"Oh." "Hey, brother," "I'm looking for a white GI about this high who goes by the name Percell." "Hey, I'm looking for a buddy of mine, a guy named Percell." "He's about this tall." "Have you seen him?" "You hear me?" "Hey!" "Excuse me." "Hey, where are you going?" "Didi mau." "Percell." "Wake up, man." "Percell, man, snap out of it." "Wake up." "Leander." "What's happening?" "Suzie ripping you off is what's happening, man." "I just told you that ho was number 10." "Some party, huh?" "Look like you and Cholon was made for each other." "Three days we've been carrying the guy." "If we don't find him soon, LT's gonna have to report him AWOL." "Ru, look, you sure this is where Danny said he was headed?" "Where else is a deserter gonna go, Marcus?" "He's in Cholon." "I know it." "Then how come nobody knows nothing?" "All day we've been out here, and nobody knows nothing?" "Oh, they know." "They just ain't telling us." "C.Y.A, brother." "I should've never let him go." "It wasn't your fault, Ru." "The man was determined." "This place is scary." "No wonder MPs are afraid to come down here." "I say we head back to base and try and get a line on this Leander." "I say you're right." "Let's do it." "Ah, nice GI." "Yo, blood." "I heard your boy's been up and down our block, asking a lot of questions." "Yeah, well, we're curious people." "We like to ask questions." "Not on our turf, bro." "You needs permission." "Ours." "Hey, brother, we're looking for a friend of ours." "A guy named Percell." "Maybe." "Maybe you guys are CID." "Come on, man, do we look like narcs to you?" "He don't." "You do." "Hey, brother, Percell, where can we find him?" "How about it?" "What do you want that redneck for?" "That redneck's our friend, man." "We just wanna help him." "Help yourselves." "Forget about this white man's war." "Come join us." "We can talk the political jive later." "Where's Percell?" "Trying to hide." "We his friends now." "We'd like to hear that from him." "Didi." "Don't look like the boy wants to leave to me." "Percell!" "Percell!" "Danny." "Danny, you all right, man?" "Taylor?" "Hey." "Ru?" "Great." "Wh..." "We got extra room." "Danny, we've come to take you home." "Home?" "This is my home." "Hey, Danny, come on, let's just get out of here." "Hey," "I said I got a home." "The dude is happy where he's at." "Brother..." "Stay out of this, okay?" "This is one of our guys." "He's in our unit now... blood." "Hey, we protect our own." "Your own?" "You're gonna have to... take him." "Hey, hey, hey, it's cool, it's cool, it's cool." "Danny, if you wanna stay here with your new friends... cool." "We just came by to see how you were doing." "I ain't never been better." "Come on." "We've been over this whole sector." "I haven't seen any road." "What about the noise sensors the flyboy's been dropping?" "They ought to be registering something." "Ah, it wouldn't be the first time with modern technology." "Or S-2 screwed up." "I say we get the hell out of here." "I say, "Yes, sir."" "It's the river." "This is it." "This is the supply route." "The river." "It's shallow all the way across, and where it isn't, they've got it built up with perforated steel." "The little people." "They're always gonna think of something." "I'm gonna call it in." " All right." "Three-minute turnaround." "Let's go." "On the double." "Well done." "Does Victor know you found the river road?" "No, sir, we got away clean." "Outstanding." "I'll let you gentlemen get debriefed." "Then we'll talk about going back in there and really kicking some butt." "Sir, excuse me, with your permission," "I have other matters to take care of." "I'll catch you after the briefing, LT." "Okay." "Percell?" "Yes, sir." "So you're still carrying him, huh?" "Yes, sir." "Colonel..." "Look, I know what you're gonna say, lieutenant." "He's a damn good soldier." "Well, you got a lot of damn good soldiers on your team." "Well, what are you saying?" "I should cut him loose?" "I'm saying that's your decision." "Just make sure you keep your perspective." "Is there something else, lieutenant?" "Yes, sir, there is." "I haven't been questioned by one person yet about the Phu An incident." "So?" "You told me the Army was gonna handle it, and I don't see anything being done, sir." "I'm handling