the chain of events that will comprise the plot of the novel. The night before the invasion provides the exposition that introduces the world and its characters.

The novel introduces the key theme of The Erosion of Moral Agency in War by creating a panorama of characters whose individuality and agency are subsumed by the collective mission they must all undergo. Wilson is good-looking and feckless, from the Southern United States, and his interests follow his two main sources of pleasure: Having sex and drinking liquor. Gallagher has an Irish Catholic background and a wife, Mary, who is seven months pregnant. Croft, as Staff Sergeant, is the leader of the squad and responsible for their discipline. He is combative, craves action, and does not demonstrate gentler qualities like remorse or compassion. Brown is a braggart and Stanley is a conciliatory sort who wants to win Brown’s approval.

Despite their different personalities, which clash and grate on one another at times, they are compelled to work together for their own survival—a fact which Toglio acknowledges and the others only grudgingly accept. While the narrative offers these portraits to humanize and individuate the characters, it also sets up an immediate tension between the personal experiences and feelings of the men and the wider theater of war, as each man must struggle to maintain a sense of self in a situation that treats them as interchangeable and expendable.

These early chapters also introduce The Dehumanizing Impacts of Violence in examining how different characters respond to the trauma of war and combat. Martinez, the scout, is Mexican American and is hiding that he has been traumatized by his prior experiences of combat; he is sensitive to sounds and fearful of getting hurt. He illustrates the impact that the violence of war has on a soldier and the dread of death or injury that many of the characters share. Brown, in bragging about what he survived during the battle at Motome—a battle which killed several of the platoon, leading to the need for replacements—demonstrates a contrasting response to Martinez’s trauma. Brown regards his survival as proof of his toughness and masculinity, a mark of strength he can display before others.

Hennessey, in contrast to the experienced soldiers, represents the innocence of the new recruits. His concern about safety protocols like inflating his life vest proves ironic, as his death shows there is no safety during war. Hennessey’s experience of hiding in his hole undercuts any notions of valor, glory, or even bravery as he reverts in his terror to a small child, screaming his distress and losing control of his bowels. His death bears out Croft’s premonition that Hennessey would be one of the men to die, while the unheroic nature of his end speaks to the wastefulness and ugliness of war.

The information that the American military forces are invading an island held by the Japanese Army puts the setting of the book in the Pacific theater of World War II. The fictional island of Anopopei gives the setting an archetypal quality, which will be developed later. The dense jungle offers a sense of foreboding, representing unknown and possibly unconquerable territory, just as the unanticipated firing of Japanese soldiers hidden in the jungle shows how the invading army does not fully understand the threat.

The fires that burn on the island with the initial shelling signify the destruction of war on a natural setting; it is also a symbolic hellfire that foreshadows the later experiences of the platoon. In contrast, the immense Mount Anaka, which appears unmoved and unaffected even by the American artillery, represents the larger forces of nature that are indifferent to human needs or struggles. The mountain signifies how nature itself can and will become an antagonist as the humans set about their goal of conquest.