A Rumor of War

In Part Three, Caputo eventually escapes his staff duties and returns to an infantry platoon, but not before the regimental HQ is moved and reinforced with appropriate bunkers, sandbags, and reinforced foxholes. Caputo duties in Vietnam come to an end when he is accused of murdering two Vietnamese men; after his trial and acquittal, he returns to the United States to finish his three year enlistment.

Regimental HQ is moved to a more securely-defended position, and this time the orders come to build properly secured bunkers and foxholes from which to defend the headquarters and the airfield at Danang. As an example of the petty concerns of the staff officers, the new CO, Colonel Nickerson, orders one of his assistants to stop digging foxholes so he can dig his horseshoe pit instead. In another example, Caputo is reprimanded by the Colonel because he has not updated the football pool. Instead, Caputo was on sentry duty when a Viet Cong infiltrator was sighted near the perimeter wire. Caputo’s old battalion shipped out of Vietnam to the United States for reorganization, and they are replaced by newly-minted, fresh Marines from the 1st battalion, 1st Marines.

Caputo admires these new arrivals, for their gung-ho enthusiasm, which he remembers from his own experience only six months before when he arrived in Vietnam, as much as he pities them for the disillusionment,