it, lieutenant." "There will be no cover-up of any massacre." "You just worry about Percell." "Come in." "LT." "I talked to the men about Percell." "I made a decision about Percell." "Sir?" "We can't carry him any longer." "He's gone AWOL and he's on drugs." "We can't wait." "Sir, it's not like he's a habitual offender here." "I mean, he deserves a second chance." "Sergeant, there's a lot of good men on this team that don't go AWOL and that aren't on drugs." "And they're my responsibility too." "I'm not just gonna stand by and watch their morale undermined because there's somebody out there getting high while they're risking their lives." "Hell, we don't even know where he is." "We do now." "Cholon." "Has anybody spoken to him?" "Yes, sir." "Johnson, Taylor and Ruiz." "Does he want to come back?" "They say he's too drugged up to know what he wants to do." "Well, that's it." "He's on report." "Sir, we can go and get him." "Drag him back here, sober him up and give him a chance to decide what he wants to do." "And how are you gonna do that?" "Cholon's like an armed camp." "It's full of deserters, it's full of mercenaries, it's full of Vietcong." "You'd have to have a commando squad to get him out of there." "Yes, sir." "You gotta be kidding." "No way." "Sir..." "No way." "Sergeant..." "If you think I don't care about Percell, you're wrong." "I just can't do this." "What in Sam Hill do you think you're doing?" "Just trying to stay in shape, sir." "You know what I'm talking about." "You filed a complaint with the IG, didn't you?" "After I asked you not to." "Sir, I filed a complaints file with the Inspector General... confidential." "Don't get smart with me." "Oh, damn it, man, can't you see I'm just trying to save your dumb hide?" "Sorry, sir, but the Army left me no choice." "I promised you the matter would be taken care of through the proper channels." "You ought to spend more time in the jungle, Jack." "Develops the senses." "My nose picked up the smell of cover-up a long way off." "You just crossed over the line, Carl." "Push anymore and command will bring the hammer down so hard on you, nobody'll bother to look for the pieces." "You understand me?" "Yes, sir." "Let's go!" "Hey, where do you think you're going?" "Johnson, nobody comes through that door." "Leave... now." "Oh, man." "Percell." "Sarge." "Join the party." "I'm, uh... not very good at this." "But..." "I am working on it." "Yeah, I can see you are." "All right, Percell, get up out of here." "We're going back." "Back to what?" "The war?" "You can fight that one all on your own." "What is that you're doing to yourself there, Percell?" "It's good stuff." "That's heroin, ain't it?" "Ain't it?" "!" "So what?" "I smoke it, I don't shoot it." "Look at yourself!" "Look at yourself, Percell!" "What are you doing?" "!" "What are you doing?" "!" "Stop, Sarge!" "All right, tell me, why didn't you come to me?" "Leave me alone!" "Sarge!" "Why?" "Why?" "Why?" "Why?" "Sarge, get out of here!" "On the door!" "On the door, Johnson." "Percell, no, no." "Look, I'm sorry I hit you." "I ain't gonna hit you no more." "Come on." "I'm here now, and I'm gonna get you out of here now." "You hear me?" "You hear me?" "Put your arm around me." "Come on!" "We got a problem." "All right, just stay back." "Johnson, we're coming out." "Hey, Sarge, we got company." "You better watch yourself." "Going somewhere?" "All right, look, we don't want any trouble." "We just wanna get our man back home." "He's not your man, lifer." "Not anymore." "All right now, everybody just be real still here." "You have to ask yourself whether or not this boy here is worth dying for." "Because he is to us." "See, he's a friend of mine." "All I wanna do is get him back home where he belongs." "And if anybody gets in my way, honest to God, I'll kill you." "Johnson, go get the jeep, and I'll be right behind you." "Ain't nobody gonna kill nobody here now." "Faites attention, mes petits." "There." "I told you that wasn't gonna hurt, right?" "Okay." "Get some candy." "Good morning, sister." "Morning." "Hey, doc, they need you back at the base." "What's up?" "Percell's going through withdrawals." "All right, give me three minutes to finish this up." "Okay." "You are really great with these kids, sister." "Do you ever regret not having any of your own?" "These are all my children." "Right." "I'm..." "I'm sorry." "I only meant that..." "I wasn't a child when I took my vows, lieutenant." "I knew the sacrifices I would be making by devoting my life to God." "Okay, I'm ready." "Okay, I'll be right with you." "Uh..." "Okay, well, I'll see you." "Bye." "Bye!" "Hey, doc, were you raised Catholic?" "Presbyterian." "Guess you wouldn't know anything about nuns, then, would you?" "Limited wardrobe." "Why do you ask?" "No particular reason." "We're out of here." "Hey, doc." "Doc, tell these guys to untie me." "I'm not gonna hurt anyone." "No, only yourself, man." "If we untied you right now, you'd be on your way back to Cholon, looking for more skag." "I don't have a habit, doc." "I only do it if I want..." "when I want." "Right." "Which is all day, every day." "Go to hell." "Look, you guys, I'm..." "I'm not really sure about this." "I mean, I'm not a doctor." "Well, you know more about it than we do." "Yeah, well..." "I do know the next few days are not gonna be very much fun for him or us." "Well, a dishonorable discharge ain't gonna be fun either, doc, and that's what he gets if we turn him over to the Army." "Are you sure we're doing the right thing?" "I know guys back on the block died going through withdrawals." "It's okay." "I mean, he's not been an addict that long." "And he's young, he's healthy." "And I'm sure at some point he's gonna think he's gonna die." "He's probably even gonna wanna die." "But if we watch him close he should come through okay." "One more thing." "If his vital signs start going south," "I will pull the plug on this." "Deal?" "You got it." "Now, what do we do?" "You just wait, watch him..." "and we talk." "Talk?" "Talk, about anything." "Just try to keep his mind off of his pain." "Danny, I ever tell you about my Grandma Taylor?" "Marcus..." "She used to always take me down to Belle Isle, and I used to sit and I used to watch those oil freighters, and I used to say to myself," ""One day I'm gonna go to a faraway place."" "Well, I guess I did." "I was just suggesting..." "Well, don't, Mr. Boyle." "Either we play it my way, or we don't play it at all." "Colonel, information from an unnamed source just does not have the same impact." "Why not save us all some time?" "Go public with this now." "You really don't get it, do you?" "I think I do, colonel." "You're worried that hanging a lantern on this massacre will cost you your general's star." "Don't insult me." "If I gave a damn about a star I wouldn't be here." "How long you been a journalist, Mr. Boyle?" "Almost 20 years." "About as long as I've been in the Army." "Does it pay well?" "Not really." "Then you do it for the glory, then." "Sid Boyle." "Not these days, no." "It's just..." "I guess I enjoy digging out a story more than just about anything else." "Would you do it for free?" "Probably." "It's more than just a career." "It's my..." "Life!" "Life!" "Now you're beginning to understand." "You really don't care about your star, but you care about your Army." "Percell, it's just like Monopoly." "Doc made it up." "I don't wanna play any games." "Look, man, we're just trying to help, you know?" "Yeah." "You wanna help?" "Get my stuff." "Nope, not a very good idea, compadre." "Oh, come on, doc." "I ain't about to get hooked." "Hell, I just want a little." "Enough to..." "Enough to ease the pain." "Nope." "Your roll." "I'll do it for you." "Seven." "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven." "Excellent!" "Groovy." "One week R  R in Hong Kong." "Very good." "Your turn." "Come on, baby needs a new pair of jungle boots." "Three." "Is this you?" "That one." "No, dude." "Busted for selling drugs." "Uh-uh, no good." "Gotta go directly to Long Binh jail for the duration." "What do you get if you win?" "You, uh..." "You get to go home in one piece." "What if...?" "What if I win?" "You..." "You get my stuff?" "Nah." "Doc?" "What?" "All right, untie him." "I think I'm gonna be sick." "All right." "Hold on." "Come on, come on." "Guess who?" "Daddy's home." "Jac-Nho." "What are you doing up, huh?" "When he found out you were coming, he insisted." "Mmm!" "So your mother let you stay up." "I'm glad." "I always love to see my little boy, but now