"Oh, man, LT, this ain't the kind of place" "I want to get caught in after curfew." "This guy's been through hell and back." "We find him, we pull him out, we get out of here." "I heard that." "Didi mau." "Come on." "Come on." "Get the hell out of here." "Come on, Rivera." "Time to go home." "I'm not going anywhere." "Come on, get up." "We ain't got time to mess with you." "All right, hold it right there." "Rivera, you're gonna get us all wasted." "Rivera?" "Right there." "Don't move." "Get him out of here." "Come on, come on." "Go out this way." "Who the hell are you, lady?" "Alex Devlin, ANI wire service." "Let's get outta here." "What were you doing out there?" "Drugs in the black market." "I was working on a story." "Rivera was feeding me information." "Well, what good's a story if you wind up dead?" "Depends on the story." "Do you know what was happening there?" "We're not talking just a little recreational opium." "These people control half the dope in country." "Heroin?" "You name it." "No, let me tell you what was happening out there." "There was a GI in a mountain of pain, on drugs and in trouble, and you used him." "Rivera's part might be personal, but there's a bigger picture here." "I'm sorry." "We don't see that many... women in the press corps in country." "Well, I'm the only female in the bureau in Saigon." "Fought like hell to get here." "I paid my own way." "I still get resistance from the boys club, your basic macho types, but... that goes with the territory." "How long have you been in Saigon?" "Four months." "I was at An Khe with The First Cav and with the Riverine force in the Delta." "Covering this damn war is almost as confusing as fighting it." "I don't know how you handle it day to day." "You don't." "You hump all day, and you set up ambushes at night." "Tracking Charlie's like tracking a hummingbird." "Rivera said your unit was pulled back to MACV for security at Tan Son Nhut in a perimeter defense of Saigon." "I thought we were through with the bush, but we're still running garbage missions." "If Charlie's in the grass, we lock and load, we make a collection." "Fed up with combat?" "I'm fed up with body counts." "I am fed up with kill ratios." "I am fed up with looking at boys with men's faces who are getting wasted before they even learn how to shave, and I'm fed up with the press burrowing for Pulitzers trying to change the world before tomorrow's deadline." "I'm not here to change anything, lieutenant." "I'm here for the truth." "We couldn't stop the bleeding." "Oh, God, no." "Look, I'm sorry." "The way it went down, I..." "They must have thought you were a threat to their drug operation." "It's not your fault." "Just don't write it the way it happened." "What do you mean?" "What I said." "Just..." "let it be." "Let him go home a soldier." "Lieutenant, I put a lot of time into tracking this story." "Now why shouldn't I write it the way it happened?" "Because I'm asking you not to." "I'm telling you, man." "This heat has got me." "Lack of sleep, it's bringing me down." "What's bringing you down, Percell, is a lack of female companionship." "Yeah, well, I figure... being at a new base near Saigon, Taylor, we're gonna have all the amenities of home." "You know, air conditioning..." "Yeah, well, it ain't Miami Beach." "But you got hot showers, three squares a day, and a roof over you that don't leak." "And no rats chewing on your toenails in the night, which is more than you had in the Bronx, Ru." "What's the Horn gotta say, Ru?" "He says he's planning to go to Berkeley after they mine all the lead out of him, and he says his only setback was when he got a letter about Baker being treasurer to the general of staff." "Said he laughed so hard he busted his stitches." "Ha ha ha!" "Hey, sarge!" "Just got my ticket to the good life." "A contract for my investment." "A limited partnership is what Sergeant Bridger called it." " Jake Bridger?" " Yeah, sarge." "In a couple of months, Marvin is saying adios to pain and misery." "He's gonna be a partner in Bridger's hotel in Saigon, and I'm gonna be with him." "I'm gonna be Marvin's entertainment director." "We're gonna book the Tops, the Temps and the Supremes." "I gotta tell you, you know, I wouldn't trust Jake Bridger if he told me the sky was blue." "Ha ha!" "Yeah, well, everybody's got a Jake Bridger story." "So listen, sarge, who's this new hotshot pilot we've been hearing about?" "First Lieutenant John McKay, golden boy with your basic hot-dog reputation." "Got everything but the white scarf." "He is good, though, and he knows his business." "Yeah, well, you