"Okay." "Still no word?" "No." "It's been eight hours since we heard from Team Moray." "If the radio's busted, will they pop smoke?" "They'll stay low if he thinks it will endanger the chopper." "Then we'll go in and get them." "General." "Jeez, colonel." "You look like you haven't slept in, what?" "A couple of days, sir." "Excuse me, general." "Goldilocks, this is Papa Bear 6." "What have you got?" "Over." "I've not been able to locate Team Moray." "Any further instructions?" "Over." "Come home." "Have additional mission." "Over." "Roger." "Out." "You heard, Lieutenant Goldman." "Prepare Team Viking for search mission." "Deploy in one hour." "Command briefing in 30 minutes." "All other teams on Green Alert." "They miss rendezvous by this much, we start thinking write-off." "Team Moray can survive on betel nut and bamboo shoots if they have to, sir." "Not in the sector you dropped them." "Well, I'm not ready to yank the lifeline until I'm sure they're no longer on the other end." "Oh, come on, Carl." "They're just four Nung mercenaries." "And two Australians." "Who knew the risk when they joined us." "I'm still not ready to give up yet." "So you risk 600 for six?" "Six human beings." "What's happening to you, colonel?" "You don't have anything to prove." "There's so few of you who make it, Carl." "Hell, you could be a general one day." "And you have farther to fall." "And so many hoping it happens." "Don't be a disappointment to your people." "A disappointment to whom, general?" "The people of my race?" "Or the people of my command?" "You don't command people." "You command soldiers." "You know, there's a saying I've heard since I've been over here, general." ""To see with eyes from a higher plane, the responsibility lies with he who has greater vision."" "Are you going Asiatic on me, Carl?" "Who knows, Jack?" "That may be the only chance we have left in this war." "Viking 2, this is Viking 6." "Come in." "Viking 2 here." "Over." "Sit rep, Two." "Anything out there?" "Over." "Negative, Viking 6." "No sandal prints, no booby traps, nothing." "Over." "Roger, Two." "Proceed to rendezvous location Tango." "Acknowledge." "Over." "Roger, Six." "Two out." "Six, I've got bodies up ahead." "No movement." "Over." "All right, check it out, Two." "Be real careful." "We're on our way." "Six out." "O'Bannon, Vien, Trang." "Right, move in close, but don't touch the bodies." "Booby traps, kid." "Thanks, sarge." "Okay." "They're pulling back!" "They're pulling back." "Hold your fire." "Hold your fire!" "Let's go." "All right." "Guys, be careful." "Watch your step." "Look, sir!" "Watch the tree line!" "It's Moray." "Taylor, get security out." "One of the Aussies is missing." "Let's check around." "And how are we ever gonna make changes in this system if we keep knuckling down to it?" "It's part of the procedural maze, major." "These are medical recommendations we're making." "It's ludicrous for a military board to rule on paranoid delusional counseling." "A sick person is a sick person." "And would somebody please fix the air conditioning in here?" "It's the whole building, ma'am." "I know." "Excuse me." "So this is where the Army's been hiding you, huh?" "It's not bad in the winter." "It is hot." "Zeke, you're, uh..." "You're five days early." "What happened with your daughter Katie?" "Nothing." "Well, I mean, she's got a new daddy now." "I always thought I was gonna have to sit the man down and give him a little talking-to about how to raise my daughter." "He wouldn't listen?" "I didn't even meet him, Jennifer." "I didn't need to." "He's done a good job." "They've got a home." "To be honest with you, I felt kind of out-of-place there." "So, uh, what's your plan?" "Zeke, I..." "You're not supposed to be here till Friday and..." "I've got work to do." "I've made other plans..." "Other plans?" "What are you talking about, girl?" "I came halfway around the world to see you." "You're a major and I'm a sergeant." "I could get Leavenworth just for what I'm thinking about doing." "Now, come on, major." "You wanna fraternize with me in an unlawful manner?" "Please?" "101 degrees!" "Galveston's burning up." "Have you put in for a new assignment?" "Well, I'm looking into it." "What's your options?" "Drill instructor, instructor at infantry school, instructor at OCS." "You don't sound too happy about it." "I don't know nothing about happy." "I mean, I can remember being happy at some point in my past, and, uh, I'm, you know, pretty confident" "I'll be happy at some point in my future, but I've never been very good at being happy right now in the present." "And whenever