Lieutenant Philip J. Caputo In A Rumor Of War

The memoir A Rumor of War depicts the journey of Lieutenant Philip J. Caputo throughout his service in Vietnam. Lieutenant Caputo gives a descriptive realization of what he experienced firsthand through basic training and on the front line of combat. He is quoted in the Prologue saying, “We learned the old lessons about fear, cowardice, courage, suffering, cruelty, and comradeship.” (Caputo, xv) Three of the adjectives that extremely stood out through the first two parts of his memoir were the fear, cruelty, and suffering that lieutenant experienced. Fear is a big contribution in regards to war. Fear of being shot, fear of death, and fear of never seeing loved ones again. For Lieutenant Caputo, fear was something that wasn’t to common compared to others. But on one particular night even Caputo felt a little uneasy being in the darkness
But Lieutenant Caputo didn’t really understand the concept till after their first encounter with the enemy. Caputo now had a new perceptive on his men. Sergeant Loker gave insight about Hanson, a rifleman in the 1st platoon by informing him of the nature of war, “I caught the little sonuvabitch cutting the ears off one of those dead VC. He had a K-bar and was trying to slice ears off” (Caputo, 125). Caputo later realizes the truth that he really doesn’t know these men, “I now realized that some of them were not so decent and good. Many had petty jealousies, hatreds, and prejudices. Sergeant Colby tried to help Caputo understand why such incidents happen. He said, “When I was in Korea, I saw men sight their rifles in by shooting at Korean farmers. Before you leave here, sir, you’re going to learn that one of the most brutal things in the world is your average nineteen-year-old American boy” (Caputo, 137). Even though the Lieutenant refused to accept the fact that the men he had shared everything with were capable of these actions it still stuck with