In the U.S. Marine Corps, sergeant is a junior NCO rank and the oldest rank in the Marines. Sergeants serve as squad leaders during combat and lead eight soldiers, including at least one corporal. A sergeant has an E-5 paygrade and is above Corporal but below a Staff Sergeant.
Get the entire A Rumor of War LitChart as a printable PDF.
Sergeant Term Timeline in A Rumor of War
The timeline below shows where the term Sergeant appears in A Rumor of War. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter One
...run while “wearing full pack equipment.” Dozens of men collapse during these runs, and drill sergeants show them no mercy. An overweight man who lies unconscious against a tree stump is...
(full context)
...School rather pleasant compared to Officer Candidate School. There is no more harassment from drill sergeants who now have to call the lieutenants “sir.” Living conditions are also “regal.” The purpose...
(full context)
Chapter Two
The company’s first sergeant, Fred Wagoner, instructs Caputo on the formalities of the Marine Corps, including signing forms only...
(full context)
Chapter Four
Peterson calls the officers and platoon sergeants into a briefing. B Company’s brief fight emboldens the staff. They want to organize a...
(full context)
...marines spend the next few hours preparing, and everyone is cheerful, except for the platoon sergeants. Campbell in particular is in a somber mood. He is writing a letter to his...
(full context)
Chapter Seven
The marines set fire to the camp, then they run into Sergeant Loker. The sergeant reminds Caputo that Peterson does not want the marines to burn down any more villages....
(full context)
Chapter Eight
Officers and platoon sergeants go to headquarters the next morning for the captain’s daily briefing. First Sergeant Wagoner announces...
(full context)
...set fire to the camp. Lemmon escapes with minor scratches. Sullivan, who is now a sergeant and the father of a two-year-old boy, is left shaken. Lemmon, too, is traumatized, because...
(full context)
...for he will now have to serve as both the platoon commander and the platoon sergeant.
(full context)
Chapter Nine
...together until the end of their assignments. The corps will continue to function without the sergeant, of course, but his friends feel that he is irreplaceable. Later in the war, a...
(full context)
Chapter Eleven
...no real idea of what is going on. Some flares hit the ground. The regimental sergeant goes past him dressed only in a pair of green undershorts and is carrying a...
(full context)
Chapter Twelve
...is led away for questioning. A marine tells him to keep his mouth shut. A sergeant harshly questions his older comrade and grabs his face when the VC refuses to look...
(full context)
...civilian and released; if not, he is taken into a tent and interrogated by the sergeant who dealt with the stubborn older VC. A very old man searches through the piles...
(full context)
Chapter Sixteen
...hamlet, and a woman runs out yelling. When Caputo asks who set it, the platoon sergeant tells him that someone said that the word came from Caputo to burn it. Caputo...
(full context)
Chapter Eighteen
...falsified. Lieutenant McCloy, who now speaks fluent Vietnamese, interrogated them along with an ARVN militia sergeant. The men were released when the sergeant determined that they falsified their ages so that...
(full context)
