"Hang on." "OK." "What do you think you're doing?" "I'm old enough." "But obviously not intelligent enough." "You're the boss." "Your mother tells me you're seeing a young man." "Oh, now, come on." "Don't misunderstand this." "We're not angry." "It's all part of growing up." "We'd just like to know a little bit more about him." "He's just a guy." "Does he have a name?" "Serge." "Is he Australian?" "His father's Hungarian." "Well, there's nothing wrong with that." "Migrants helped build this country." "Well, maybe you should meet him." "Then you could thank him." "Yes, we would like to meet Serge." "Your mother suggests that you invite him home to dinner." "Why not?" "I don't want to." "Why?" "I just don't." "We won't have you running around with a stranger." "If we can't meet him, you'll leave me no choice." "In that case, you are not to see him." "You'll go straight to school and you'll come straight home." "There'll be no going out, none at all." "You understand?" "Go on, Deb." "Just go and say hello." "No." "Go on." "No." "You'll never get anywhere if you're shy." "Go on." "Oh, my God." "It's Serge." "It's OK." "He's gone." "And he didn't even turn around." "You OK, Megs?" "Yeah." "You sure?" "There we go." "Hi." "Hi." "And you're going to uni, Megan tells us." "Yeah." "Sydney." "Looking forward to it?" "Very much." "Uh." "Um, it's a fair way from Canberra." "Three years time, Megan might get to university herself." "If she puts her mind to it." "If I last that long." "It's all worth the effort." "I'm sure you agree, Serge." "Be great living in Sydney." "Yeah, it actually stays open past eight o'clock." "The only night-life we ever had was what we made ourselves." "Wasn't there a dance called the 'Black Bottom?" "That was in the '20s." "We're not quite that old." "What do you think of the Beatles?" "I'm a Stones fan, myself." "I love Mick Jagger's lips." "Better?" "A lot of the music I find very repetitive." "Yeah, that's the African influence." "Rock'n'roll is a direct descendant of African music." "I wouldn't disagree with that." "Dad can't stand the Stones." "Ah." "It's a free world." "I find a lot of modern music very repetitive." "Shh." "How did I go?" "Oh, great." "They'll probably let me see you now that you're going away." "The thing that really kills me about you being at school I was hoping you could have come to Sydney with me." "Oh, Serge." "I suppose Sydney's not that far." "200 miles." "There's always the phone." "Every week." "Yeah." "Oh, Phil!" "G'day." "Why didn't you tell us?" "You look so well." "Douglas." "Hi, Dad." "Well, look at this." "On leave, are you?" "Just two days." "Embarkation leave." "Fly out on Monday morning." "We'll be in Nui Dat for dinner." "But they must have jobs in the army where you can do something other than..." "They must have army photographers." "I'm enjoying it." "I'm part of something." "Yes..." "Look, Mum." "Now that I'm in it, I think I can make something of it." "That's all." "Don't worry." "I'll be alright." "How long will you be gone?" "Nine months." "Oh!" "Let's talk about something else, shall we?" "I hate goodbyes." "Don't say that." "It's love." "Can't stand it." "If it's true love, it'll last forever." "What?" "I thought these might help things along." "Enjoy yourselves." "Dad!" "Thanks." "That's right, mate." "Something to remember me by when I'm gone." "It's just like Toowoomba, this place." "Where Laurie and I grew up." "Everything's that same lush green." "Yeah, and the place is full of peasants." "Watch it, Ferret." "The long arm of the Toowoomba Mafia does not give up." "We'll hit him in the latrine, shall we?" "Lob a grenade while he's in the middle of..." "I hope the lot of you have better luck with the Viet Cong than you had getting rid of the cane toads." "Hope it hasn't got too warm." "Didn't think you'd be so long." "Thanks, mate." "So, what's the go?" "Looks like we might be out in the boonies tomorrow." "We clean up the area around the base, make that secure." "Then we've got to push the enemy further back." "Clean up the province bit by bit." "Breaking us in gently." "Hmm." "Exactly what we do depends on what intelligence..." "Incoming!" "Shit." "Let's go!" "Holy shit." "The mortar attack last night was mounted from Phuoc Hai, an area in which there's a lot of VC activity." "Home Forces, the whole battalion is being deployed into this area for an operation to clear the villages of VC." "Our company is conducting a cordon and search of Hai Chanh village, which is here." "1 and 2 Platoon will secretly cordon the village at night, preventing anyone from leaving." "Mission - our platoon is to aid Vietnamese police and Regional Force troops in searching the village." "Artillery cover and mortar cover will be provided for the journey and for the area surrounding the village itself." "For the purpose of the search, the village has been divided into three sectors." "1, near the beach 2, 3." "Mission - the mission of our section is to search sector 3." "Communication will be by smoke signal." "Execution we'll move from here at first light tomorrow morning." "The journey should take two hours." "We'll debus at a rendezvous point about four miles outside the village and then proceed on foot, keeping clear of inhabited areas." "When we reach the village, we'll stand by at the beach while South Vietnamese police and troops clear everyone out of their houses and muster them in the village centre." "We'll begin our search when they give us the OK." "Well, this looks like a spot for the soldier's retirement home." "I'll be in on that." "With things the way they are around here, now would be a good time to buy." "So, what's happening?" "It's quiet." "The nog police have just gone in and told them what's going to happen." "Bet our friend Charlie's in there shitting himself, getting ready to make a run for it right now." "Won't get past the cordon if they run." "Probably getting ready to shoot our balls off." "Stand by." "The noggies are going in." "There's something over here, mate." "Keep them in here in case the worms get sick." "Look like, er, forged ID cards to me." "I'll go and get the skipper." "What the hell are you doing?" "Rice, sir." "Sacks of it." "If this is the hearts and minds campaign, we're pissing it in." "Skipper wants a section at the double." "He's found a nest of Charlies." "Where?" "I need a beer." "I've got a bad taste in my mouth." "You've earnt one." "Move your section out, Corporal." "OK, let's get out of here." "Beats me how you recognise a bloody VC." "Everyone in this damn country wears black pyjamas." "Oh, there's a simple rule." "The nogs you kill are VC." "The ones you miss are civilians." "Come on." "Move." "So what was in the nog's book?" "Looked like a diary." "Writing, drawings." "Some of it was poetry, I think." "Just an ordinary sort of bloke, he seemed to me." "Family photos." "No, mate." "Fanatics -the lot of them." "You should talk." "Well, we bagged them anyway." "Opened our account." "It's a bit like losing your virginity." "And how would you know about that?" "Funny, those bodies." "All the parts are there but something's gone." "Life's gone." "Yeah, but what's that?" "Ritch?" "Ritchie?" "Come on." "Don't muck about." "I heard something." "It's like a trigger." "Don't bullshit." "This isn't funny, Ritch." "Stay where you are." "Mines!" "Freeze!" "Freeze!" "Zero alpha." "Get us a fire mission." "Fast." "One eight one alpha, fire mission." "Over." "400m up the hill on the left!" "Don't move, mate." "Laurie, get the machine gun into action." "Send Ferret." "I'm the closest to Ritchie." "You're in charge of the bloody gun." "Now, get into action!" "Barnes, clear the flank." "Stand by dust-off chopper." "Engineers for mines." "Drop one, out." "Drop 400." "Repeat." "Over." "Drop 100." "Six rounds." "Fire." "Over." "Roth, clear the ground up to Jeff!" "Ferret, CUF to Ritchie." "I'm alright." "Get those bastards on the hill." "Steady, mate." "Don't move or I'll kill you." "Which foot's it under?" "Left one." "Leave it, Ferret." "Save it for the engineers." "You right, Ritch?" "Yeah, I'm alright." "He's on a mine or a booby trap, Skipper!" "I can't tell!" "Must be a bloody pressure release." "I've pissed myself, mate." "I told you to go before we left home." "Jesus." "Bear with it, mate." "The engineers are coming." "No legs." "No feeling." "I'm sort of cold, numb." "I just want to see Kirsty again, that's all." "That's all." "Do you understand?" "Yeah, mate." "We are in your vicinity." "Approach when you're ready." "Over." "This is one." "Ready for you now." "Over." "Maybe we could lift him off with a chopper somehow." "Nah." "Only blow the chopper up as well as him." "We have your bearing, one." "Request you throw smoke." "Over." "Throwing smoke now." "Over." "Throw smoke!" "There must be a way to replace his weight with..." "I see red." "Over." "Red affirmative." "Hey, that's it!" "You work something between his boot and the trigger, weigh it down and he steps off." "Well, let's see what the experts say." "Look, get Laurie out of there." "No point in them both going up." "Skipper, they're mates." "Do I have to give you a lecture, Corporal?" "The engineers are here, Ritch." "I want you out, Laurie." "Defusing mines is your bloody business." "Why else would we have called you in?" "There's no may of knowing how sensitive that goddamn trigger is." "They're unpredictable." "You'd have to be nuts to try and defuse it while he's standing on it." "Look, I'll do it." "You give me the tools and talk me through it." "What's happening?" "We're working on it, mate." "I'm falling off it." "My foot's slipping." "I can feel it." "Look, I can't feel anything." "Five minutes, Ritch." "Five minutes, OK?" "Can you hold on?" "No!" "I don't know." "He's gonna have to dive off." "He'll probably lose a leg but if he stays low enough, he'll most likely live." "If the bayonet idea works, he could get..." "If you start messing around with it now, you're..." "You're just gonna be killing him, Lieutenant." "Yeah." "He should dive." "I'll go and tell him." "Skip." "Yeah?" "I'll do it." "No unnecessary risks." "Be careful." "You're giving us ulcers over there, you bastard." "Now, we've got two choices for you, mate." "Neither of them are foolproof." "I don't want to bullshit you." "I'm gonna die, aren't I?" "No, no, no, no, no." "You're not gonna die, mate." "Not unless you're stupid." "Now, nobody quite knows what you're on but it looks like some sort of homemade thing." "It could well be a dud." "But we've got to assume it's not." "Don't tell me." "Don't tell me." "I'm gonna die!" "Shut up." "Shut up!" "I'm gonna die!" "Ritch." "Ritch." "Just give me a break." "Just listen, will you?" "Oh, Jesus." "Now, if it goes, it's going to send an explosion upward because it's buried." "Now, you could try to get a bayonet between your foot and the trigger, weigh it down with sandbags and if it works, you could step off and it'd be OK." "Alright." "No." "What?" "No, no." "It's not." "The boffins think you'd probably trigger it if you did that." "Just tell me what to do!" "The other way is to dive." "You dive as far and as low as you can." "Now, mate, I've got to tell you this, 'cause I don't want to bullshit you, but the blast might catch your feet or your legs but 99% sure you're gonna live." "And that's what the skipper wants you to do, mate." "He wants you to dive." "What about me legs?" "A lot of these things don't go off at all, mate." "Well, what would you do, then?" "I want you to live, Ritch." "If it was me, I'd dive." "I don't know." "Jesus." "You can do it, mate." "Now, I'm gonna go over there and I'm gonna count to three, and when I get to three, you're gonna dive." "You're gonna dive forward." "You're gonna dive forward as far and as low as you can." "Will you do that, Ritch?" "On three?" "Alright?" "Ritch." "You can do it." "You can do it." "One, two dive!" "That's it, mate." "One, two, dive!" "Everybody down!" "Flat to the ground." "Everybody down!" "Alright, Ritch, here we go." "Are you ready?" "One, two..." "OK, I'm counting now." "One..." "Two..." "..two..." "Dive!" "Ritchie?" "What's happening, Richard?" "I thought you were one of the best men in this platoon." "But you're acting like a bloody woman!" "You're endangering the life of every soldier in this platoon." "Private, I'm gonna give you a lawful command." "When I say dive, you dive to the ground and stay there." "Is that understood?" "Is that understood, soldier?" "!" "Sir!" "Private Robertson!" "Dive!" "Bastard didn't go." "God." "Jesus." "Keep steady, Ritch!" "Look, I think we should try the bayonet idea, Skip." "Look, I'm gonna run and tackle him to the ground..." "Oh, come on, Laurie!" "Forget it, soldier!" "I'm dead now." "Don't give up, Ritch." "We're working on it." "Laurie!" "Don't give up, Ritch, I'm coming!" "I'm dead, mate." "Ritch, I'm coming!" "And so it's been decided the only way to keep the people of the Phuoc Hai area from Vietcong influence is to relocate the village to a more secure area." "The new village will contain a high standard of housing and amenities, and the villagers will be provided with all their needs." "As you've been told in your section commander's orders, this is not a punishment, and so long as security is maintained, then courtesy and helpfulness should be the orders of the day." "You'd think we were taking them to a bloody death camp."