The Long March and In the Clap Shack (2 Books in 1)

Rating:
Summary: Two stories of noncombat military life.
Review: The Long March: A novella set in a Marine training area during the Korean War. An officer sets his battalion on a forced march over 36 miles to complement his swaggering self-image. Soldiers drop out by the truckload in the sweltering heat, and one is driven to insubordination by his conflicting senses of self and duty.

In the Clap Shack: A play in which a young Marine tested positive for syphilis is taken advantage of by an egotistical doctor. Styron witholds little in his depiction of the unpleasantries to be found in a World War II Naval Hospital urological ward: "short arm inspections," racism, doctors' lack of compassion. Despite this, a grim humor can be found in several scenes.

William Styron (himself a Marine) gives us believable characters facing an environment that seeks to depersonalize them and shows how the military's command structure can leave little room for individuality.