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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why is it difficult to round up the platoon?
(a) They had gone on a night training hike.
(b) Many of them had gone AWOL.
(c) They hear the news and do not want to be found.
(d) It is Sunday and they are all over the island.

2. How does the Marine frontal assault look to Caputo?
(a) Like a snake with two heads
(b) Nothing like the practice attacks at Quantico
(c) Like Hannibal crossing the Alps.
(d) Like a perfect military maneuver

3. What game are Campbell and Greene playing in the NCO's tent when Caputo enters?
(a) Poker
(b) Canasta
(c) Cribbage
(d) Gin Rummy

4. What does Caputo speculate about in regard to mines remaining in an area where the RPs are supposed to have cleared them?
(a) The RFs lack the necessary equipment to do the job right.
(b) Either they are lazy or Viet Cong who had inflitrated them, leave the mines in place.
(c) The RFs often clear the wrong field because of communication problems.
(d) There are just too many to find all of them.

5. How does Caputo describe the descent of a helicopter?
(a) Like a falling brick
(b) Like standing in a high wind
(c) Like a roller coaster or a canoe rushing down the rapids
(d) Like a run down a ski slope

6. What becomes of Vietnamese wounded in battle or victims of landmines?
(a) They are left to beg on the streets.
(b) They are put up in retirement homes.
(c) They are usually shot.
(d) They take desk jobs in their headquarters.

7. When does Caputo say is the only bearable time of day in Vietnam?
(a) Early morning
(b) Mid-morning
(c) Midnight
(d) Sunset

8. What does the village of Hua-Vuc conjure up in the minds of the Marines?
(a) It reminds them of Okinawa.
(b) It is situated like the training villages of Quantico.
(c) It becomes symbolic of weariness.
(d) It becomes synonymous with the war.

9. What position does Battalion Headquarters take on identifying a Viet Cong?
(a) If he attempts to hide, he is a Viet Cong.
(b) If the acts suspiciously, he is a Viet Cong.
(c) If he is dead and Vietnamese, he is a Viet Cong.
(d) If he has a Russian made gun, he is a Viet Cong.

10. How long do Caputo and his platoon continue guarding the parameters at Danang?
(a) Seven weeks
(b) Six months
(c) Six days
(d) Over a month

11. What occurs as Caputo walks through the elephant grass in the jungle?
(a) He is almost shot by Lance Corporal Skates.
(b) He comes face to face with a viet Cong.
(c) He steps on a land mine that fortunately does not detonate.
(d) He walks up on an Asian elephant.

12. How do they get from Okinawa to Vietnam?
(a) They ship out on giant C-130 planes.
(b) They go on an aircraft carrier.
(c) They go in a PanAm chartered plane.
(d) They go on PT boats up the China Sea.

13. What does Caputo say he learns later about the war in Vietnam?
(a) That there would be days when there is no fighting.
(b) That the Viet Cong ha plants in his platoon.
(c) That there is never enough time to relax.
(d) That nine-tenths of the time is waiting for the other one-tenth to happen.

14. What does he imagine being in the military will be like?
(a) He enters the war with romantic notions of being a hero.
(b) He thinks it will be frightening but he needs the money.
(c) He thinks it will be dull and routine.
(d) He imagines it will be like taking a vacation.

15. After graduation from Loyola College, where does Caputo go?
(a) Officers Basic School
(b) Quantico, VA
(c) Washington, D.C.
(d) NCO School

Short Answer Questions

1. What do Caputo and his platoon have in common?

2. What happens right under their noses as they settle into Danang?

3. When the Vietnamese children try to sell bottles of Coke, why do the men refuse them?

4. What names does Caputo recall from his platoon?

5. Why is Caputo relieved that the dead boy had no identification on him?

(see the answer keys)

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