Philip Caputo's Life Before The Vietnam War

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Philip Caputo’s life before the Vietnam War was not marvelous. He did not know how to do anything significant. However, after, he knew how to kill. He knew what caused it, what the effects of it were, and what it meant to those who experienced it. With the simplest of commands, he could create enormous destruction. He came home from the war feeling aged considerably. The entire span of a human life, it seemed, was carried out in Vietnam. Caputo joined the Marines in 1960, mainly due to the patriotism of the Kennedy era. Like many other young men, he was bored of the normal life he led. Born in Westchester Illinois, in 1941, he grew tired of it by his late teens. The dullness of it bored him. The constant barbequing in the summer distressed …show more content…

They would then go to bed at nine, and it all would repeat the next day. Caputo sheds light into this by recalling “We were shouted at, kicked, humiliated and harassed constantly,” (8). As awful as it may seem, that is what life in the military is like. You are property of your superiors, until you surpass your superiors… if you ever do. The marches they were taught were eerie, yet they were installed in the minds of these young men. The purpose of this was to teach them discipline and teamwork, which are two of the Corps’ “cardinal” values. The abuse was to eliminate the weak, and make the strong even stronger. The ones who were unfit, in the end, left. Most were sent home because of their inability to be a Marine, others were mentally unfit. Around seventy percent of the original class passed. Two years later, an advanced course was held for those who passed. Around seven hundred and fifty men began the advanced course. Only five hundred finished. In August of 1963, the men, aged from 21-22, graduated in a spectacular ceremony. None of the men knew that some of them would not live much longer. On February 2, 1964, Philip Caputo was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He went back to Quantico to begin a six-month apprenticeship

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