"Looks like a fresh trail to me." "All right, LT," "I suggest we take it real slow and easy here now." "Yeah." "Let's go." "Grenade!" "Cover!" "Down!" "Cover gunfire!" "Run for cover." "Go, go, go!" "Stay low!" "Stay low!" "What the hell was that?" "What the..." "Charlie's pulling back." "Why would he do that?" "They've got us pinned down like a hog in a slaughterhouse." "It's spooky, man." "All right, LT, I'm going to check it out." "Go." "Let's go." "What the hell is this, Indians?" "Not exactly, but sort of." "We're Americans." "We have food and salt." "Shh!" "They haven't shot at us yet, have they?" "We have food and salt." "We'll trade with you." "We're your friends." "GIs." "We have food to trade with you." "We have no quarrel with you." "GIs are your friends." "We have food." "Food." "LT." "Everybody, stay real cool." "We don't want to fight you." "We didn't come here to fight you." "LT, I think he wants us to go with him." "Well, why not?" "They just saved our tails." "All right, real slow." "Everybody, lower their weapons." "All right, mount up." "We're going with them." "Hey, what do you think they are?" "Well, I don't guess they're Apaches, do you?" "They're probably Montagnards." "What?" "Montagnards." "Possibly Katus." "They're the indigenous people of this region." "Indigenous?" "Sounds like another kind of disease." "I think he's telling us to stay here." "I've got a feeling we're about to become the main attraction at a barbecue." "Sir, do you foresee a problem with this?" "Well, Percell, we have the weapons." "Yeah." "So did the VC." "Hey, sarge, check it out." "Guy looks like he might be an American." "He's speaking their language." "This place is weird." "This whole place is weird, man." "This is Kronoun." "He's a village chief." "He wants to know who you all are." "Lieutenant Goldman, Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 44th Infantry," "196th Light Infantry Brigade." "Who are you?" "Kithem." "Kithem... that's it, just Kithem?" "It's a Katu name." "These are Katu people." "What are you doing in the area," "Lieutenant Goldman?" "Patrolling." "Why?" "Intelligence reports there's VC trails through here." "We were sent to find them." "Looks like we did." "At least we found VC, anyway." "Were you attacked?" "Yeah, we were attacked." "We were almost wiped out." "Then these natives helped save us." "I want to thank you for that." "Don't thank me." "I'd have watched, and let whatever happens happen." "What kind of soldier are you?" "I was in, now I'm out." "You just tell him we're grateful." "He says the VC are sons of pigs, and he's always grateful to butcher a fat pig." "My daddy feels the same about government troops too." "How does he feel about Americans?" "It's his one failing." "He likes them." "The chief says you should, uh... consider yourselves guests of the village." "But don't take advantage of the hospitality." "This is a war zone." "There's nothing's hospitable about that." "Who does he think he is?" "I don't know who he is or what he is, but he must've been in a world of hurt to run this far." "I smell mean all over that cat." "That's affirmative." "They helped us out." "We got three VC dead, and I don't know how many wounded crawled off." "Over." "We need to get these people in the war, Six." "We're authorizing a civic action project for the village." "Over." "Affirmative." "We'll be waiting for your shipment." "Bravo 2-6 out." "What shipment is that, LT?" "Guns and supplies." "They want us to stay here, set up a strategic hamlet, and help the natives cut off VC supply trails." "What about Kithem?" "They'll do what they can on their end." "In the meantime, we'll check him out on ours." "What's up with the supplies?" "They're for the villagers." "The brass said, and I quote," ""If the Katu tribesmen want to waste VC, they might as well have the tools to do it right."" "Hey, what, you've got to be kidding, we're giving them weapons?" "I'm not kidding." "They're getting 16s, 60s." "They're even getting mortars!" "Why don't you send these weapons back where they came from?" "You tell the chief with these weapons, the Katu can defend their families and their village." "They don't need defending." "Just tell him." "Can't you understand they're safe as they are, they fight with spears and arrows, nobody cares much about them, but give them real weapons, they're going to end up with real enemies." "They'll become a target." "Look, I've got my orders." "You can understand orders, can't you?" "You're handing them a death warrant." "Just tell the chief these are his weapons." "My men are assigned to train his men how to use them." "Now you tell him." "LT, he's got a point." "What are you, crazy?" "This is a chance for these people to move into the 20th century." "We've got a chance to help them too." "Gentlemen and warriors, what we have here is a fully automatic" "5.56 mm, gas-operated, air-cooled, and