got something here too." "Hope your news is as fine as mine is." "Ours, ours." "My mom is always worrying, you know?" "She's scared I'm not gonna make it back." "I mean, I thought Tan Son Nhut was gonna be a cush gig, man." "You're in country, cherry." "Hell, there ain't no such thing as a cush gig, is there, Ru?" "H-hey, Charlie's got a bullet out there with everybody's name written right on it, huh?" "Survival is just a matter of time." "You don't say that, man." "You don't ever say that." "Hey, I-I didn't mean anything by it, Ruiz." "You superstitious or something?" "We're all superstitious when it comes to dying, man." "McKay, gentlemen." "Goldman." "Sergeant Anderson." "We got an insertion about 10 klicks up the road at An Loc." "Well, I'm your chauffeur, and I hear you guys are number one, just short of being genuine heroes." "Goes to show you can't believe everything you hear, lieutenant." "What's with the speakers?" "Appropriated them from a slick used in the Chieu Hoi program." "I like to use them to psych Charlie out." "Rock 'n' roll's here to stay." "That's, uh..." "that's profound, McKay." "I'll have that laminated and put in my wallet." "She's pretty." "Must take after her mother." "Yeah, she does." "Is that a letter from your ex?" "Yeah." "I thought we had us a lifetime contract, but, uh, she gave me time off for bad behavior." "Well, if you produced a little doll like that, it couldn't have been all that bad." "Yeah, that's what I thought." "I told her that in the letter." "She moved to Fayetteville." "She's been working at Fort Bragg as a civilian employee." "I told her I'd come in and we can try to patch things up together." "What did she say?" "She says she's catching a civilian flight to Saigon." "She wants to tell me something." "We're going in hot!" "Lock and load!" "Lay down some fire, boys!" "Go!" "Go!" "Go!" "Go!" "Go!" "Go!" "Let's go!" "Call in the arty!" "Red Leg 4-2, this is Bravo 2-6, over." "Red Leg 4-2, over." "Aah!" "Aah!" "You gotta help me, Ru!" "You gotta help me, man!" "All right!" "All right!" "Just stay down and behind me, all right, cherry?" "When I move, you move." "Fire mission from Romeo-Papa-Alpha..." "Aah!" "I can't!" "I can't, Ru!" "...2-0-0-Mikes-November." "Will adjust." "Messed my pants." "Oh, God, I messed my pants!" "Okay, cherry." "You stay on me like white on rice, you got it?" "You got it?" "You ought to fire your weapon sometimes, Crawford." "It'll make you feel better." "All right." "Let's get set." "Come on." "Ready?" "All right." "Let's get outta here!" "Come on." "Come on!" "Fire, Crawford!" "Fire!" "Crawford!" "Crawford!" "Crawford, get down!" "Crawford!" "Come on, people, let's go!" "Medic!" "We're going back!" "We're low on fuel!" "We're low on fuel!" "Let's rock and roll!" "Take the controls!" "I've got the controls!" "Yeah!" "Yeah!" "Come on!" "Come on!" "Yeah!" "Yeah!" "You idiot." "Go!" "Go, go, go, go!" "Load up!" "Whoo!" "Hey, Bridger." "Hey." "You look in fighting shape, Alex." "How you keep so tight?" "I'm running." "I'm trying to survive this war." "I'm a survivor too." "Korea and Nam, very messy life." "But dying before I'm old and gray?" "That just ain't in my plans." "Yeah, well, it's never in anybody's plans, but it happens." "Now, you said you had something for me." "I gotta be careful talking to you, you know." "See, some people come into my hotel here." "They know I stumbled onto things I shouldn't have." "Is it about drugs?" "Black market covers my overhead." "And I sold my soul to the denizens of this swamp a long time ago, but drugs..." "ain't my style." "Look, Bridger," "I've been tracking the black-market dope connections." "I'm interested in government ties." "Alex... corruption's the flow." "Headlining it in The Washington Post is not gonna change a century worth of history." "Besides, I got a bigger story than the black market." "How big?" "What do you know about Tet?" "It's the Oriental lunar new year." "Most important Vietnamese holiday." "Celebration'll last a week." "It's time for new luck, new resolutions." "Supposed to be a seven-day cease-fire agreed to by both sides." "Mm-hmm." "But, see, people who I do business with... they got VC connections, and they say the city is crawling with their kissing cousins." "Coming in, baby, not out." "What else?" "Guns." "Smuggled in in oxcarts, false bottoms of trucks, you name it." "And I think the fireworks in Saigon during Tet, they're gonna be for real this time." "How much VC activity are we talking about?" "Enough to scare the hell out of ol' John Wayne." "So why don't you take it down to Army Command at MACV?" "The VC." "They know I know too much." "I may already sign my death warrant." "You might've what?" "It's all I can tell you, Alex." "Have a drink on the house." "And when I'm gone and you write the story, make sure you spell my name right." "I got it." "Let's go!" " Easy, easy." "You got it?" " Yeah." "Keep your heads down." "It's the new kid?" "Crawford." "He never went anywhere without his mother's rosary beads." "Lot of good it did him." "I think the idea is it might do him some good now." "I admire anyone that's got a plan." "Ruiz... let it go now." "You know, kid was right, sarge." "Charlie's got a bullet out there with all our names on it." "Only he took the one meant for me." "Who the hell called the shots on this one, Goldman?" "I don't know." "It was supposed to be an easy operation." "Look, uh, you guys saved our bacon out there." "Tell you what, you promise to crank down that music a tad next time," "I owe you a beer." "You make that a case for my crew." "You got your butt spared today because I was boogying in the kitchen and boogying in the hall." "Well, don't let modesty stand in your way, McKay." "Fact is, there's not another jockey in country who can massage a Huey like me." "Now if you gentlemen ever need a lone ranger, you know the number to dial to rock and roll." "Tag 'em and bag 'em." "More bloods leaving on a jet plane." "We zip 'em up tight so they be comfy for their flight back to Mobile, Motown, wherever." "Yeah, we're losing our buddies out there every day, brother." "Ain't nothing humorous about it." "Tell it to the man, Jim." "It's his war, not ours." "Don't mean nothing, Johnson." "Hey, come on, man." "Look, man, that's just more the reason why we should be getting into Saigon and talking futures with Jake Bridger, that's all that is." "Okay, but we, uh, need a couple passes, man, or we're looking KP right in the face." "KP, baby, look." "Do you think I'll let something like a little war come between me and you getting behind the wheel of our coffee-colored cruiser?" "Come on!" "Lieutenant Goldman." "Look, I don't mean to be rude, but I got a date with a hot shower." "I heard it was rough out there today." "You hear a lot of things." "Do you ever get any hostility in the field?" "Some, but all the average grunt wants is for us to tell it like it is, pain and all, and that's not necessarily what's been in the press till now." "Well, I wouldn't know." "My subscription ran out." "Okay, Goldman." "I get the message, all right?" "You're not real fond of the press." "Sometimes I'm not proud of the buttons I have to push, either, but there's more going on in this war than American casualties." "Not from where I'm standing, lady." "This country is being ripped apart." "Two million refugees, hundreds of babies being born every day." "One in 10 dies in infancy." "One in six dies with tuberculosis." "The rest are headed where?" "Where?" "Well, you go into a ville and a Mama-san smiles at you, and a little girl rides by on a bicycle with a basketful of pineapple and beer." "And the first GI that reaches in that basket goes up with it." "And they're scraping what's left of him off the nearest tree." "I understand you have a responsibility to write a letter home to the family when something like that happens." "Yeah." "What do you say?" "I tell them that their son died bravely serving his country, and I leave out the part where he was reaching for a beer when he got iced because he was probably underage." "Now, it's been over a week." "Where are you at with this Rivera story?" "You delivered his body to the base." "How did you write it?" "Killed in the line of duty." "You know, I asked a few people about you." "A straight arrow rep, by the book." "You'd be the last one I would think would want something covered up." "Look, Rivera didn't ask to come here." "He's fighting a war, and what you write sensationalizes it." "Listen, when I first talked to Rivera, he just seemed like a burnout who was spaced on war and dope and wanted to help stop the pain for other GIs." "Rivera's unit got overrun by NVA." "The only way he survived was to pull the dead bodies of his buddies on top of him and play dead himself." "The gooks stopped and took the watch off his wrist." "He never got past that." "Okay." "Okay, look." "I'm filing the drug story, and I'm not gonna sugarcoat it." "But I won't use Rivera's name." "Percell." "Percell, Percell." "We've been primed and pumped for this party of yours for so long," "I want you to know," "I'm gonna expect the Martha  the Vandellas to put in a personal appearance." "Cut the