Chapter 12 Summary

Life is returning to normal for headquarters when Caputo, in his role of casualty reporting, has to identify three men from his old C Company. This experience proves to be greatly distressing for him as after their identification, he dreams nightly, and daily, of these dead men marching under his command.

Caputo sees himself as the officer of the dead, and everywhere he looks he sees the faces of the dead transposed on the faces of the living. Around him many others succumb to acute anxiety and depression, killing themselves or others in fits of uncontrolled behavior. All the while, Caputo keeps track of the numbers.

In the meantime, "Operation Blast-Out" begins where "Three thousand marines and ARVN soldiers supported by tanks, artillery, planes, and the six-inch guns of a U.S. Navy cruiser, managed to kill two dozen Viet Cong in three...