I try to picture myself in some stateside gig, all I see is this ghost with spit-shined shoes." "Am I anywhere in that picture?" "I'm here." "I mean, I'm happy to be here." "Pigs, man, busting heads on some power trip." "MP popped me on my head once." "I'm not talking about MPs, man," "I'm talking about the cops in Chicago." "At the Democratic National Convention." "Politics are no big deal." "No big deal?" "Ruiz, come on, man!" "These guys are deciding your future." "You gotta..." "You gotta know what's coming at you, man, if you wanna grow." "Man's confused, Ru." "Doc, you're in Nam." "And in Nam, Doc... this is all you gotta recognize coming at you." "Half a million grunts in the Nam, and I get stuck with F Troop." "See you at chow, Johnson." "Nah, you go ahead." "How are you feeling, sergeant?" "Bad." "Like I missed something." "You did." "You should have known when you saw bodies out in the open." "Yeah, they were put there as bait." "I know that now." "LT, I killed my guys." "No, you didn't." "The NVA did." "It's the responsibility of every man to stay alert." "You can't hand-hold the guys you take into battle." "But I didn't know it was gonna be like this." "You beat up on yourself and you're gonna screw up again." "I trust you." "The men trust you." "There's only one direction to go from here." "Forward." "Now, we've got a briefing in five minutes." "Okay, until we get some hard evidence on Williams," "I'm not sure where to set you boys down." "It's around-the-clock standby." "No alcohol." "Yes, sir." "That's all." "What's his problem?" "He just lost his first men today, sir." "Too bad we can't tell him it gets any easier." "Hey, sarge." "Come to lay some more of that "shared responsibility" crap on me?" "You should have checked the other side of that clearing before you stood up." "You were in charge." "Everybody's gotta look after their own butts here." "Bull." "You know that's a cop-out for guys who choke." "Hey, I'm doing the best that I can." "Well, you ain't got it." "How many more of these body bags are they gonna have to line up before you figure that out?" "Ohh!" "Oh, I'm sorry!" "You okay?" "So, what are you doing?" "This is where I come to read." "It's quiet." "Yeah." "I'm looking for a little bit of that myself." "What you got?" "A book my mom sent me." "In Spanish." "I wrote her that I was scared because I was starting to dream in English." "It's kind of nice thinking in Spanish for a change." "Is it good?" "Kind of romantic." "What you got?" "Absentee voter ballot request." "Did you apply already?" "Puerto Ricans don't like no president, man." "Is that right?" "Then who does?" "Rich people, Doc." "Corporations." "Old white men with cigars." "Look, my family doesn't think their vote matters." "You're wrong, man." "And you understand the system a lot better than you think." "And your vote can change that?" "Yeah." "Well, you know, along with a couple of million other people who happen to feel the same way about it, yeah." "How come you won't fight for your country?" "Ruiz, I know that... if I ever killed anybody..." "I wouldn't be any good to..." "myself or anybody else for as long as I live." "Major Shadlow has received intelligence reports of a Caucasian prisoner being paraded through villages north-east of Boi Loi Woods." "Williams?" "Having been a prisoner of the NVA," "I thought you might feel strongly about spearheading a rescue effort." "Yes, sir, I would." "Major Shadlow." "All right, we drop Viking between Ben-thuy and Shofan." "You recon both of those and try to pick up the scent." "Teams Thor and Zeus will be on green backup." "Major Shadlow will give you code designations and the latest recon report." "I have a hunch the man is alive and I want him back." "I know the bloke well." "He's a mate." "He'll be trying to escape every minute." "If they bind his feet, he'll walk out on his lips." "Now, you do what you have to do and don't worry about him." "He'll be ready." "I think I know what he's going through, major." "Lieutenant, Jerry has a wife and two kids." "Well, I'll do the best I can, sir." "With international condemnation coming from all quarters," "Soviet premier Brezhnev has yet to make a public comment on his country's swift and brutal invasion of Prague, Czechoslovakia, crushing that country's experiment of freedom." "You hungry?" "I figure as long as this air conditioner keeps humming, we ought to stay in and stay cool." "What do you think?" "Indira Gandhi and other world leaders shown here have all joined President Johnson in denouncing the advance of 175,000 troops into the East European capital." "More as this breaking story unfolds." "Elsewhere, the rioting at the Democratic Convention in Chicago continues, with civil and national leaders decrying the complete breakdown in police discipline and the savage ferocity used by thousands of police, National Guardsmen and federal personnel in quelling a demonstration by protesters..." "We fight wars so other countries can't come here and do this and then we do it to ourselves." "What's happening to us?" "..and over 500 arrested at last count." "The confrontations are severely taxing Chicago's..." "You okay?" "I'm fine." "But I sure as hell didn't come here to listen to that." "It's what's happening, Zeke." "I mean, you can't escape it." "I'm not trying to escape from it, Jennifer." "I'm trying to ignore it." "I'm on vacation." "Could have fooled me." "This is how you relax?" "Do you not want to talk about it?" "I'd prefer not being analyzed right now." "This isn't an office visit, Zeke." "This is our lives." "I'm sorry." "That's fair enough." "I've been thinking about going back." "I see." "Can you give it some time and see how you feel?" "It won't make any difference." "I mean, it's something that..." "I don't know if I can explain this, but when I'm over there, with everything that's going on over there," "I'm more alive than I am here." "I mean, I'm doing something." "I knew you wouldn't understand it." "Oh, really?" "What, is this some kind of male-only emotion?" "Come on, Jennifer." "No." "Don't patronize me, Zeke." "I was there too, remember?" "I had to come back and live a normal life." "Just like you." "I know that." "Down deep, I know that." "Zeke, I want you to feel alive with me." "I mean... what's gonna happen when you don't have any more wars to fight?" "Entering Objective Bravo at this time." "Over." "Roger, Viking 6." "Out." "Vietnam." "Final frontier." "These are the voyages of Team Viking, its five-year mission to explore strange new countries, to snuff out new life and ancient civilizations." "To boldly go where no roundeye has gone before." "Doc!" "What?" "Shut up." "What's he talking about?" "Don't you ever watch TV?" "Oh, yeah, man." "Every night in my hooch after I fight the war." "He says they come here three hours ago." "The white soldier is beaten badly." "They take his clothes and..." "Okay, okay." "Ask him how many NVA and which direction they went." "There." "Scotty, check that well." "Team, look out!" "Get down!" "Hold your fire!" "Hold your fire!" "Johnson!" "Damn it, it's a piece of fruit." "LT, I'm sorry." "Doc, get up here and look at this kid." "All right, up." "Everybody, get up." "Um... wait, sir." "I want to help him." "Hey." "We're trying to help you." "Listen, it was a mistake." "Maum, get over here and tell them it was a mistake." "Sergeant." "You know, your instincts are right." "Oh, hell." "It's okay." "It's all right." "It's okay, kid." "Almost pulled the trigger, man." "We could have wiped out that whole ville." "In a heartbeat." "We didn't." "It's over." "Just forget about it." "I can't just forget about it, Ru." "I was there." "Hey, Doc." "You got something to kind of calm me down?" "Tough day, sir?" "Tough year." "I hear you threw yourself on a piece of fruit to save your buddies." "I guess being a sergeant's not like I expected." "Name me one thing over here that has been like you expected." "Sergeant Johnson?" "Attention!" "Everybody else." "First "If only," sergeant?" "If only I had done this, if only I'd done that, he might still be alive." "As you were." "We all have them, son." "If I told you how many men whose lives have been wasted as a result of my orders, you'd sit right there in that chair and you'd puke for a week." "When I was at West Point," "I was taught the doctrine of mission accomplishment versus welfare of the men." "Most officers believe welfare of the men comes after mission accomplishment." "I'm not so sure about that anymore." "Do you ever think about life, sergeant?" "Yeah, life." "I find it so odd that we Americans respect it, the Vietnamese revere it, and somehow... over here we..." "We treat life with about as much regard as water balloons being tossed on a forest fire." "Most leaders are not afraid to take extraordinary chances to accomplish the mission." "That's good, that's the way it should be." "But it's a real leader who's not afraid to take those same chances to save lives." "Carry on." "Do you know how long it's been since I've eaten at a drive-in?" "Yeah, I know." "It's been forever." "Gonna smoke me some Vietcong." "You guys see this badge?" "That's an expert's badge." "The best as you can get." "M-16, machine gun, .45..." "Now there's a man who thinks he loves his job." "A lot of us love our jobs." "Well, Jennifer, you got a job that's worthy of loving." "It's an important job." "Your job's important too." "Yeah, that's true." "Come on, there's no way we're gonna lose this war." "No, look, we got the best training, we got the best equipment, and we got the best people." "Mm-hm?" "Those stupid gooks don't scare me one bit." "Jennifer, would you excuse me for just a minute?" "Zeke." "Don't worry." "It's all right." "One burger to go, one shake, a coffee, a cola." "Hey, soldier." "How you doing?" "Fine." "I thought I overheard you say you're shipping out to Nam." "Is that right?" "Yeah, I just finished basic and AIT." "Ship out in 10 days." "Is that right?" "You're a regular killing machine, I'll bet you." "You're gonna grease some gooks, get some, are you?" "Yeah, I aim to get me my share." "I gotta tell you, boy, it ain't no football game over there, now." "VC's pretty good at killing back, you know." "So?" "So?" "So?" "Do you know what death sounds like in Nam?" "I'll tell you." "It sounds like this." "Bzzzzzzz." "That's the buzz of insects." "Millions and millions of insects." "Every kind of insect alive on the planet is just waiting over there for you." "You might be on a night ambush with your squad and you're sitting there in the dark." "You can't even see your hand in front of your face." "You've got to maintain noise discipline now because... because the VC might know where you are, they might not." "And you can't stay awake because you get hypnotized by the bzzzzzzz." "You remind me of this young hotshot we had at Chu Lai." "He was our point man for a little while." "One day he was running his mouth, talking about how bad he was back in the neighborhood, and he wasn't paying attention to what he was doing." "And he's leading us down the trail, and we hear a click." "So there stands this loudmouth hotshot on this landmine." "He's crying for his mama, he's wetting his pants and he's making all kinds of noise so my two men go up to him and they try to calm him down." "They say, "Stay still." "Just stay still."" "And they try to take their knives and just cut around the mine, disarm it." "But before they could do that, this..." "This hotshot, he jumps off the mine, tries to save his ass." "And boom!" "Nothing but..." "Nothing but smoke." "My two men are dead and the newbie is dead and then there's nothing but the sound of "bzzzzzzz."" "Why is it that it's always some young loudmouth hotshot like you that gets my men killed?" "You tell me, why is that?" "Geraldine?" "Pick up two cheeseburgers." "If I rotate back to the States tomorrow," "I'm not even sure I know how to act anymore." "I think you'll be fine." "You saw me at the drive-in, didn't you?" "You never touched him." "No, I didn't." "But the whole time I was talking to him, all I could think about was how easy it would be to just reach around and rip his throat out." "And the only thing in this wide world to stop me from doing it was myself." "And you did." "This time." "I'm just not so sure how good I am at it anymore." "Oh, so you go back to Vietnam where you can behave any way you choose?" "It's not like that." "Zeke, it's never like that." "Jennifer, when I left there, honest to God," "I never in this world thought I'd be going back again." "Oh, but it's obvious that you are." "Oh, it is?" "Yeah." "Why don't you tell me." "It's obvious?" "What's that?" "I don't know what to say." "Neither do I." "I swore to myself if I ever put a ring on a woman's hand again," "I would stay with her." "I would never leave her." "And now look at me." "I don't even know what I'm doing." "All I know is whatever it is I'm gonna do," "I want you to do it with me." "Will you marry me?" "Yes." "Damn, I do love you." "Okay." "I love you too." "Oh, no!" "What are we gonna do now?" "Baby, we're gonna sweat." "I thought we had the day off." "Cool it, man." "If we got stuck out there, you'd want someone coming after you." "Would you guys shut up?" "We don't get many days to sleep in." "Yo, baby, you ain't got this one either." "Come on, man." "Brewster called us out." "We hump in two hours." "They got a line on the Aussie." "I don't care how much sleep I get, it ain't ever enough." "I feel like I'm swimming in mud." "Doc, you got a little something for a jump-start?" "I do house calls, Percell, not chemical breakfast in bed." "Get a grip on this, man, or it's gonna eat you up." "Hey, knock it off, you guys, and get a move on." "I want this team ready to go in five minutes." "That, my brothers, is big trouble." "Our new sarge's been doing a lot of choking and sputtering lately." "I think he's about ready to seize up on us." "That's your boy, man." "How can you say that?" "Taylor's right, Ru." "Johnson's lost his edge." "He's thinking too much." "Try giving orders to your friends knowing it might get them killed." "It goes with the territory." "I don't care if he is my friend, Ru." "I don't want no freaked-out sarge giving me orders." "More mashed potatoes, honey?" "Mmm, boy, them are good." "A little more." "Some fine sunshine, some boogie for your woogie, and my main man, Marvin Johnson, reading the map." "Taylor!" "Taylor!" "Have you lost your mind completely?" "Turn that thing off!" "Percell, Ruiz," "I'm talking to you, now." "Honey." "Sure we should be doing this?" "I mean, Sergeant Anderson is all the time talking about maintaining noise discipline and all that kind of stuff." "Doc, Doc." "What?" "Does anyone here see Sergeant Anderson?" "It says the beach is down here." "You guys, don't come this way." "Get off the trail." "Hockenbury, Johnson, get off the trail, get off." "Uh-oh." "Arggh!" "Arggh!" "Ugh!" "No!" "Zeke!" "Yeah?" "It's all right." "It's all right, it's all right." "It's okay, baby." "It's all right." "Just go to sleep." "You okay?" "All right." "You set up right here." "I'm gonna take my team about two klicks downriver." "We're gonna set up at the trailhead." "Stay alert." "I want Williams alive." "We're going to Cambodia?" "Taylor, we're assault team now." "We'll go to Paris if we have to." "Let's move." "This waiting's the worst part." "Jeez, Snow, maybe we'll have Charlie double-time for you." "Knock it off." "Sarge." "Viking 6, this is Viking 2." "Positive contact." "Say again, positive contact." "Over." "Sit rep." "Over." "Six Charlie, one kangaroo heading for the river." "Over." "This is your call, Two." "We're moving toward you." "Acknowledge." "Roger, Six." "Two out." "Let's go." "You want me to blow them away, sarge?" "Your rounds know the difference between Australian and NVA?" "Sarge." "Johnson." "Johnson, what do you want us to do?" "They're coming right towards us." "We've got to move, sarge." "They're coming right at us." "Sarge, if they come right at us, we've got no angle." "All right, nobody fires, nobody moves." "We let them pass." "Let them pass?" "Johnson, maybe you want us to go help them across the river." "I say we take them at point-blank." "I gave you an order, soldier." "You will let them pass unless fired upon." "Damn." "What was that, sarge?" "A section 8 or a choke?" "Noise discipline." "Noise discipline my butt." "We had them." "We had them." "It wasn't Williams." "Quiet!" "Quiet!" "Swing around, cover the river." "That first squad comes back to you." "Take Peters with you." "Snow, Percell!" "Take the back four." "Taylor!" "We got the front pair." "Fire!" "Arggh!" "Ugh!" "Cover him!" "Arggh!" "Ugh!" "Ugh!" "I thought you'd never find me." "It was easy, sir." "We just looked for an Aussie in his underwear." "Bloody amazing." "Thanks for coming, mate." "Hey, hang in there." "Don't give up, man." "Don't you dare die on me." "They said you were tough." "I am." "Roger, maintaining position." "Sergeant." "You took a big chance letting them cross that river." "Sir, I didn't want to risk the lives of my men trying to save... an imposter." "How could you be so sure?" "Well, sir, when they took a break," "Williams squatted just like a Vietnamese, not like an American." "He's Australian." "Yes, sir." "But our information had him stripped of his uniform." "This guy wasn't." "Sir, that hooded guy, it just wasn't Williams." "Turned out to be NVA." "Your men performed admirably, lieutenant." "And the body count should placate the damn scorekeepers." "Job well done, Johnson." "Mmm." "Mmm." "I cook your favorite." "You are my favorite." "You come back tonight?" "I'll try." "Seems the only time I sleep lately is when I feel you next to me." "I am sad to see so much trouble in your eyes." "Dada!" "Hey!" "Jac-Nho." "Come here." "Your mother has cooked for us, Jac-Nho." "Come here, come here." "What's wrong, Zeke?" "Nothing." "Nothing?" "Everything." "Are you going back?" "Yeah." "It's unfinished business." "I can't just walk away from it." "I know." "But I'm scared for you, Zeke." "You fly too close to the flame." "I'm scared too." "I'm scared of a lot of things." "I knew I had to make a decision when I came here, and now..." "Now I'm scared I'm gonna lose you." "Do what you have to do." "Then when you come back, if we still feel the same way about each other," "I want you to put that ring back on my finger."