man some slack on his birthday, Marcus." "Though Martha and the Vandellas do sound mighty fine by yours truly." "And we're just warming up here..." "Whoa!" "Listen to that voice!" "Oh, yeah, man." "Isn't she something?" "...getting very warm." "Yeah, I'm getting so warm, guys." "I'm almost hot." "So don't go away, hear?" "'Cause this is Uptown Vanessa Brown, and it's party time in Saigon." "Just you and me." "Well, Johnson," "I think I found who I'm gonna marry." "I don't know, Marcus." "I might be proposing to her myself." "I heard that, Percell." "Anybody sound that sweet could kill your insomnia and anything else that ails you." "I guess." "Hey, you guys have time to have a talk?" "Maybe we could go grab a beer before the party." "We don't want to talk, Percell." "That's right." "We want to get down." "Hey, Ru." "Time to party, man." "I ain't going, man." "You mean...?" "You ain't what?" "What you mean you ain't going?" "Just let me be, all right?" "Look, Ru, you ain't getting into that "Santiria" crap again, are you?" ""Santería," man." "It's times like these you get back into traditional values." "Hey, come on, Marcus." "It's his family's religion, man." "Damn that!" "I ain't got time for all this Puerto Rican mumbo jumbo." "And I don't want to be hassled about my religious preference by a degenerate like you." "It's not healthy to drink alone." "Take it from an expert." "Yeah?" "Yeah." "You know, when I first got shipped over here," "I went on your classic bender." "That's fine." "I don't think it was from fear of combat." "It was probably..." "more from fear of failure." "What, your old man, huh?" "Mm-hmm." "Anyway, I think I was still hung over when we touched down in Cam Rahn." "I figured I'm not gonna measure up to him anyway, so I may as well find my own flames to get shot down in." "My old man was a boxer." "Did I ever tell you that?" "He was a club fighter." "He had a glass jaw with a big reputation as a drinker, woman-chaser." "Wait a minute, I thought you said you were an orphan." "I was." "I am." "I mean, he ran out on my mom when she was still pregnant with me." "And after she had me, she couldn't keep me so she had to turn over custody to the state." "And, uh, couple years later, she got killed in a car wreck, and there I was." "Sorry." "So, what happened to him?" "Well, when I was old enough," "I, uh..." "I set out hitchhiking around the country trying to find him." "Took a whole year trying to track him down." "This, uh..." "This man I'd never even met but I hated." "I didn't know what I was gonna do when I found him." "Maybe I was even gonna kill him." "Well, did you find him?" "Yes, I did." "Elizabeth, New Jersey." "I spent a whole day, one day, watching him play in the park with his new wife and kids." "And at the end of the day, I just, uh..." "I got up and walked away, and I never looked back." "I got..." "LT, I got stuff going on in my life now" "I-I cannot come to terms with." "Seeing your ex?" "Yeah." "I mean, it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out why she left me." "I re-upped twice, three tours in Nam..." "Oh, look, the Tet cease-fire's coming up." "Charlie's gonna be on vacation, baying at the moon or visiting his dead relatives... whatever the hell he does." "Why don't you take a day or so?" "Hell, I'm going to Saigon." "The lady journalist?" "Yeah." "She promised not to write the Rivera story." "I promised to buy her a drink." "Ahh." "Aww!" "Damn, man!" "I ain't never seen anybody on such a hot roll." "You ain't seen nothing yet, home." "And you know what?" "I'm willing to let it all ride for those passes into Saigon you brothers are holding in your pockets." "All right." "Come on, baby." "Hello, seven." "Yeah, mama." "Come on with it, boys." "Hand over them passes." "Gentlemen?" "McKay." "This is Billy the Kid, gentlemen." "Say hello, Billy." "Billy and his crew just got in from An Khe." "LZ Lima." "All due respect, McKay, why don't you take it somewhere else, huh?" "Billy's gunship got hit by Victor Charles, went down hard." "Billy survived, but his crew, well, they weren't so lucky." "They're going back to the world in that long, black limousine." "Lieutenant, I think everybody in this room has seen their share of the war." "That's true, but you see, Anderson," "I was born and bred a winner." "It's never been enough for me to just be in the game." "You know, I was told by a mutual friend in Saigon that you were a winner too, Goldman." "Or at least a contender." "And who would that be, McKay?" "Oh, Alex Devlin." "Tell me something, McKay." "Why is it most of you chopper