A Soldier’s Story The film begins showing Sergeant Waters enjoying a few too many drinks in a well-known club that the soldiers would go to close to the campgrounds. On his voyage home, he is ambushed in the woods, shot and killed. A man by the name of Captain Richard Davenport is sent down to conduct an investigation on Waters' death. His title as a captain seems to disturb the other white soldiers because in a sense he is above them in ranking or somewhat equal to them. In the armed forces during this era, it is tough for the black soldiers simply because they still have to endure segregation on the field. Captain Davenport is only given three days to solve the murder case, and many already assumed the Ku Klux Klan was responsible for the murder. Often when the Klan lynches or kills Negros, they remove their stripes because it disgusted them to see a black man with any type of acknowledgments on them. So to see that Waters still had his badges on at the scene of the crime insinuates that indeed it wasn't the Klan that had killed the Master Sergeant. In this case, Davenport no had to look for other possible persecutors that could be responsible for such a case. …show more content…
In revenge for something bad that was done, the sergeant challenged Peterson to a fight and beat him badly. Prayport then learns through interviews with other soldiers how Waters charged C.J. with the murder of a white MP after a search managed and operated by Wilkie turned up a not very long ago discharged pistol under C.J.'s bunk. Angrily facing him with the events that prove something, Waters caused C.J. into striking him, after which the weapons charge was dismissed, and C.J. was then charged with striking a superior