A Rumor of War

A Rumor of War

by

Philip Caputo

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on A Rumor of War makes teaching easy.

Sergeant William “Wild Bill” Campbell Character Analysis

The platoon sergeant. He is thirty-six years old, and a veteran of the Korean War as well as “countless barroom brawls in most of the ports between Naples and Yokohma.” Caputo describes him as someone who fits Hollywood’s vision of what a Marine sergeant would look like. Campbell is red-haired, six-feet and three inches tall, and weighs two hundred and twenty pounds. He has a faith in the Marine Corps akin to a Jesuit’s faith in the Catholic Church. He disdains the Navy, the Army, the Congress, motherhood, and officers—in that order. Caputo recalls how he walked down a street, “straight-backed and swaggering in a uniform bleached white by tropic suns,” and how he glared “scornfully” at people from beneath the bill of his faded cap. Campbell walks with a slight limp due to the frostbite that he suffered in the Chosin Reservoir in 1950.

Sergeant William “Wild Bill” Campbell Quotes in A Rumor of War

The A Rumor of War quotes below are all either spoken by Sergeant William “Wild Bill” Campbell or refer to Sergeant William “Wild Bill” Campbell . 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 Five Quotes

We broke up into teams and started the search, which amounted to a disorganized rummaging through the villagers’ belongings […] Most of the huts were empty, but in one we found a young woman nursing an infant whose head was covered in running sores […] The absolute indifference in her eyes began to irritate me […] because her passivity seemed to be a denial of our existence, as if we were nothing more to her than a passing wind that had temporarily knocked a few things out of place.

Related Characters: Philip Caputo (speaker), Sergeant William “Wild Bill” Campbell , Peterson , Widener
Page Number: 88-89
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire A Rumor of War LitChart as a printable PDF.
A Rumor of War PDF

Sergeant William “Wild Bill” Campbell Quotes in A Rumor of War

The A Rumor of War quotes below are all either spoken by Sergeant William “Wild Bill” Campbell or refer to Sergeant William “Wild Bill” Campbell . 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 Five Quotes

We broke up into teams and started the search, which amounted to a disorganized rummaging through the villagers’ belongings […] Most of the huts were empty, but in one we found a young woman nursing an infant whose head was covered in running sores […] The absolute indifference in her eyes began to irritate me […] because her passivity seemed to be a denial of our existence, as if we were nothing more to her than a passing wind that had temporarily knocked a few things out of place.

Related Characters: Philip Caputo (speaker), Sergeant William “Wild Bill” Campbell , Peterson , Widener
Page Number: 88-89
Explanation and Analysis: