A Rumor of War: Chapter Seventeen Summary & Analysis

Eleven days after the patrol, Greeley, Rodella, and Sanchez are recovering in a hospital. January 5 is the platoon’s third night of waiting for Operation Long Lance to start. The operation calls for the battalion to make a night helicopter assault somewhere about twenty-five miles southwest of Da Nang. This would be the second nighttime helicopter assault in history. The VC regiment has a battery of 37-mm anti-aircraft cannon and, in daylight, the helicopters would be defenseless against them. Preparations for the operation are thorough because they are going into an area where no American or South Vietnamese units have previously gone. Intelligence cannot determine how many enemy units are in the valley.

Shortly after dawn, an order comes in: the marines are to risk a daylight assault. The helicopters start to make “a tight circling descent.” Caputo hears the “muffled popping of small-arms fire” and sees puffs of smoke. A helicopter assault in the LZ is always cause for concern, due to a total sense of helplessness in the enclosed space. The platoon lies against the slope of the crescent-shaped ridge, firing into the tree line from which the VC are shooting at the helicopters that are landing the rest of the battalion. Mortar shells go off in front of the marines and behind them. Staggering, they follow Caputo to the ridge. He yells for the soldiers to spread out. So far, HQ has lost eight officers and a number of enlisted men. Only Colonel Hatch escapes serious injury.

Battalion HQ has nearly been wiped out, and Caputo’s platoon is supposed to hold the ridge until told to do otherwise. The Skyhawk planes come in several minutes later. VC machine-gunners fire at one of them. They drop bombs. A third one comes in and drops napalm. Through his binoculars, Caputo can see men dying and pleading for mercy. All that remains of one VC is “a few scattered piles of bloody rags.”

Later, while searching a village called Ha Na, a corporal approaches Caputo with a Vietnamese man at gunpoint. The man is about forty and says that he teaches school. Caputo orders the corporal to tie the man up and take him to the skipper. Several minutes later, a fighter-bomber comes in to strafe the VC positions on the far side of the Vu Gia River, firing rockets and a cannon. Half of Ha Na is in flames. D Company, on C Company’s left flank, runs into heavy resistance. C Company has to get to Hill 52 quickly to help them; they are pinned down and have lost thirteen men. While running uphill, Caputo loses control of his men and of himself. They whoop like savages, torch thatch huts, and toss grenades onto cement houses. When they reach the hill, they are ordered to remain for the night.

The platoon is quiet again while they dig their foxholes. Caputo surmises that the burning of Ha Na arose out of some emotional necessity. The platoon is ashamed of what it has done and still wonders if they were the ones who actually did it. They notice how they have changed from disciplined soldiers into savages and back into soldiers again. Captain Neal is furious when he finds out about the burning of the hamlet and says that Caputo will be relieved of duty if such a thing ever happens again. They destroyed the homes of about 200 people. Just before dawn, the VC make a weak attack against the battalion’s lines and are driven off with mortar fire. Helicopters fly in to evacuate casualties and to resupply the battalion with rations and ammunition. The war goes on.