The book is divided into three sections, written in completely different styles of prose, and follows James T. "Joker" Davis through his enlistment in the United States Marine Corps and deployment to Vietnam. Joker and his fellow Marines refer tomilitary personnel in various ways. A "short" service-member, or "short-timer", is one who is approaching the end of his tour of duty in Vietnam, described in the novel as 385 days for Marines and 365 days for members of other armed services. "Lifers" are distinguished not necessarily by their length of time served, but rather by their attitude toward the lower ranks. Finally, the term "poges" is short for "Persons Other than Grunts"—Marines who fill non-combat roles such as cooks, clerks, and mechanics. Poges are a favorite target of the front-line troops' derision, and vice versa.
"The Spirit of the Bayonet"
"The Spirit of the Bayonet" chronicles Joker's days in recruit training at Parris Island, where a drill instructor, Gunnery Sergeant Gerheim, breaks the men's spirits and then rebuilds them as brutal killers. Here, Joker befriends two recruits nicknamed "Cowboy" and "Gomer Pyle". The latter, whose real name is Leonard Pratt, earns the wrath of both Gerheim and the rest of the platoon through his ineptitude and weak character. Though he eventually shows great improvement and wins honors at graduation, the constant abuse unbalances his mind. In a final act of madness, he kills Gerheim and then himself in front of the whole platoon.
"Body Count"
"Body Count" shows some of Joker's life as a war correspondent for the Marines in 1968. While in Da Nang, he runs across Cowboy, who is now assistant squad leader in the Lusthog Squad. As the Tet Offensive begins, Joker is dispatched to Phu Bai with his photographer, Rafter Man. Here, Joker unwillingly accepts a promotion from corporal to sergeant, and the two journalists travel to Huế to cover the enemy's wartime atrocities and reunite Joker with Cowboy. During a battle, Joker is knocked unconscious by a concussion blast and the book enters a psychedelic dream sequence. When Joker comes to several hours later, he learns that the platoon commander was killed by a friendly grenade, and the squad leader went insane and attacked an NVA position with a BB gun only to be shot down. Later, Joker and Rafter Man battle a sniper who killed another Lusthog Marine and an entire second squad; the battle ends with Rafter Man's first confirmed kill and Cowboy's being wounded slightly. As Joker and Rafter Man head back to their base, Rafter Man panics and dashes into the path of an oncoming tank, which fatally crushes him. Joker is reassigned to Cowboy's squad as a rifleman, as punishment for wearing an unauthorized peace button on his uniform.
"Grunts"
"Grunts" takes place on a mission through the jungle with Cowboy's squad, outside of Khe Sanh. They encounter another sniper here, who wounds three of the men multiple times. After the company commander goes crazy and begins babbling nonsense over the radio, Cowboy decides to pull the squad back and retreat, rather than sacrifice everyone trying to save the wounded men. Animal Mother, the squad's M60 machine gunner, threatens Cowboy's life and refuses to retreat. Promoting Joker to squad leader, Cowboy runs in with his pistol and kills each victim with a shot to the head. However, he is repeatedly wounded in the process, and before he can kill himself, the sniper shoots the gun out of his hand. Realizing his duty to Cowboy and the squad, Joker kills Cowboy and leads the rest of the men away.
Film adaptation
Hasford, Michael Herr, and Stanley Kubrick adapted the novel into the film Full Metal Jacket. The film faithfully reproduces the first section of the novel, "The Spirit of the Bayonet", with only minor differences in events and names. The most profound difference is that, in the book, when Private Pyle kills Gunny Gerheim, Gerheim tells Pyle, "I'm proud ", before dying, finally satisfied that he transformed Pyle into a killer. The second part of the movie combines certain dialogue and plot elements of "Body Count" and "Grunts". For example, the combat in the film takes place in Huế, and the platoon does take on a sniper, although the on-screen sequence more closely resembles the sniper battle in "Grunts". Several important sequences are omitted from the film adaptation, including: a previous meeting between Joker and his squad at the movies, the slaughtering of rats at the camp by Joker and his friends as Rafter Man watches, Rafter Man's lapse into cannibalism, a description of a tank running over a girl and a water buffalo, and a flashback revealing the origins of the nickname Rafter Man. In the book, Rafter Man is later run over and killed by the same tank that ran over the girl and water buffalo, and Joker is demoted to a "grunt" for wearing his peace symbol button. Additionally, the film adaptation changes some characters' names and omits certain other characters, i.e.: several "lifers" have been left out or have been merged into one character; Private Leonard Pratt in the book is renamed Leonard Lawrence in the movie; Gunny Gerheim in the book becomes Gunny Hartman in the movie; and the character of Alice in the book seems to have been renamed and altered slightly to portray Eightball in the movie. In additional divergences from the book, in the film T.H.E. Rock does not die, and Crazy Earl is killed by a booby trap. The book characters Daytona Dave, Chili Vendor, and Mr. Payback appear in the movie, just prior to and during the Tet Offensive, but in the book Daytona Dave is described as a California surfer-type, while in the movie he is played by an African American.
Availability
According to the Gustav Hasford website maintained by Hasford's cousin Jason Aaron, The Short-Timers, The Phantom Blooper: A Novel of Vietnam, and Hasford's third and last completed book, a noirdetective novel titled A Gypsy Good Time, are currently out of print. The texts of the two war novels and an excerpt of A Gypsy Good Time were publicly available at the web-site for at least a decade, but the site has since been redesigned, and Aaron, who manages the site, has stated he "likely won't be reposting the novel" there as he does not own the rights.
