Chapter 5 Summary

Hodges stands before Major Otto, the executive officer, who asks if he's ready for "the bush" (a term for the Arizona Valley in the thick of the fighting). Hodges tells him he's ready, but the Major is not confident of that fact. He tells Hodges that after a month or two in the bush he won't be a marine any longer, he won't even be a person. He continues telling him that there's no hot food, no clean clothes. He'll wallow in his own smelliness after months of no showers. He'll see blood and guts every day and cry when a comrade falls. He paints a pretty morbid picture for Hodges, yet he still needs Hodges and the other new marines to go into battle. They are losing men left and right and need all the help they can get.

The Major finally...