jocks gotta constantly prove what hot shots you are?" "Is there some sort of a code?" "Hearts and minds?" "Heroes and villains?" "Well, mostly I'm just here to grease gooks for Mom, apple pie and the flag." "What are you here for, Goldman?" "Ahem." "Excuse me, gentlemen." "Lieutenant McKay?" "No disrespect intended here, but won't you please just take it on down the line?" "We don't want no blood spilled here tonight." "Whatever's fair, gentlemen." "I mean, you're right." "If we spill any blood, it ought to be Charlie's." "Say good night, Billy." "I'm outta here." "Yeah." "Hey, LT?" "LT, you got a minute?" "Yeah." "What is it, Percell?" "I need to talk to someone about this..." "The insomnia that I got." "Insomnia." "Okay." "Well, why don't you, uh, head on down to the dispensary...?" "Well, no, no, no, no, LT," "I know what it is that's making it so's I can't sleep." "It's, uh... my..." "My conscience is hurting me." "Your conscience?" "Yeah, LT." "And I'll tell you what it is." "It's the lying." "All the lying." "Lying?" "Yeah, LT, I'm telling you." "We lie to the press." "We lie about the body count." "We lie about our feelings about the war." "Hey, I find myself lying about..." "Well, just about everything." "Percell, you don't need a lieutenant." "You need a chaplain." "Hey, hey, cut the music." "Hey, Percell!" ""Happy birthday to you"" "Hell." ""Happy birthday to you"" "It ain't even my birthday." "I lied." ""Happy birthday, Percell"" ""Happy birthday to you"" "If I had something, stopped you somehow." "Maybe if I had... you'd be sitting here." "It ought to be me on that jet plane instead of you, man." "You know, but, all things considered, you look good." "You know, I never noticed before, but you got a nice profile, good character in your face." "And, you know, th-that's what your family and friends..." "You know, that's what they're gonna remember." "Hey!" "Hey!" "Hey, soldier!" "You're not allowed in here." "This is off-limits." "My friend and I are having a chat, and we don't want to be disturbed, so get the hell outta here." "You know, the trip home to Georgia, it's gonna be a breeze, Crawford." "You know, you got the freedom bird, then the midnight special." "You get a nice casket with the flag on it... and you'll be buried on a hill overlooking your town." "Hey, man... it don't sound that bad, huh?" "It don't sound that bad." "...you, man, we're gonna do it." "You're looking at the future land barons of the Orient, sarge." "See, I'm an idea man." "I don't know what it is, but, zap, ideas just pop into my head." "Right, Taylor." "No, I'm serious." "Johnson and me, we're gonna franchise the hotels." "See, we open up the one in Saigon." "Then we open up one in Bangkok and then Singapore." "See, my family's been dirt farmers for generations." "They never owned anything more than a fistful of Mississippi mud, so this hotel really means a lot to me." "Johnson, you look in Webster's under "hustler,"" "you're gonna see mug shots of Jake Bridger." "He's the biggest scrounger this army ever saw." "The man's okay in my book, sarge." "He took me under his wing, showed me a couple of tricks when he was running the club." "He bought half the booze with his own money and put half the profits in his own pocket." "Taylor, you were his driver." "You understand what I'm saying?" "Otherwise, he wouldn't have even noticed you." "How'd you two manage to get out of KP duty, anyway?" "Yeah, well, the Lord works in mysterious ways, sarge." "Yeah, like crap games." "Taylor beat the chaplain's assistant out of two passes and 400 bucks." "That figures." "How much did a piece of this hotel put you back?" "Just the cash in my class E allotment as a down payment." "Oh, no." "All of it?" "Have you even seen the hotel, Johnson?" "Absolutely!" "Well, Bridger showed me a picture." "A picture?" "That's wonderful, Johnson." " Excuse me, miss." " Excuse me." "You do realize this is the military bus to Saigon, don't you?" "I have permission from the transportation officer." "Oh, that's okay." "Why are the windows covered?" "Oh, that's to keep Charlie from using them as targets for his grenades." "Hey, you wanna know about the war, darling?" "See, we all bona fide Medal of Honor winners." "We just waiting for L.B.J. and Diana Ross to sashay over on Air Force One for the official ceremonies." "Get on the bus!" "You're gonna hear fireworks all over the city this week." "The Vietnamese believe in the Chinese superstition that Tet's the time of year for fireworks." "They scare away the evil spirits for the coming year." "Well, if the superstition works, the year