"Doc!" "You'll go deaf doing that." "That's the point, Taylor." "Get me a profile, and get me out of here." "Since when do they trust you with the mail?" "Since the company clerk started kissing up to his new sergeant." "He knows what side of his bread's gonna be buttered on." "You ain't even sergeant yet." " It's okay, Percell." " I aced that promotion board." "Aced it, brother." "The letter's probably already in the mail." "Do me a favor?" "Pass those out." "Then get with the program." "I might as well." "Ain't no telling when I might need a favor from you grunts." ""Danny Percell."" "Newsweek, doc." "Your Penthouse didn't come in yet, Ru." "Ah, guess what." "Check this out." ""Susanna Lozado."" "Come on." "Want to share, brother?" "It's classified, brother." "Okay." "Hey, look at this." "Oxford, Mississippi." "That's Johnson." ""Hi, Marcus." "I know you guys" ""are still hanging in there" ""because I saw you on TV." ""Made me miss your ugly mugs," ""but not the Nam." ""The good life here is waiting for you when you get back." ""Miniskirts on the ladies," ""burgers and fries on the plate" ""and clean sheets on the bed." ""Wow, it's great." "And after taking fire from Charley," ""taking a C-minus on an English paper" ""doesn't seem too rough." ""You blow it here, you get to try again." "Of course, I'm the only brother in most of my classes."" "That figures." ""Reminds me of walking into a ville," ""having those kids run up to you and touch your skin." ""But I'm here, and I'm making out just fine." ""Write me back when you can." "Sincerely, Marvin."" "Sounds like he's doing real good." "Good?" "Crackers hassling him." "That's not what he said, Taylor." "That ain't what he wrote, Ru, but that's what he said." "Khania province lies directly between the Parrot's Beak section of Cambodia and Saigon." "The security of Saigon depends largely on the security of this province." "Chu?" "The province chief who controls this region is Colonel Lan Nguyen." "Several days ago, his wife was kidnapped by the VC." "We think she's being held somewhere in this sector." "Until she's returned safely," "Colonel Lan is refusing to allow any artillery fire in his province." "Can he do that?" "Unfortunately, yes." "With Tet approaching," "I don't have to tell you the problems we're facing if the VC try to pull what they did last year." "The colonel has to know that." "He does." "No wife, no artillery." "MACV thinks it's important for Vietnamese-American relations that we cooperate with men like Colonel Lan, show them that we can work together." "But he doesn't have to cooperate with us." "I don't like this kind of mission any more than you do, but American lives depend on that artillery." "The fact that we are being used by some... potentate doesn't change that." "One more thing." "He wants to meet the men who are leading this mission." "You and Sgt. Anderson will be at his estate this evening." "Yes, sir." "That's all, lieutenant." "No more guard duty," "No more KP." "You know, I should have thought about being a sergeant a long time ago." "Maybe you ought to get the stripes before you pin them on." "I told you clowns, this is as good as done." "Taylor, you got a minute?" "Get ready to salute, boys." "Yeah, sarge?" "Look, Taylor, there's no easy way to tell you this, but you didn't get the promotion." "Who got it?" "Craig." "Craig?" "That jeep jockey over at Team Cobra?" "Yeah." "LT did everything he could." "Sarge, I got 3 months in grade on that sucker." "Yeah, we all know you do, Taylor." "Next time's yours." "That's the same thing you said when Johnson got passed over." "And Johnson finally got his stripes." "Finally?" "Sergeant, if me and Johnson was white, there wouldn't be no finally." "Come on, Taylor." "You know that's not right." "Ain't it?" "Thanks." "Sarge, you think he wants to be left alone?" "No, I think he needs company." "Taylor, hold up!" "Consider the source, Taylor." "Craig..." "Figures, doesn't it?" "He spends his life sucking up to Sgt. Hannegan." "Yeah, it's a wonder his lips ain't falling off yet." "You wouldn't want your stripes that way, Taylor." "You just want it to be right." "What went down ain't right either." "Taylor, what's happening?" "What's up, Shakey?" "He got some bad news." "Yeah, Hannegan's boy Craig took his stripes." "White on white." "No explanation needed." "Come on down to the Far West, take your mind off it." "Cody Ryan's shooting back to the States next week." "Some of the brothers are helping him celebrate." "Taylor, I thought we were gonna go find some girls." "We got some girls down at the Far West." "Come on, Taylor." "I'll catch you brothers later, man." "All right?" "Shakey!" "Thank you for coming." "Oh, sergeant, I noticed you admiring this flower." "Do you have an interest in horticulture?" "No, sir, I don't think so." "These are jasmine." "I have them flown in from the West Indies." "That's a lot of trouble on expensive flowers, isn't it, sir?" "I understand your army spends a great deal of money bringing USO shows to its soldiers and building PXs." "Nobody's begrudging your wealth, colonel." "I just question whether or not you have the right to tell my army how to fight this war." "And who should have that right, lieutenant?" "Is it not our country?" "Still?" "I believe we're here to talk about your wife." "Precisely." "She is called Li." "Without Li, all of this is empty and worthless." "Please find and bring her back safely." "We'll do our best, sir." "That's good." "Those who succeed on my behalf usually find themselves rewarded quite generously." "As you can see, gentlemen," "I pride myself on my collection of oriental treasures." "That won't be necessary, sir." "We're soldiers." "We do as we're ordered." "Yes." "I know your orders exactly." "Gentlemen, let us have some tea." "Cody, Cody, my man." "I hear you're a short-timer now." "Five days and a wake-up." "I hear that." "Hey, man, these clowns want me to re-up." "You believe that jive?" "I made that mistake once." "Next time around, I'm gone, Jack." "Seen enough Charley to last me a lifetime." "Ain't Charley you got to worry about." "It's Mr. Charley." "Tell it." "Whitey's using us brothers to kill gooks, and he's using them gooks to kill us brothers." "I mean, black kills yellow, yellow kills black." "And whitey's standing on the sidelines counting bodies." "Brothers ain't the only ones out there dying, man." "Yeah?" "How often you see a white man walking point?" "I mean, somebody's gonna get greased, send a nigger." "That ain't how it works in my unit." "You wait." "You'll come around, brother." "Everybody's buddies in the bush, 'cause they need you there." "You get back to the world, it's back of the bus again." "While I'm here, ain't got much choice, you know?" "I told you before, you can jump off that train any time you want." "Just tell them you're sick." "Tell them you got scary dreams." "What they gonna do?" "And saying no is just the start." "We gonna start taking power... with a gun." "We finally got brothers telling it like it is." "Huey P. Newton, Eldridge Cleaver." "Right on." "And when I ship out next week," "I'm taking a few of them AK-47s home with me." "Gonna have my own little private Tet in east St. Louis." "Come on, Cody." "Hey, bro." "Learning from the Cong." "If the revolution comes, I'm gonna be ready." "Not if the revolution comes." "When it comes." "Evening, gentlemen." "Sarge." "Hope none of you are planning on partying too late tonight." "We got skids up at 0600." "Where is Taylor?" "He just went out." "He should be right back." "Sarge, you want us to tell him you're looking for him?" "No, no." "That's all right." "Sure is a good thing he's not in town, though, isn't it?" "I mean, it's almost curfew." "Hey, what's with this white cat?" "Percell, what are you doing here?" "Are you crazy?" "Well, I don't know." "Are you?" "Taylor, it's almost curfew." "We got a mission in the morning." "Well, I got a dart game to finish." "Taylor, come on, man." "We don't have a lot of time." "Know what I'm saying?" "You heard the brother." "He's busy." "This is a segregated establishment." "Separate, but equal." "Taylor, you want to help me out here?" "Tell these guys it's between us?" "Now, I know you don't want to go starting no fight in here, cool breeze." "Thanks." "You're right, I really don't wanna start a fight in here." "Just wanna talk to my buddy." "Maybe he ain't your buddy no more." "I say we show this honky where the gutter is." "Taylor?" "If I do have to get into a fight in this place," "I'm hitting you first." "Me?" "Why?" "It just seems like a good idea." "I'll throw the honky out." "Taylor, come on." "Now, if you just give me a chance..." "Percell, it ain't funny!" "What are you doing coming in a place like that?" "What are you doing in a place like that?" "The last I looked, I was saving your butt." "Taylor, saving my butt?" "Hey, man, I'm here to save your butt." "Sarge is looking for you." "He's looking." "You found me." "So what?" "So what?" "I already told you inside." "We got a mission tomorrow." "What is your problem?" "I don't have a problem." "The hell you don't!" "Ever since Johnson left, you're feeling sorry for yourself." "In case you haven't noticed, the color balance on our team has just taken a definite switch to the white side of the spectrum!" "Oh, Taylor, now, give me a break." "No one on our team gives a damn whether you're white, black, yellow or brown." "That's a nice thought, Percell, but that ain't the way it is." "That's just the white man's way of thinking." "Listen, man, your friends are back at Barnett, the guys that really care about you." "Get with the program." "You coming with me, or what?" "I'll think about it." "What's he trying to prove?" "I don't know." "I'll tell you what, running ain't gonna prove anything." "I can tell him that." "Well, look who decided to show up." "Taylor!" "Hope this little mission doesn't interfere with your social life any." "Taylor, if I thought one of my guys was out past curfew, that would make him AWOL, and I could write him up for an article 15." "Yes, sir." "All right, we'll talk about this later." "All right, you guys." "No contact until we reach the objective." "If we're lucky, S-2 will be in the neighborhood, and we'll be able to get out of here by nightfall." "Let's saddle up!" "Taylor." "Glad you showed." "Don't mean I'm staying." "Ru!" "Ru, sarge said hold up." "I can't believe I'm out here putting my life on the line for some rich bitch who wouldn't give me the time of day." "Just think of us as well-on babysitters, Taylor." "All right." "The woman was seen by S-2 in this AO last night." "We're gonna go around the top of this ridge and try and come up behind them." "Taylor, you're on point." "Point?" "Yeah, you've heard of that." "Saddle up." "Sergeant!" "Have a look." "I want you and Taylor to take the two guys out by the river." "We'll send Percell in to snatch the girl." "We're gonna move downriver and cover you if it gets hot." "Percell!" "Uhh." "It's okay, we're Americans." "Americans." "No!" "Cover fire!" "Sarge!" "Get her!" "All right, get them out of there, now!" "Come on!" "Doc, check her out." "What's going on, doc?" "She all right?" "She's fine." "So's her baby." "LT, nobody said nothing about her having a baby." "Yeah." "Chu?" "Yes, sir?" "Ask her if this is her baby." "Of course it is." "What do you think?" "You speak English real good there, lady." "You do not." "All right, look, you're gonna be fine." "We're gonna take you home now." "You're from my husband." "That's right." "He's very worried about you." "But not about our daughter." "He wanted a son, an heir!" "Well, I'm real sorry about that." "Doc, see if you can give her something to calm her down." "We'll get a chopper in here." "You'll be home in a couple hours." "Fong?" "Lieutenant, your radio been hit." "Won't work." "Looks like it saved his life." "Oh, great." "All right, let's lose the radio." "Saddle up, you guys." "We're about five clicks from PZ Alpha." "LT, this lady doesn't need calming down." "She needs cooling down." "She's got a fever." "She shouldn't be walking." "Then we'll carry her." "Come on." "I can walk on my own." "Percell, you're on point." "Doc, you stick with the woman." "Taylor, give her a hand with the baby." "Let's go, princess." "Shh." "It's okay." "Water, please." "Marcus." "My baby..." "Give it to my baby." "Psst." "Hey, come on, now." "Keep it down back here." "I will talk as loud as I want until my baby is fed." "Just listen." "Plenty of LLRP rats here." "At least we agree on something." "I cannot feed my baby soldier's food." "Where is your bag?" "Uh, the LLRP rats have cream." "They have protein." "They're probably really good for the baby." "Okay?" "We having a party back here?" "This AO belongs to Charley, not to us." "We've got to get her fever down." "She should not be moving now." "Well, we've got to keep moving." "Doc, I don't care." "Give her pills." "Give her hot compresses." "Give her cold compresses." "Let's just keep going." "Even if it means killing her?" "Do what you can, but do it quietly." "She's gotta rest." "We can't stop." "We won't make the PZ on time." "LT, we stop now, or we kill her." "It might not matter, depending on how close on our tail they are." "There's always a later pickup." "All right, 15 minutes." "Thank you." "All right, why don't you take Percell?" "Double back." "See if we got company." "We'll meet you at this fork in the trail in 15 minutes." "Roger that." "Percell!" "Let's go!" "Psst!" "Little Tu is hungry." "Okay." "That will only make her sick again." "We have to do something to keep her from crying." "I can make baby food... from the herbs." "Shh!" "Anything?" "About a dozen VC half a click back, maybe more behind them." "All right, that's it." "Here on, we keep moving." "No more stopping to rest." "LT!" "She's gone!" "Perfect." "Percell, you stay here and maintain security." "Sergeant, you and Taylor, come on." "What the hell are you doing?" "I'm going home." "That's right." "We're gonna take you home." "I'm going to my village." "It is not far from here." "No, we are taking you back to your husband." "Those are our orders." "I do not belong to him." "Lan Nguyen's house is just another prison." "I escaped there once." "Wait a minute." "You saying you ran away from your husband?" "The VC didn't kidnap you?" "They kidnapped me, but only after" "I returned to my village." "After I left my husband." "Shh!" "Shh!" "Shh." "Shh." "You got a problem, Taylor?" "No, sir." "Good, because if you do, maybe you're not ready to be a sergeant." "What's that supposed to mean?" "It means doing whatever it takes to help keep your guys alive." "I'm prepared to do that." "If you want to be a sergeant, you better be prepared to do it, too." "Let's go." "Sergeant..." "Were those the same VC you saw before?" "No." "But they're gonna run right smack-dab into them." "Make one big happy hunting party." "Hell, we'll never make it to the PZ." "We lost too much time." "Lieutenant!" "Lieutenant!" "My village, On Li, very close." "Rest there." "Home." "Might not be a bad idea, LT." "Send somebody to the PZ, lead our choppers back to the village." "At least the choppers can land there." "Yeah, if it's friendly." "LT, whatever we do, she's had it." "She can't walk anymore." "We gotta have a stretcher." "Percell, you and Fong grab a couple of ponchos." "See if you can throw together a litter." "Ruiz!" "Sergeant, you and Ruiz head for the PZ as fast as you can." "If you're lucky, you'll make it by 1800 hours." "The VC will be on you before then, LT." "You're gonna need someone to slow them down." "Well, I can't spare two more men." "I can handle it." "I'll take a couple claymores," "I'll slow them down, create a diversion, buy you some time." "I can make the PZ on my own, LT." "I can't ask you to do that, Ru." "That's way above and beyond, you know?" "Hey, it's like a walk through Central Park, only not half as dangerous." "All right." "Good luck." "Sergeant." "Save me a seat on the chopper, LT." "Hey, princess, you made it." "You're home." "Tell them to come out of their hooches and move to the center of the village." "Come on out of there!" "Come on!" "Come on!" "I'm not gonna hurt you." "Come on, Mama-san, come on." "Come on!" "Percell!" "Check those back hooches." "Make sure they're coming out." "What's he saying?" "He says the woman brings death to his village." "She must go." "No, no." "You tell him we need some food for the baby, and we're gonna rest for a little while." "We'll stay here as long as we want." "Go ahead, tell him." "Hey..." "LT?" "Yeah, go ahead, go ahead." "I'll take care of the baby." "All right." "What's going on, sir?" "It's the same old thing." "They think we're poison." "They think she's poison." "They're afraid if we stay here too long," "Charley's gonna come punish them." "Doc, if you wanna take a break, I got it." "How you doing, princess?" "Here's your little one." "Thank you." "Not much of a homecoming, huh?" "They hate me here." "Two of the villagers were executed after I was kidnapped." "Why?" "As punishment for keeping an oppressor's wife." "And as a warning to the village not to help others." "It was stupid to come back here." "We have to leave." "We can't leave, princess." "You're sick." "And why should you leave?" "This is your home." "They think I am a soldier's whore." "To hell with them." "You got a right to be here." "But not a right to hurt all those people." "I cannot stay." "I cannot go!" "I belong to no one." "Long day, LT." "Long war." "Sarge should have been back by now." "Think he's okay?" "Yeah." "He's always made it back before." "Been doing some thinking, LT." "You may be right." "Maybe I'm not ready to be a sergeant." "You mean you're not ready to kill babies?" "That ain't what I meant, sir." "I don't fault you for that." "What you were doing was for your men, me included." "And I know I don't always show it, but..." "I appreciate it." "I just don't know if I could have done it." "You could have done it, Taylor." "I could have done it too." "Sometimes those are the only choices you're left with." "There it is." "You soldiers are very lucky." "Princess, we're just grunts doing our time for Uncle Sam." "There ain't nothing lucky about that." "But when your time is up, you will be free to go home." "I feel I no longer have a home." "Well, these people might change their mind, decide to let y'all stay." "It's too bad." "I bet it was beautiful around here when you were a kid." "Yes..." "I long for my childhood days." "After the French were gone, we thought that peace had come forever." "We played in that field across the road." "I wanted my daughter to play there." "That's why I came home." "Maybe she still can." "That is where the Viet Cong took the villagers to be executed." "There is blood on the ground." "No one will ever play there again." "Where ain't there blood on the ground?" "LT, you see that movement at 10 o'clock?" "Yeah." "Hey, get back!" "Get back in the village!" "Go, go!" "Get him back." "Keep going!" "Get out!" "Taylor, take Fong, flank right!" "Chu, you stick with me!" "Shh!" "You're okay." "Doc, you okay?" "Yeah, we're all right." "Shh!" "Okay." "Okay." "Where are the others?" "On Li village." "They got VC on their tail." "We need to call in support." "Flying tower 10, this is Goldilocks." "Request gunships." "Percell!" "Grab the woman and head for the jungle." "We're cut off!" "Cover me!" "Chopper, LT!" "Let's go!" "LT!" "Yeah." "Oh, man." "You okay?" "Yeah, I'm okay." "Nice work, Ru." "What about sarge?" "He make it back?" "I don't know." "Get over there and give doc a hand, will you?" "Doc, what can I get you?" "Water for him." "Princess..." "Princess!" "Princess!" "Princess!" "Oh, princess." "LT?" "She's gone." "What about the kid?" "She's okay." "All right." "Doc!" "Doc, get over here." "He's hurt pretty bad." "Fong's dead." "Is everyone else okay?" "Everybody but the people we were supposed to help." "Taylor..." "You okay?" "Nam..." "The damn Nam." "Easy, easy..." "I was not expecting you." "Did your commander not inform you that I would allow the artillery?" "Even though your mission was a failure." "Taylor..." "I was not told the child survived." "It's not the child." "It's your child." "You're all she's got now." "Take it." "She's your kid." "He won't take it, LT." "Just like you figured." "You're a son of a bitch." "You couldn't love this child any more than you loved your wife." "She was just an object." "Something to possess." "Show them out." "It looks like Sister Bernadette's got herself another boarder." "At least it's a home." "Is it?"