magazine-fed rifle." "It's not going to work, is it?" "Right." "Right." "Hold on." "Hold on." "This... is a bullet." "Bullet." "Say that." "Bullet." "Bullet." "Good." "Good." "This is a magazine." "Magazine." "Magazine." "That's amazing." "You guys are beautiful." "Okay." "Now, you put the magazine in here." "You pull back the bolt here, and you pull the trigger here." "This is the trigger." "And... bang." "Easy, huh?" "Easy, huh?" "Okay, guys, now that we've got aiming this baby down to a science, here's how we drop the rounds." "Please note that for training purposes the firing mechanism's been blocked." "Now take the round with two hands." "Hang it." "Drop it." "Run your hands down the tube like so." "Be sure and keep your face and your hands away from the muzzle." "Got it?" "Okay." "Let's..." "let's start over." "All right, my man." "It's time to rock and roll." "Here we go." "All right." "Safety." "Just pull the trigger, okay?" "Ready?" "Go." "Whoa." "Get your finger off!" "Don't you know you never train a new man with a full belt?" "Only use six to eight rounds." "This will never happen." "Gentleman warriors, rifles up." "Fingers off those triggers now." "Single magazine." "Lock and load." "Guns off safe, on full automatic." "On my command." "Ready, aim..." "Fire!" "That's my boy!" "Yeah!" "Hang it and drop it." "Whoo!" "Whoo!" "What's going on?" "Visitors." "Friends of yours." "I am Major Tung." "District Chief of this province." "What are you Americans doing here?" "I'm Lieutenant Goldman, sir." "Bravo Company's been engaged to sweep this area." "I heard the sound of heavy gunfire, lieutenant." "Did you give these people weapons?" "Yes, sir." "We're training them to use them." "Brigade authorized a civic action program for this village." "I approved no such program, lieutenant." "No indigenous tribes may be armed without the special permission from the civil authority." "That's me." "Disarm them immediately." "No, sir." "I can't do that." "We're trying to close the VC trails in this area." "Lieutenant, the trails also fall within my jurisdiction." "The commercial caravans that use them are a source of revenue for the central government." "Major Tung, I've got my orders." "You!" "So you are still here." "Are you behind all this?" "No." "I will take this matter up with your superiors, lieutenant." "You'll soon be back at your base camp." "I assure you." "Lieutenant Goldman." "Be very careful." "It's a very dangerous place." "Yo, Kithem." "What do you know about this guy?" "He's a district chief." "Comes around a couple of times a year, bullies a young man, tells the village how much their taxes are going to be, steals a few chickens, and he goes." "And the people do nothing about it?" "So long as they're poor and no threat to him, they have an uneasy peace." "You've probably changed all that." "And what would you have them do?" "Defend themselves with rocks and sticks?" "I'd rather you hadn't come at all." "These people mean absolutely nothing to you or your superiors." "You just want to use them." "We're trying to help." "Guns and weapons aren't the answer." "If you want to help them, do something decent." "Don't teach them to kill." "Help them to live." "Or has this war destroyed your regard for life?" "We can't keep sending back to the CO for food and supplies." "We've got to help these people become more self-sufficient." "They ought to be able to raise whatever they need, LT." "This soil's as rich as Mississippi Delta mud." "Sir, if we get the CO to just send some more pigs and chickens, we can go ahead and build these people some pens." "That's good." "All right, let's hear some ideas." "I don't know nothing about farming, LT." "Me either, sir." "I hate dirt." "I happen to be a concrete and asphalt man myself." "Well, then the two of you wouldn't be much help with the farming, would you?" "Nope, sorry." "You can dig latrines then." "I know you're both experts at that." "All right, let's get it done, gentlemen." "How's it going, Johnson?" "Looks like they were born to this, LT." "You dudes like eggs, man?" "You know what they say where I come from, an egg a day keeps the doctor away." "You guys ever hear that?" "We'll have eggs and toast tomorrow." "What do you say, man?" "Hey, no luck, huh, my man?" "Maybe you're using the wrong kind of bait." "Try one of these." "Yeah!" "All right." "It's lunch time!" "Come on, come on." "Go get the fish, kids." "Come on." "Good, huh?" "How you doing here?" "Tell me something, uh... how'd you end up here anyway?" "And what is your real name?" "I told you." "Kithem." "Yeah, and I heard you, but I figure you're a special forces type." "Back here in the early days, they had a lot of green berets work with the Montagnards, and, I don't know, it all kind of makes sense to me." "Be careful, sergeant." "There's an old Appalachian saying..." ""Don't step in nothing you can't wipe off."" "Thank you very much." "You're really a good little helper." "Aah!" "Go..." "I'm going to work on my reports." "Horn..." "Look at my hand." "Tell me what you see?" "Dirt?" "No." "Blisters, Horn." "You see blisters." "I haven't had a hammer in my hand for three years, and it's killing me." "I mean, I love it, but it's killing me." "Sarge, this stuff is normal for most people." "What, living with Injuns?" "Man, just living!" "You know, this is the first time I've been in 'Nam" "I really feel like I've done some good." "It's nice to be build things up instead of tearing them down." "It's a hell of a lot different than what we've been doing." "Sure feels good." "Yeah." "It does feel good." "Kithem, what's going on?" "There's a VC supply train moving down the trail." "VC." "VC." "All right." "Gentlemen, this is what we've been waiting for." "First team's with me." "Set them up, sergeant." "All right, we're going to set up an L-shaped ambush." "Johnson, get your mortar team over on that ridge over there." "Baker, Ruiz, take a fire team and that 60 down there at the center point." "Taylor, you got the blooper with you?" "Yo." "All right, take a fire team down by the trail there." "You stop 'em there a while." "The rest of y'all bring that 60, come with me." "No talking beyond this point." "Let's go." "Yeah!" "Whoo!" "LT, we've got problems." "What's up?" "These aren't VC." "Look here." "These are M-16s they're using." "Check out the uniform on this guy, and that patch there." "He's an officer." "This is the same insignia Tung's men were wearing." "Yes, sir." "It is." "Hey, take a look at this." "Corsican gold..." "pure raw opium." "This stuff must be worth millions, Sarge." "Major Tung, we have a little problem here." "It seems that some of your men have been smuggling opium." "Colonel Dalby, you have no proof that those were my men." "I don't know." "Some of these uniforms look very similar." "Hah." "Probably deserters." "Colonel, the opium trains have traveled these trails for hundreds of years." "My government has done everything in its power to put a stop to them." "Apparently, they haven't been very successful." "I mean, that's lots of dope." "Yes." "The opium will be turned over to my office for investigation." "Those are my orders, which, by the way, have been approved in Saigon." "Tell me, major, your efforts to keep the trails open wouldn't have anything to do with opium traffic, would it?" "I do not have to take your insults!" "Major Tung, the last thing in the world I want is any disagreement with our South Vietnamese allies..." "But in your case," "I'm willing to make an exception." "You've been nothing but trouble since day one." "We cannot win this war without the support of the people, which we could do easily if characters like you wouldn't keep getting in the way." "Sit down, major." "I'm not finished." "I will report this to your superiors." "You will be transferred out of my district immediately!" "Well, in your report, you be sure and say that I treated an officer of the South Vietnamese military with total contempt and disrespect, because that's the truth." "You see, I consider you nothing more than a pirate." "You may go, major." "Don't ever touch one of my men like that, not ever." "You understand me?" "If I catch you out in the bush," "I'm going to cut off your fingers and ears and make a necklace out of them." "Hell, I might even cut out your tongue." "That's well-said, sergeant." "You have your orders, lieutenant." "For how long, I don't know." "Yes, sir." "Remember the look on that guy's face?" "Man, that was classic." "Yeah, Sarge Hung Tung, all right." "We definitely won't be seeing any more of him." "He'll be applying for a soft job in Saigon with the rest of the politicians." "If Colonel Dalby gets his way, he'll have him sold for lard." "Need some help?" "Yeah, as a matter of fact, I do." "I've got blisters on my hand so bad," "I can't even pick up that axe." "Why don't you give me a couple whacks with that?" "Well, it looks like you swung one of those before." "Well, where I come from, every kid knows how to split wood." "Yeah?" "I'll tell you on thing, old buddy, you've got yourself a long ways away from the Smokey Mountains." "Well, it's not so different." "It's mountainous." "It's rural." "People like to be left alone." "I never thought of it like that." "You've got a point there." "I'll tell you one thing, though, first day we came marching in here looked out there and saw all those natives, and we saw this big, long-legged white boy, we thought you was crazy." "Every time I see a man in uniform," "I know he's crazy." "Yeah, I heard that." "I'll tell you the honest-to-God truth, though, now that we've been here a while, you know, like, living here, you don't seem crazy no more." "Well, let's take a look and see what we've got here." "Oh, yeah." "Just right." "Hi, honey." "Come on up here." "Oh." "Hi, sweetheart." "How are you?" "Is this for us?" "This is for Danny." "This is for me." "It's real nice." "Thank you, darling." "Thank you." "That's just great, I guess." "What is it?" "It's a sarong, Danny." "It's like a dress." "It is a dress." "It's a dress for the party." "For the party." "Horn, what party?" "Gentlemen, may I have your attention?" "According to Katu customs, you should now entertain us." ""Please, please Please, please"" ""Please, please Don't go"" ""Please, please, please"" ""Please, please Don't go"" ""Darlin' Please, don't go"" ""Oh, yeah, girl"" ""I love you so"" ""Please, please Don't go"" ""Baby, you did me wrong"" ""You gone And done me wrong"" ""Well, well, You done me wrong"" ""You know You done me wrong"" ""You know you done You done me wrong"" ""Well, oh, yeah"" ""You took my love And now you're gone"" ""Please, please Don't go"" ""Please, please Please, please, please"" ""Please"" ""Please"" ""Please"" ""Please"" ""Please"" ""Honey, please"" ""Don't..."" ""Well"" ""Oh, yeah"" ""You know I love you so"" ""Please, please Don't go"" ""I just want an answer"" ""I, I, I, I..."" ""I..."" ""I..."" ""I..."" ""I..."" ""I..."" ""Honey, please Don't go"" ""Oh, yeah"" ""Girl, I love you so..."" "Sarge!" "Incoming!" "Horn..." "Horn." "Horn, you've got to give her up now." "She belongs to them." "You've got to give her up, Horn." "Yes." "Can you confirm that?" "Over." "Command claims it's an unfortunate case of mistaken identity, Six." "Over." "Yes, sir." "What about your orders?" "Go." "Somebody in Saigon's already pulled the plug, Six." "The CAP is canceled." "Get your people out of there." "Over." "Roger." "Out." "LT?" "The CO seems to think that the South Vietnamese mistook this as a VC village." "Had to be Tung." "Everybody knows that." "Colonel Dalby got the order this morning to cancel the mission." "We're moving out." "You don't look surprised." "I'm not surprised." "What did you tell him?" "I told him that Americans are like big children." "They come in, they break things, create problems, and then they leave for others to clean up the mess." "Saddle up." "Just a second, LT." "Kithem... you can come on back with us, you know." "Yeah, I don't blame you." "I had to ask, though." "Take care of yourself, you hear?" "Let's get out of here." "Lieutenant Goldman." "I'm so glad I got to see you before you got away." "How do you know what my orders are?" "Very little escapes me, lieutenant." "Very little." "That's obvious." "What are you going to do with the Katu?" "That's Major Tung, sergeant." "Major Tung, sir, to you." "What are you doing with the villagers, Tung?" "Well... we intend to continue the good work that you have started here, lieutenant." "In a few weeks, it will be a fortified hamlet... an island of safety in a sea of danger." "It's a shame that you will not be here to see it." "That's not a shame, Tung." "Let me tell you what..." "Anderson." "Move the men through." "They'll be all right." "They're tough people." "They've been through worse." "They'll get through this." "I'm trying hard to believe that." "Gunshots!" "In the village!" "Maybe it wasn't." "There's no mistaking that." "The hell with it." "I'm going back." "Sergeant, wait a minute!" "We're going with you." "Johnson, you're on point." "Drop your rocks." "Baker, you bring up the rear." "Let's go." "Where are the rest of the weapons?" "I don't know." "You lie!" "Hey!" "What are you doing here?" "Call it a garbage detail." "Lieutenant, you have your orders." "My orders are to aid and assist the people of this village." "That's what we intend to do." "I've got an order for you, Tung." "You get on out of here in 30 seconds." "You cannot do this!" "I am your ally!" "One..." "Two..." "Wait!" "I have many friends in Saigon and in the American military as well." "Three..." "Four..." "Oh, the hell with it." "Twenty-seven..." "Twenty-eight..." "Your superiors will hear about this." "They will not be pleased when they hear about this." "Lieutenant, our alliance of our forces may be weak at times, but still..." "Go!" "I'm going." "Thailand is a long haul." "I appreciate the contacts with the missionaries." "With a little luck, I think we'll make it." "You know, I really didn't like you." "Well, I never felt especially romantic about you either." "There's some folks back home wondering about me." "Would you give them these, and tell them I'm okay." "Yeah, I'll do that for you..." "Sergeant Carter." "So you know." "Yeah." "Brigade radioed two days ago." "Master Sergeant Carter, Special Forces Group." "Two silver stars." "Not bad." "And honorably discharged." "You've got to understand, that's what makes me feel especially good about you." "The guy who saved my tail is not a deserter." "Take care of these people, sergeant." "Yes, sir." "Well, I guess he just got tired of killing people and decided to help them instead." "Yeah." "Now, ain't that a subversive idea?" "Ain't it, though?"