of the monkey should be a good year then." "Yeah, right." "You know, lieutenant, you have the smarts and the background that would be very attractive to intelligence." "I could introduce you to a major at S-2." "Well, first of all, uh, my name is Myron, and I don't think" "I better be making any sudden career moves before I figure out who's winning this war." "Well, if you believe the P.R. handouts from Command at MACV, we're kicking Charlie's butt royally." "And who do you listen to?" "If I listen to my sources," "I'd say we might be in real trouble." "There's been a pattern of recent VC activity." "How do you know that?" "How do I know what the grunt in the field doesn't?" "I'm plugged into city hall." "I work hard at cultivating my sources." "Your major at S-2?" "He let it slip that an operation order for an attack against Pleiku was captured." "ARVN 23rd captured another order for an assault on Ban Me Thout." "Alex, every single year there are rumors that the Tet cease-fire may be canceled and that the dinks are gonna try something big." "Yeah, but this time there's also been a precipitous drop in enemy defections." "Look, I just fell into it a week or so ago while I was tracking my black market story, but from what I hear..." "What the hell are you doing?" "Myron." "Myron, leave it alone." "It's not gonna prove anything." "You look like you have something heavy on your mind." "Like maybe the gas chamber?" "And there's not gonna be any last minute phone call from the governor." "Oh, I don't know about you, but I'm gonna meet with somebody I haven't seen for a while." "I know what you mean." "I'm meeting my father." "My name's Stacy." "I'm Zeke." "Glad to meet you." "Hi, Zeke." "Your dad in the Army here?" "Retired." "Who are you meeting?" "My ex-wife." "And it's a long story." "A man of few words?" "Yeah." "That's me, I guess." "That's what my mother used to tell me about my father." "Things happened." "Combat... that made it difficult for him to talk, at least around her." "Do he know you're coming?" "Not exactly." "It's a surprise." "Well, that's me." "Good luck." "Yeah, thanks." "Hey, you two, take it easy." "Yeah." "We'll catch you at the hotel, sarge." "All right." "Hang on to your watches." "And your pants." "Hi, Zeke." "Hi, Carol." "I tried your room, but they said you were down here." "Oh, yeah, well..." "You know me and my coffee." "If I don't have a few cups in the morning," "I have to have a kick-start to get through the day." "Come here." "It's good to see you." "You too." "I was worried about you." "There were some Marines in here, and they were talking that Khe Sanh had been attacked by a large unit of VC And NVA." "Yeah." "We've been hearing those reports." "Uh, they're getting mortared and rocketed pretty hard up there." "We're just praying it doesn't turn out to be another Dien Bien Phu." "Look, Carol," "I-I've got so much I want to say to you." "You know?" "I mean, you know how I feel." "I mean, I said it about as well as I could say it in my letter to you." "Zeke, I only have a short time." "I have a return flight tomorrow." "W-well, I was thinking that you could at least stick around for a couple days, you know?" "Well, it isn't that easy." "Look, don't get me wrong." "I know it wasn't smooth sailing for you to get here." "Tell me about it." "It was lucky enough I could make arrangements through Bragg, catch a military hop over." "But I-I..." "I couldn't get that much time off work." "Zeke... when I got your letter..." "I felt I had to come, we had to talk." "That's good." "Because even though we have a short time, this is an opportunity for us to clear the air." "And, God, you look good." "You do." "I like your hair like this." "You have time for a walk?" "Hey." "Carol, I've got nothing but time for you." "Now, if I can ever get this war out of the way, maybe you'll give me a chance to prove it." "We're gonna be rich, home." "Take it to the bank." "All I want is some interest on my investment, partner." "Wait a minute, now." "All I see is a bunch of regulation haircuts and a lot of fine-looking young ladies." "Well, Bridger did say he did strong business with servicemen." "Yes, we have taken our share of beatings in the bush, but what you're talking about is a major..." "What you're talking about is a major offensive, and Charlie isn't capable of synchronizing anything that big." "Where'd they get this meat?" "Oh, black-market pleasures of Saigon." "Wait till you get the tab." "I thought you had an expense account." "What expense account?" "Listen." "Current estimates put the number of NVA and VC at 