it's time for you to go to bed, okay?" "Go to bed." "Your mama and I gotta talk." "Is something wrong?" "I'm not sure." "I may have committed career hara-kiri today, going to the press." "About the massacre at Phu An?" "Your generals... they did not approve of this?" "When will they find out?" "It's still off the record, but it's only a matter of time." "I had to do it, Li An, you do understand?" "No, because you do this, your Army will send you away." "Your son will never see you again." "No, no, no, no." "I'll never..." "I'll never let that happen." "You know that." "Oh." "Oh, this is vile." "Latrine duty wasn't even this bad." "You gotta help me, Johnson." "I'm not gonna make it." "You gotta help me." "You gotta get me something." "Hey, man, just hold on." "A couple of hours you'll be all right." "I promise." "Later don't matter, Johnson!" "I need something now." "Understand me?" "Now!" "Oh, my legs!" "My legs, Johnson, they're cramping up!" "Hey!" "Hey!" "No!" "Doc!" "Doc!" "Ru!" "Doc, get sarge right now!" "Get sarge!" "All right." "Come on." "How's he doing?" "Soon as we got him back in his rack, he went out like a light." "First time he slept since we got back." "How much longer is he gonna be like this?" "With any luck, maybe, uh... 24, 36 more hours." "Sarge, what happens if we get called out on a mission?" "Yeah, who's gonna watch him then?" "We got a mission." "Tomorrow." " Percell." "Percell." " Can you hear me?" "Sarge." "Yeah." "How you feeling?" "Like..." "Like a whole NVA division just went through my body." "I heard that." "Listen, I talked to doc." "He says maybe you've got another day of this." "The worst is over, though." " Sarge?" " Yeah." "You know..." "I always thought you were the..." "The best." "Even wh-when times... got real bad." "S-sarge, I knew I could count on you." "You can count on me, Percell." "I'm right here." "You've gotta get me something, sarge." "Just..." "Just..." "Just a little something." "Just a little something to t-tide me over." "Percell, no, I cannot do that." "Jeez, it..." "Sarge!" "Please, I'm begging you." "I'm begging you, sarge." "You can't leave me." "You can't leave me like this." "I'll die." "Percell, listen to me, now." "That ain't gonna work, and you know it ain't gonna work." "You lifer bastard!" "Doc!" "I'm dying, damn it!" "Do something for me!" "Do something!" "Sarge, we can't leave him here like this." "Not with the mission tomorrow." "Busted." "What's going on here?" "Here, sir?" "No, the DMZ." "What do you think I'm talking about?" "Percell." "What?" "Is this from his narcotics withdrawal?" "What are you all, deaf and dumb?" "I asked if Percell was going through withdrawal." "Yes, sir." "And where are you taking him?" "To the orphanage, sir." "It's the only place he can go cold turkey while we're on the mission, sir." "You men do know that the Army has a drug-rehab program?" "Yes, sir." "We're also aware that if he admits he's using, he's gonna get a discharge." "Make sure he's tied in good." "Yes, sir." "Yes, sir." "Thanks to Team Viking's recon, we've been able to nearly pinpoint the location of the NVA truck park." "Cambodia." "Surprisingly, it's a lot closer to the border than we expected." "So insertion will be at last light." "We'll send in teams Mars and Jupiter here and here." "If the park is vacant, we'll know they're convoyed and on the move." "Team Viking will be set up here to try an ambush the following morning." "If the weather holds, can we expect air support?" "Air strikes into Cambodia are strictly forbidden." "However, the Air Force will be standing by for anything on this side of the border." "And as we all know, maps in this sector are notoriously unreliable, so it'll be up to you to give an accurate judgment as to where you are at any given time." "Any questions?" "No." "Okay." "Good hunting, fellas." "Thirteen?" "Is everyone in place?" "Yeah." "All right." "The scouts should be coming through any minute." "There'll be 13 trucks, maybe 50 troops." "That's more than we counted on." "I know." "We'll let the scouts go through, then we'll blow the first truck." "That'll be a marker for the flyboys to come in and finish 'em off." "Let's do it." "Geh." "Geh." "Ashh." "Assh." "Eee." "Eee." "Zhee." "Zhee." "Que." "Que." "Air." "Air." "Shh." "Calm