Chapters 7 - 9 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 7, "Chickenshit, An Anatomy", examines the pervasive but unofficial methodology used by the Allied military services to establish and maintain control of enlisted personnel by privileged officers. In the American service the idiomatic expression used to encapsulate routine hazing by superior officers was 'chickenshit', and the author adopts—and uses—the term throughout the remainder of the book. Examples of petty hazing at nearly all levels of service are provided through verse and quotations. Many of the best-known novels about World War II are, essentially, novels about petty hazing. Although most hazing was of the tedious and demeaning type, some was far more dangerous—disliked soldiers were far more likely to be deployed in the most-dangerous combat roles and areas. The hazing was institutionalized and can be seen in the unofficial vocabulary of the war&mdash...