A Rumor of War

Caputo describes his military experience in terms of monastic life. He compares life in the military with life in a monastery because both form unique cultures within which men live separated from the real world. However, the Marine Corps specializes in death, while the monastic life, at least in practice, offers the peace of meditation, companionship, and communion with God. The God of the Marine Corps, as Caputo comes to know it, is Death. Here he describes his early feelings for the Corps:

The monastic isolation was appropriate because the Marine Corps, as we quickly learned, was more than a branch of the armed services. It was a society unto itself, demanding total commitment to doctrines and values, rather like one of those quasi-religious military orders of ancient times, the Teutonic Knights or the Theban Band. We were novitiates, and the rigorous training, administered by high priests called drill instructors, was to be our ordeal of initiation. (p. 8)

Caputo finds himself transformed by his training: for example, he no longer sees a beautiful landscape but instead terrain that he must learn to exploit for his survival, and the survival of his men. At a Marine social event, Caputo recognizes the history and romance of the Marine Corps, as he and the other new officers are assimilated into military life through its particular rites of passage and special events: “Lit only by candles, it looked as dim and secretive as the dining hall in a monastery.