Chapters 3, 4 and 5 Summary and Analysis

Hathcock and Burke, operating as a sniper team, accompany a long-range patrol into enemy-held terrain in Elephant Valley, near the Ca De Song River about ten miles northwest of Da Nang. As the patrol turns back, the snipers detach and work their way silently forward. Hathcock, uninterested in politics or global news, thinks back on his early childhood. He had wanted to be a Marine since age eight, and as a youth had spent many hours pretending to be a marine. Hathcock and Burke make their way to a prominence which affords an extensive field of fire overlooking the river and a roadway running alongside it. Meanwhile, an NVA company of about 150 new conscripts—mostly sixteen- and seventeen-year-old boys—make their way along the roadway. Young and idealistic, they are short on competent leadership and combat experience...