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Deeper Meaning. Marshall's other accounts are equally graphic: the "perfect ambush" of a Communist column by American Claymore mines, which so shredded the enemy that a full body count could only be made by tallying weapons; the "long patrol" of Sergeant Robert Grimes Jr., another brave Negro, who took his men deep into Red territory—each armed with 800 rounds of ammo and plenty of Tabasco sauce (a favorite condiment for cold C rations); a "checkerboard" search through thick jungle by the 101st Airborne, which finally pinned down and slaughtered 400 North Vietnamese in log bunkers.
"How many other bodies were entombed under the shattered walls and roofs of the hilltop bunker line is beyond saying," writes Marshall. "The victors had no wish to delve and dig for the sake of such meaningless statistics. The war in Viet Nam is so little understood by their countrymen that the relative death rate of the two sides is given wholly disproportionate emphasis." After reading this book, those statistics take on a much deeper meaning.