Chapters 5-6 Summary

Chapter 5 opens with Bryant sadly informing Forrest that he has flunked out of school. The whole team shows up to say goodbye as Forrest catches the bus home to Mobile. There, Mama is crying because Forrest has been drafted. Forrest finds that Army people yell louder and swear more than football coaches. They arrive at Ft. Benning, GA, where the barracks are better than the Ape Dorm but the food is terrible but plentiful. Although he has never cooked, he is put in charge of the kitchen and, making his first meal in a steam boiler, causes an explosion that gets him confined to quarters every weekend until his unit is shipped to Vietnam. They arrive in Pleiku just as the shelling of the Tet Offensive begins. Shortly afterwards they are flown by helicopter to relieve Charlie Company in the jungle...