Other comments made here about the film are accurate enough. A few words about John Saxon's character though...
...The question was asked how he ever made it through boot camp... being unable to "comprehend authority, let alone obey it..." The answer is that most serial killers do not spring forth fully developed.
...Whatever his background, (almost certainly a loner) he was an easy target for the draft if he had not enlisted. Most discipline problems show up as individual ones, and not with someone in ranks... Not all nut jobs are weeded out in boot camp (I have served in the Marine Corps and elsewhere and have seen such... though certainly not on his scale) He probably completed his training with all of the inspiration of a man on an escalator...
...Whatever his demons... they could suddenly spring out on his first solo patrols... like an airbag in an accident, and just as impossible to put back...
...He was permitted to set up not only his own rules, but his own world... The military establishment existed in his mind only to support that world... His sole loyalty to command was to the company commander who both supported him and gave him fatherly approval... ...He chose not to take R&R. His company commander could not afford to be without his services... and if not fearing mayhem during such a leave, at a minimum feared that his most valuable man would get into enough trouble to vanish into the military justice system...
...Historian T.R. Fehrenbach in his work THIS KIND OF WAR: Korea-A study in unpreparedness, tells the story of "Gypsy" Martin... While not a serial killer, he submerged his whole identity into the war... headscarf and all. Martin was different from most soldiers... utterly useless for anything but combat. He had the good fortune to be killed in action before the fighting ended...
F.J.