down." "It is all right." "It is all right." "It is all right." "I don't know you." "I am Sister Bernadette." "Your friends brought you here." "Please." "You are hurting yourself." "I will loosen these ropes, but you must give me your word you will try not to leave this room." "What kind of place is this?" "A hospital?" "It is an orphanage." "Do you have medicine?" "For the children, yes." "I'm a sick man." "I need medicine." "Drugs." "What I have will not help you." "You don't understand." "I'm..." "I'm hurting!" "I could break you in half." "Perhaps." "I do not believe so, or you would have already." "I'm sorry." "Maybe you should tie me back up." "I'm not that strong." "Perhaps... if I just lock you in, all right?" "You two." "Put their uniforms on and wave the column on." "Come on, put their clothes on." "Radio!" "Come here!" "Let's go!" "Let's go!" "Let's go!" "Delta 4-2-niner." "Your target is the riverbed, 3-0-0 mikes November of the burning truck." "Roger, Viking 6." "We copy." "The target is yours." "We're out of here." "Let's go." "Come on." "Get as many of them as you can in the regular zone, you pop those claymores and didi." "Nice to be on the other side of an ambush for a change." "You said it." "Sarge." "People stopped by the barracks a minute ago looking for you." "Left you one of these." "Not again." "Holy..." "I almost forgot." "I got 35 days and a wake-up." "Short-timer, man." "You so short, you've gotta reach up to tie your shoes!" "You're going home, brother!" "Hey, I could..." "I could be home for Christmas." "That's right." "Absolutely." "Say hi to Santa." "Congratulations." "All right, all right, all right." "Well, Percell, welcome home." "I'm here for you, and everybody else is here for you too." "You just gotta keep on moving forward, one step at a time, and drive on." "Yeah, right." "Percell." "If you'd take a shower and shave, you'd feel better about yourself." "I promise you." "You'll feel like a soldier again." "How's he doing?" "Not good." "He's pretty much over the physical withdrawal, but he feels lower than snail spit right now." "So you're feeling sorry for yourself." "As you were." "Well?" "Well, how am I supposed to feel, sir?" "A lowlife junkie crying out for more dope." "Hell, I even hit a nun." "And you think that gives you an excuse to corner the self-loathing market?" "I watched a friend of mine die once." "And I didn't do a thing to help him." "And I was glad when he died because it meant I could go to sleep." "Sir?" "Korea, POW camp." "I was a prisoner for two years." "I'm sorry, sir, but don't you think that's apples and oranges?" "You weren't hooked on dope, you were a war hero." "I broke, Percell." "A lot of us did." "Sure, we had our reasons." "They beat us every day." "They stood us in the snow so long, we couldn't feel our feet." "Kept us awake... man, for so long that we'd have killed our mothers for a few hours sleep." "Sir, it's not the same." "My buddy Temple... he never broke." "He spat it back in their faces day after day." "Guy had more courage than anybody I'd ever seen." "What happened?" "They beat him to death." "Right in front of me and a guy named O'Brien." "And we just stood there and watched them because... if we hadn't, they'd have kept us up even longer." "We traded our buddy Temple's life for a few stinking hours sleep." "Only O'Brien, he never woke up." "They killed him too?" "No." "They never laid a finger on him." "He just turned to the wall and died." "Just gave up." "I suppose he just couldn't go on living with himself after that." "Do you think he took the easy way out?" "I think he died for nothing." "He didn't help Temple." "And he never helped anybody after that." "I appreciate the story, sir." "But you had your reasons." "They tortured you, for God's sake." "You don't think this war is torturing you?" "!" "You're in pain, Percell." "I mean, you're in pain because you care so much." "As long as I live, I know I'll never cut out the filth I feel from standing there and watching Temple die, but, man, I use it!" "And you better learn to use it too." "Your pain, your guilt, whatever." "Do something positive with it, Percell." "Because if you don't... you can take that face and turn it to that wall, and you can die too."