300,000." "Now, that's an increase over last month's figures." "Why couldn't Charlie put together something big?" "By dispersing his forces, he's multiplying his points of vulnerability." "You know, you're just proving that you should be considering something with more opportunity than platoon leader." "Well, I'll give up combat when you trash your typewriter." "What, to go back to Portland and cover peace demonstrations?" "Watch the war on a Teletype?" "Mm-mmm." "I like Portland." "And I still like my typewriter." "And I'm still trying to figure out who you are." "Mmm, nobody special." "Just trying to work my way through the war, like you." "Survive all the pain and suffering I see." "You know, evac hospital at An Khe?" "There was this kid from Memphis." "He had been given last rites twice." "He asked me to sit up with him one night while he slept." "He woke up in the middle of the night screaming," ""There ain't no friggin' justice."" "Then he died." "Everybody's a critic these days." "I'm sorry." "I didn't mean that the way it sounded." "Don't worry about it." "Hey, GI, need shine?" "Number one shoe shine." "Oh, they're all pros, huh?" "They'll be selling used cars in Cleveland after the war." "No shine today, sweetheart." "GI Cheap Charlie." "A cigarette?" "Changing money?" "No, no." "It's okay, pal." "It's okay." "Uh, here." "Give him something to eat if he wants it." "You remember Harley Corel, don't you?" "Mm." "From Boise, he had a fish-guide service." "Yeah." "Well, I got a letter from him." "He said that that fishing-guide job is mine whenever I want it." "He'd be willing to loan me the money for a down payment on my own boat." "That's wonderful, Zeke." "Well, I just want you to know" "I intend to be gainfully employed when I'm back." "I want it to work out this time." "Zeke, I always wanted it to work." "I figure, you know, trying to have a personal life and a life in the military at the same time... you gotta make sacrifices, you know?" "And, uh, I made some mistakes." "I made all the mistakes." "But I just don't want to throw away what we had." "Zeke, what we had was slipping away even before you left for Nam, whether you want to admit it or not." "I know." "I know, but..." "Zeke, your daughter just turned three." "Do you know when her birthday is?" "Do you remember the color of her eyes?" "All right, I shouldn't have forgotten her birthday." "I'm sorry about that." "I'm only fighting a war over here." "God..." "I'm not nominating myself for any medals or anything, Carol." "I'm just telling you if I had a chance, if I had half a chance," "I know I could come back and I could be a damn good father and a good husband." "Zeke." "People either have to get to the point where they're going forward or going back." "What, you don't think I know that?" "Honey, we gotta..." "We gotta reach for more than what we got." "I'm just trying to tell you" "I'm..." "I'm willing to do that." "Oh, Zeke, I want it too..." "Listen to me." "Please." "Give me another chance." "I want to come home." "Zeke..." "I'll always love you." "But I have to make a life for Katie and myself." "I made this trip because I felt" "I had an obligation to tell you face to face." "I'm getting remarried, Zeke." "What?" "He..." "He's not you." "It's not magic, but he's a nice guy, and I'm happy." "For the first time in four years, I'm happy and I have a life outside the Army." "Can you understand that?" "By the way, I, uh... met a chopper jock named McKay." "Mentioned he knew you." "Did he?" "Yes, he did." "Not that I'm jealous by nature, but, uh..." "oh, let's say an NVA .50 caliber were to take his chopper down." "How would you feel about that?" "Well, that depends." "Would you be on the chopper with him?" "One of my pet peeves is people that answer a question with a question." "All right, I met McKay while I was doing a story on chopper pilots." "How in depth did the story get?" "Well, it didn't get as personal as McKay would have liked, but he's great copy." "Yeah, I'll bet." "The first day in country, he traded a 9 mm pistol and a humidor of Cuban cigars for a jeep because he felt pilots shouldn't walk." "Are you seeing him?" "I thought jealousy wasn't in your nature." "Only when it counts." "How do you handle it over here?" "Don't you get lonely?" "I was married when I was in college." "It didn't work out." "It was... too young, too early." "Broke up after like two years." "But, no, I'm not lonely." "Sounds like it might have been rough." "Well, loving someone is no guarantee that you're gonna make each other happy." "So would you like to get a drink?" "Sure."