Chapters 1-3 Summary and Analysis

The book opens on February 1, 1951 with a unit of tanks moving on a road in Korea. The unit was under heavy fire but none of the tanks was firing back; the soldiers were dazed and the sergeant had to enter a tank and began shooting. They eventually began shooting, lessening the incoming hitting the ground troops. Hackworth was with the 3rd Platoon and seven men were killed in this skirmish. After giving the company commander, Captain Michaely, a situation report, Hackworth was put in charge of the unit because the lieutenant was dead.

Hackworth and the medic, Van Mieter, checked out the dike and found a lot of wounded and dazed Communist troops who surrendered. Hackworth had an empty rifle at the time but they took the Koreans prisoner.

They found more North Koreans in bunkers and then the...