A Rumor of War

A Rumor of War

by

Philip Caputo

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Sergeant Hugh John “Sully” Sullivan Character Analysis

Mentioned in the book’s epitaph, Sullivan is a member of C Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines and is killed in action in June 1965. Caputo describes him as a tall and skinny twenty-two-year-old from Pennsylvania who seems even younger than he is. Caputo first meets him when he is a corporal and the leader of a machine-gun squad that is attached to Caputo’s platoon for some time. He tires some of the other Marines because he is due to become a sergeant, but he refuses to behave like one. Caputo recalls him as a “a gangly egalitarian,” described by one of his hecklers as a “goddamned diddy-bopper.” Sullivan has a “casual” gait and an “irreverent sense of humor.” When he gives orders, it sounds more as though he is making requests. His elders complain that his eventual promotion is a sign of the deterioration of the Marine Corps. Sullivan gives Caputo a cigar back in March or early April after receiving a letter from his wife saying that he is the father of a newborn son. Sullivan is killed by a sniper while refilling canteens near the Song Yen River.

Sergeant Hugh John “Sully” Sullivan Quotes in A Rumor of War

The A Rumor of War quotes below are all either spoken by Sergeant Hugh John “Sully” Sullivan or refer to Sergeant Hugh John “Sully” Sullivan. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Heroism and Identity Theme Icon
).
Chapter Nine Quotes

The corps would go on living and functioning without him, but it was aware of having lost something irreplaceable. Later in the war, that sort of feeling became rarer in infantry battalions. Men were killed, evacuated with wounds, or rotated home at a constant rate, then replaced by other men who were killed, evacuated, or rotated in their turn. By that time, a loss only meant a gap in the line that needed filling.

Related Characters: Philip Caputo (speaker), Lieutenant Glen Lemmon, Sergeant Hugh John “Sully” Sullivan
Related Symbols: Officer in Charge of the Dead
Page Number: 163
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Twelve Quotes

That night, I was given command of a new platoon. They stood in formation in the rain, three ranks deep. I stood front and center, facing them. Devlin, Lockhart, and Bryce were in the first rank, Bryce standing on his one good leg, next to him the faceless Devlin, and then Lockhart with his bruised eye sockets bulging. Sullivan was there, too, and Reasoner and all the others, all of them except me, the officer in charge of the dead. I was the only one alive and whole, and when I commanded […] they faced right, slung their rifles, and began to march. They marched along, my platoon of crippled corpses, hopping along on the stumps of their legs, swinging the stumps of their arms, keeping perfect time while I counted cadence. I was proud of them, disciplined soldiers to and beyond the end. They stayed in step even in death.

Related Characters: Philip Caputo (speaker), Lance Corporal James Bryce, PFC Lockhart , Sergeant Hugh John “Sully” Sullivan, Lieutenant Frank Reasoner , PFC Peter Devlin
Related Symbols: Officer in Charge of the Dead
Page Number: 199
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Fifteen Quotes

I had ceased to fear death because I had ceased to care about it. Certainly, I had no illusions that my death, if it came, would be a sacrifice. It would merely be a death, and not a good one either […] I was a beetle. We were all beetles, scratching for survival in the wilderness. Those who had lost the struggle had not changed anything by dying. The deaths of Levy, Simpson, Sullivan, and the others had not made any difference. Thousands of people died in each week in the war, and the sum of all their deaths did not make any difference. The war went on without them, so it would go on without me. My death would not alter a thing. Walking down the trail, I could not remember having felt an emotion more sublime or liberating than that indifference toward my own death.

Related Characters: Philip Caputo (speaker), Sergeant Hugh John “Sully” Sullivan, First Lieutenant Walter Neville Levy, Adam Simpson
Page Number: 260-261
Explanation and Analysis:
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Sergeant Hugh John “Sully” Sullivan Quotes in A Rumor of War

The A Rumor of War quotes below are all either spoken by Sergeant Hugh John “Sully” Sullivan or refer to Sergeant Hugh John “Sully” Sullivan. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Heroism and Identity Theme Icon
).
Chapter Nine Quotes

The corps would go on living and functioning without him, but it was aware of having lost something irreplaceable. Later in the war, that sort of feeling became rarer in infantry battalions. Men were killed, evacuated with wounds, or rotated home at a constant rate, then replaced by other men who were killed, evacuated, or rotated in their turn. By that time, a loss only meant a gap in the line that needed filling.

Related Characters: Philip Caputo (speaker), Lieutenant Glen Lemmon, Sergeant Hugh John “Sully” Sullivan
Related Symbols: Officer in Charge of the Dead
Page Number: 163
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Twelve Quotes

That night, I was given command of a new platoon. They stood in formation in the rain, three ranks deep. I stood front and center, facing them. Devlin, Lockhart, and Bryce were in the first rank, Bryce standing on his one good leg, next to him the faceless Devlin, and then Lockhart with his bruised eye sockets bulging. Sullivan was there, too, and Reasoner and all the others, all of them except me, the officer in charge of the dead. I was the only one alive and whole, and when I commanded […] they faced right, slung their rifles, and began to march. They marched along, my platoon of crippled corpses, hopping along on the stumps of their legs, swinging the stumps of their arms, keeping perfect time while I counted cadence. I was proud of them, disciplined soldiers to and beyond the end. They stayed in step even in death.

Related Characters: Philip Caputo (speaker), Lance Corporal James Bryce, PFC Lockhart , Sergeant Hugh John “Sully” Sullivan, Lieutenant Frank Reasoner , PFC Peter Devlin
Related Symbols: Officer in Charge of the Dead
Page Number: 199
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Fifteen Quotes

I had ceased to fear death because I had ceased to care about it. Certainly, I had no illusions that my death, if it came, would be a sacrifice. It would merely be a death, and not a good one either […] I was a beetle. We were all beetles, scratching for survival in the wilderness. Those who had lost the struggle had not changed anything by dying. The deaths of Levy, Simpson, Sullivan, and the others had not made any difference. Thousands of people died in each week in the war, and the sum of all their deaths did not make any difference. The war went on without them, so it would go on without me. My death would not alter a thing. Walking down the trail, I could not remember having felt an emotion more sublime or liberating than that indifference toward my own death.

Related Characters: Philip Caputo (speaker), Sergeant Hugh John “Sully” Sullivan, First Lieutenant Walter Neville Levy, Adam Simpson
Page Number: 260-261
Explanation and Analysis: