"Man." "Oh!" "Would you hurry it up?" "Ugh!" "Come on!" "Sir." "Ohh!" "Ohh." "Well, don't everybody leap to your feet at once." "How are you feeling?" "Now I know why pork ain't kosher for you, LT." "I swear, man, as long as I live," "I'm never eating sweet-and-sour pork again." "I'm never eating again." "Do y'all have to talk about food?" "Well, I'll tell you something." "The good thing about a little bit of food poisoning is it'll shoot right through you in about 24 hours." "Now, Taylor, you and Percell are gonna have to go on a prisoner detail for me." "Sure thing, LT." "You can count me in." "Forget it, Percell." "LT?" "I'd like to volunteer." "No way, Doc." "Unless you're prepared to carry a weapon and use it," "I have to count you out of this one." "Guess that leaves you, Ru." "Oh." "Excuse me a second, LT." "So how's everybody feeling this fine morning?" "Go away!" "Taylor!" "What's the matter with you?" "I thought you were tough!" "It's out of my control, Sarge." "Well, you know, LT, I never thought" "I'd be grateful that we ate at Lulu's last night." "Well, I hate to be the one to break it to you, sergeant, but it looks like I'm gonna have to give you this detail." "Let's try and find somebody who's not so sick to go with you." "Well, come on, it's not all that bad." "Fresh air will do you good." "You gotta learn to look at the bright side, LT." "What side is that?" "Well, Colonel Stringer said he'd give you another three-day pass when you get back, so nothing's lost." "So why don't you just sit back and enjoy the view here?" "Sergeant... this is just above latrine duty." "Yes, sir." "But Tay Ninh doesn't know that." "And since we don't have to pick the prisoner up till tomorrow morning," "I figure that gives us a night on the town to ourselves." "We're not on vacation." "Yes, sir." "Doesn't it tick you off that we gotta go along with all this just to escort some deserter?" "Well, sir, they're not my favorite breed of soldier either, but it's gotta be dealt with." "And I've been a member of this man's army long enough to know that when the brass gives you some time to yourself, you take it." "Well, maybe you're right, sergeant." "But the brass didn't exactly give us a three-day pass." "LT, you just gotta learn to read between the lines." "What about the detail?" "That's tomorrow's business." "Now, LT, with all respect," "I suggest we check in with the provost marshal, store our gear and then go out and do a little thinking for ourselves." "I guess we could get a steam and a steak." "Yeah, that's a real steak too, not that buffalo steak." "Yeah." "Didn't steer you wrong last time." "No, you didn't." "Don't imagine they have a Lulu's in Tay Ninh, do they?" "Oh, yeah!" "Franchise, drive-through." "Not buffalo." "I know that." "What is it?" "It's not bad." "1954 to 1967, this guy's an Army recruitment poster." "Yes, sir." "He's got more citations than General Westmoreland." "He's got silver, he's got bronze, he's got two Purple Hearts, and he's got a fistful of commendations." "LT?" "Mmm?" "Would you like another beer?" "Yeah." "Miss, excuse me." "Two more beers, please." "Okay, now we're cooking." "He assaulted his captain, fractured a couple of his ribs, and then..." "he went AWOL." "He's been gone for about 90 days." "I think we've got trouble." "Yes, sir." "He's already ruining a very good meal." "Okay, I get the point." "I will close this, I will put it over here" "I won't look at it till tomorrow." "Thank you." "What kind of guy deserts his buddies?" "A coward!" "Come on, Marcus." "You're the guy all the time telling us we ought not to be jumping to conclusions." "And I'm right." "But a deserter's a deserter." "Ohh!" "Well, hurry up!" "You know, if there was a guy thinking about deserting in our unit, I'd rather have him step forward and go home." "What?" "!" "Well, better that than in the middle of a firefight when he's supposed to be watching my back." "Look, uh, one of you guys has got to hurry, okay?" "One second, Danny." "You know, Ru, you have a point there, man." "Take Doc here." "Doc might be a squirrelly little long-haired, redneck, pinko, consci medic, but I know he wouldn't desert me in battle." "Thank you." "Oh, hell!" "Danny?" "Come back here with that!" "So tell me, LT, what did you think?" "My father told me about your kind." "My kind?" "Mm-hm." "You know, lifers." "Square-jawed, take-it- on-the-chin kind of guys, hate to break in new officers." "Heh-heh." "Well, you were better than most." "Oh, come on." "You were just waiting for me to step in it." "And you did too." "Yeah, I did." "But I was following you." "Well, to be honest with you, LT, you've made a damn fine officer." "Half the time, I find myself learning from you." "Yeah." "Your turn." "Sir?" "You know, what did you think of me the first time you saw me?" "Heh-heh." "No way." "Come on, sergeant." "Come on." "Well, sir..." "I remember the first time I laid eyes on you..." "I started calculating how long till my DEROS." ""Lord, take me home."" "Oh." "That bad, huh?" "Well, we all gotta start somewhere, right?" "Well, I'll tell you, though... a lot of officers, you know, they start out thinking they know everything, and they make a lot of mistakes because of that." "You are the first officer I met who was willing to learn the rules that were not written in the book." "Yes, sir." "And I guess I knew I was blessed with somebody who could help teach me my job." "You did that." "And you're a fine leader." "And I knew that my trust was not misplaced, so..." "Yeah." "Mmm!" "I got a letter from Johnson the other day." "Yeah?" "How's he doing?" "Well, he's adjusting just fine." "He's enjoying his classes, got a new girlfriend." "He says he's put on a few pounds because of his momma's cooking." "And, uh..." "Oh, heh, he says he wants to grow him an Afro." "You know, I was thinking about growing an afro when I get home." "No, sir, don't do that." "Put that ammo over here." "Yes, sir!" "Sorry to get you gentlemen off to such a late start." "That's all right, sir." "I think we can still make it to Long Binh Jail before dark." "Yeah, the LT's got the road to LBJ down cold, colonel." "I would've preferred to get you off at the crack of dawn, but this SOB jumped out the latrine window stark-naked." "Took us two hours to track him down." "Well, we'll make sure we cuff him to the back of the jeep, sir." "I should have known when it took five MPs to bring this deserter in." "Don't let him get away, lieutenant." "No, sir." "I will personally deliver him to the provost marshal." "Come on, move it!" "Here he comes now." "Don't you worry about a thing, sergeant." "Your little lady's gonna be in mighty fine hands while you're doing hard time." "Matter of fact, our whole company's planning on adopting her." "We'll keep her employed, if you know what I mean." "You think you were going crazy in that cell?" "Wait till you see the small, little ones they got waiting for you in Leavenworth." "That's enough!" "Staff Sergeant Jonathan Digby delivered, lieutenant." "Good luck." "You remember me?" "Anderson?" "You know this guy, sergeant?" "Germany, '63." "It's good to see you." "You've come a long way." "Ah, don't let him get to you, sergeant." "And you, shut up." "Right." "How long you been in the Army?" "Five days?" "How we doing, sergeant?" "Almost done here, LT." "So, Digby... you seemed kind of familiar with those MPs back there." "Yeah, we exchanged addresses." "Oh, you're a real hard case now, aren't you?" "Well, tell me something." "How'd the soldier I knew back in Wiesbaden turn into you?" "Do you remember that idealistic soldier that collapsed next to you after that 30-mile march?" "Oh, yeah." "You were a sight to behold." "And you tried to tell me that I wasn't indestructible, that everyone had a breaking point." "Well... you were full of hormones, grits and vinegar back then." "And you were right." "All right, sergeant." "We're running behind." "We're gonna have to take an alternate route to make up some time." "Here we go." "Come on." "Come on." "All aboard." "Up." "Couldn't you find a lower place, so I really have to bend over?" "LT... these jeeps weren't really made for transporting prisoners." "Couldn't we just cuff his hands?" "We talking about the same man that escaped from the holding pen this morning?" "Look, my legs are chained, there's nowhere to run, you have the weapons, so shoot me!" "You watch him." "Thanks." "Okay." "Lieutenant McKay helped to, uh, liberate some of this stuff from the dispensary for us." "Marcus, take about, uh, two tablespoons of this every six hours." "Two every 12 hours." "Take two of these every four hours." "Now I know what it's like to be gut shot." "If this stuff does cure me," "I hope God have mercy on my soul to let me into heaven." "Heaven?" "You believe in heaven, Taylor?" "I don't know anymore." "So much bad going on in the world, can't be too many people up there." "There's a heaven, Taylor." "And I'm going to it." "Oh, yeah?" "What's heaven like, Percell?" "It's like..." "Baja, California." "Wide-open... nature... water... dirt roads going off into nowhere." "You can pick a piece of fruit off a tree and not worrying about it being a booby trap." "Sleep at night looking up at the stars." "And that noise in the bushes ain't trying to kill you." "Yeah, there's a heaven, and that's where I'm going when I die." "Sounds like heaven to me." "Baja..." "I even speak the language." "So, lieutenant?" "Hmm?" "First time up close and personal with a deserter?" "Oh, I've seen all kinds." "You wouldn't know a real soldier if he was sitting behind you." "I'll tell you what," "I saw enough back there at the MP sta..." "Son of a bitch MP punched my wife when they tried to arrest me!" "Now what would you do if he punched Carol?" "Carol and I got divorced, Digby." "Sorry." "Is your wife Vietnamese?" "Yeah." "Peasant girl." "Doesn't speak English." "Who would have figured?" "You leave because of her?" "Yeah." "Great justification for going AWOL, Digby." "I don't have to justify anything to you, lieutenant." "I gave 14 solid years to the Army, three of them in Nam, two of those humping up boonies." "And then I re-upped for six more." "Then what are you doing here?" "I met Lu Phan and changed my mind." "You gotta be kidding." "About marrying a Vietnamese?" "No." "About changing your mind." "What about your commitment to the Army?" "What about the Army's commitment to me?" "I've spent two months in the 29th Evac Hospital recovering from my second tour." "Four days out, still numb, and not giving a damn." "Captain Bishop slides reenlistment papers in front of me." "What else am I gonna do?" "So Lu Phan changed your mind?" "Not really." "But when I snapped out of it, she happened to be there." "Right time, right place." "So you left?" "No, I didn't just leave!" "I explained the situation to Captain Bishop, asked to be transferred back to the States, have my tour shortened." "He turned me down." "Man's hated me ever since I survived Operation Morningstar." "And I've been through too much to be treated that way." "Digby, what the hell do you think you're doing?" "There's mines in the road." "Check it out, Sarge." "LT..." "NVA mine." "That's affirmative, Six, we only found the three, but I believe the entire road's mined." "So we doubled back." "We're gonna take an alternate route east." "This is Viking Four." "Roger, out." "All right, we're almost out of time here." "We're gonna take 30 minutes, choke back some food, then we're back on the road." "Keep an eye on him, sergeant." "He always this gung ho?" "Or does he put his pants on one leg at a time like the rest of us?" "Oh, give me a break!" "Come on, Digby." "Come on." "I bet your whole unit jumps into both legs at once." "Shut up, will you?" "Shut up." "So you think you have to die to make a contribution?" "It all depends on the circumstances." "Look, I was there, pal." "That's a load of Army BS." "It sounds like you and Captain Bishop came out of the same cookie cutter." "Operation Morningstar?" "Yeah, Sông Be River." "If they had any guts, they'd teach it at infantry school:" ""How Not to Win a War."" "Thirty-four dead, three survivors." "Yeah, well, Parrish..." "Parrish is still in the nuthouse." "Baldwin rotated home and got shot by a cop looting a furniture store." "And, uh, me..." "No survivors." "Look, Digby, you haven't got a monopoly on horror stories." "You can't just make up your own rules and walk away whenever you want to." "You know, you don't have to understand, lieutenant, but if I didn't go, I'd be more of a liability than an asset." "Oh, so you just broke a couple of your captain's ribs on the way out?" "Can't explain it to you, LT." "Can't explain it." "But he deserved it." "I'll be back." "What did he do?" "Deserter." "Oh." "Only in the Army." "I never hear of any of us Air Force personnel turning tail, now, do you?" "Never heard of any blue-suiters in the trenches either." "Oh, you lowlife piece of Army trash..." "Hey, hey." "Think maybe we can keep this friendly this afternoon?" "Why don't you stay out of this?" "Yeah, stay out of it." "Don't push it, Digby." "Yeah." "Now, you started this whole thing anyway, didn't you, huh?" "Hey!" "Hey, GI, GI, GI!" "Are you all right?" "Those your buddies?" "Yeah." "Come on, come on." "We're not gonna get out of here till after dark." "I can't believe how long those MPs kept us back there at that bar." "I mean, you'd think they'd believe a lieutenant over an Air Force mechanic." "Shut up, Digby." "Hey, that was one hell of a left-right we threw at them guys, huh?" "LT, it's about time for us to check in." "Yeah, we should have been there by now." "Well, we'll be there in another couple hours." "Hand me the radio." "LT!" "Damn it!" "Get him back in the jeep." "You tell me something, Digby." "You tell me something." "What the hell is the matter with you?" "Haven't you read your code of conduct?" "I'm a prisoner." "It's my duty to try and escape." "LT." "Not now, sergeant." "You lock him to the floorboards if you have to." "Now, you listen to me and you listen real good." "If I hear you open your mouth again, or you try and escape one more time," "I swear I'm going to lock you..." " LT!" " Not now!" "...and drag you all the way there." "Have you got me, soldier?" "LT." "What?" "What?" "LT... easy." "Lieutenant." "Shut up." "Lieutenant." "Put a lid on it, Digby." "What did he say?" "The rains have washed out the road between here and the main road to Saigon." "Well, we're way off schedule as it is, LT." "Yeah." "Ask him if we can make it through before dark." "It's an hour back to the nearest town." "Yeah, and this doesn't look too good." "Um..." "Ask him if we can stay in his village tonight." "Uh..." "That's affirmative, Six." "The name is Pran, and he claims to be commander of the local Popular Forces, break." "Roger, we copy." "We've got a secured prisoner." "We'll reestablish contact at 1700 hours." "Roger, out." "Hockenbury." "What are you doing here?" "Trying to get better, sir." "Better?" "This is where we got sick." "Mind over matter." "You know, you gotta get back up on the horse." "You are the most nonviolent lunatic" "I have ever met, Hockenbury." "Well, thank you, sir." "Actually, I've always been nonviolent." "The lunacy came with Vietnam." "Yeah, I know how you feel." "Actually, it's, uh..." "It's a little bit worse than you think, sir." "I'm beginning to understand why we're over here." "Really?" "Yeah." "Well, that's funny, because it's getting harder and harder for me to see that every day." "Well, I guess once you go around the bend, one way or the other..." "it's time to go back home." "Chow ain't ready for another 30 minutes." "Come back later." "Oh, God!" "Phew!" "You know, Hockenbury I think I'm starting to feel a little bit better." "Yeah?" "Yeah." "Well, that's a... kind of good news, bad news sort of thing, sir." "Yeah, why's that?" "Well, the better you feel, the more likely you are to go back there and eat." "Hey, sir, do you want me to mix up that salad?" "Yeah." "It's no good, LT." "We're out of radio range." "Well, at least they know where we are." "Digby asleep?" "Looks like it." "I wouldn't take a bet on it." "Well, believe it or not, LT, he was a good soldier." "No, I believe it." "He spotted that mine in the road before we did." "And his record speaks for itself." "I don't know what happened to him." "Neither do I." "But I know what's gonna happen to him." "General court martial?" "Two-to-five in Leavenworth?" "That's just for desertion." "Wait till they tack on the escape and assault charges." "No." "No!" "No." "I'll tell you," "I can't figure out why a guy would throw away his whole life for just a couple of punches and a few months with a wife he barely knew." "Oh, hell, LT, he didn't do anything that our guys haven't done." "His mistake was he hit the wrong guy and he stayed away longer." "It isn't fair." "No, it's not fair." "But that's the Army." "Sergeant, did I ever...?" "What?" "Oh, nothing." "What?" "Well, you remember that time that I saved all those people in the bar right before Charlie blew it up?" "Well, yeah." "You were a hero on the TV." "Well, that's kind of a fine line." "You see, the truth of the matter was" "I was pretty drunk." "Alex and McKay had..." "Oh, it didn't really matter." "But I was drunk and I was in this bar." "So I pulled out my side arm because I was angry and I took a shot right at a dartboard." "Scared the hell out of everybody in the bar." "And in about 10 seconds, the bar was clear." "No!" "Yes!" "Well, did you at least hit the bull's eye?" "No." "I'll tell you something, though." "If that bullet had just..." "veered one way or another and killed a civilian," "I'd be warming up the cell in Leavenworth for Digby right now." "Well, there are two sides to every story." "Yeah." "But we got our orders." "No!" "No!" "Whoa, whoa, whoa." " Hang on, hold on, hold on." " Zeke!" "I wasn't trying to escape." "I know that." "Just take a breath, take a breath." "Breathe." "I'll die if I sleep in that hut." "The walls..." "they close in." "Let me stay out here." " You can chain me to a tree." " All right, all right." "Calm down." "We'll find you a place to lie down where I can keep an eye on you." "Sergeant, go ahead and get some shuteye." "I'll wake you up in a couple hours." "I got the first watch." "Go ahead." "Oh, God." "Oh." "Thank you." "Here." "Yeah." "Ah." "Say." "Hi, Digby." "Thanks." "So, uh... do you mind telling me what happened last night?" "Oh, it was a bad dream." "Things seemed to be all right once we got you outside here." "Walls." "I hate to tell you this, old buddy, but Leavenworth's got walls." "Yeah, so do barracks, mess halls, libraries, offices... everywhere." "So what are you gonna do?" "Run forever and live in an open field?" "You know, 37 guys just cruising on the banks of the Sông Be, looking for VC ammo dumps." "Was a cush gig, Zeke." "Just cush." "No one knew we were over the heart of their tunnel complex." "One minute the jungle monkeys are screeching, and the next, we're surrounded by hundreds of NVA." "My boys panicked." "And they cut us to shreds." "Yeah, we heard about Sông Be." "I was shot in three places and I ran out of ammo when they made their last charge." "I pulled one of my men on top of me." "I played dead." "Then..." "Then those animals, they bayoneted all the bodies." "And I just tried... not to breathe." "I was trying not to move." "Then a point went right through Hawkins into my chest, and I was so scared, so angry, I didn't even feel it." "But his blood..." "His blood was everywhere." "It was in my nose, it was in my mouth." "I just..." "I..." "I started choking." "Oh, God." "Oh, God, Zeke." "There was no air." "There was no room." "They, uh..." "They just stayed in the area, it must have been an eternity." "I don't think I breathed for hours." "And later... in the hospital, I woke up screaming in the middle of the night." "They had to put the bed on the lawn, Zeke." "They put it..." "They put it..." "I mean, they put a freaking hospital bed out there on the... damn lawn." "So did you get help?" "Oh." "Oh, help." "Ah." "Ah, help." "Yeah." "Army shrinks, they just made a topo map out of my mind." "The thing is," "I had it pretty much under control, Zeke... until that... bastard Bishop intentionally assigned me to the supply room." "Just walls... and boxes." "And, you know... the guy just laughed at me when I asked for a transfer." "And so you hit him?" "Well... did you get him good?" "Hold it, hold it, hold it." "NVA ambush." "At least 15, maybe more." "In thirty minutes, there's gonna be a U.S. convoy on the worst part of the road." "Sergeant, how long do you think it'll take to make radio contact with MACV?" "About 30 minutes." "Not enough time, LT." "All right, come on." "Oh, damn it!" "This manual doesn't go down to frequencies at convoy level." "Can't we just roll the dial and try 'em all?" "No, that'll be a needle in a haystack." "Hey, these guys are civilian defense." "That means they've got to be in contact with the district chief." "Twenty minutes, LT." "Will your people fight?" "If you lead, they will." "Come on." "What do you say?" "What, you think I'm gonna run?" "Yeah, that thought crossed my mind." "If it hits the fan, you're gonna need me." "I'd take the chance." "There they are." "Looks like they've got about three or four attack points in vehicular ambush." "Oh, damn it." "They've got RPGs." "Have a look." "Digby." "See if Pran can take two guys." "Go about 40 meters that way." "Sergeant, I want you to take the rest of these troops and spread 'em out." "Let's try and make 'em think we're bigger than we are." "Convoy's coming." "No more time." "Arggh!" "Arggh!" "LT, grenade!" "Thanks." "Don't mention it." "Arggh!" "Cease fire!" "Cease fire!" "Hold your fire!" "Up the main way, push it on through." "Yeah, thanks a lot." "All right, all right." "Well, sergeant, that's a real compelling story." "I just hope they take it into consideration at the court martial." "Yes, sir." "You saw him in that hut last night." "Yeah, I did." "And if he can't survive Leavenworth, well, they'll send him to a shrink." "Anyway, it's not for us to decide." "We're on a prison detail." "I know that, LT." "It's just that sometimes it seems like the system eats its young." "Well, sometimes it can be a cruel system, but you've still got to be responsible for your own actions." "Bull's eye?" "Okay, okay." "Let's think about this rationally." "If we leave him out here at some rice paddy farm, how long do you think it's gonna be before the VC or the NVA or the MPs catch up with him?" "Sorry." "Hey, regulations." "Digby." "You did real well out there." "It's no big deal." "Half of those things are duds anyway." "Well, I wish things could turn out differently." "I mean it." "And I'd like to testify at your court martial on your behalf." "We were going to go to Australia." "Can't get any more wide open than that." "So I heard you and Anderson John-Wayne'd it out there, saved a truck convoy, or something like that." "That's right." "And?" "How did you lose the prisoner?" "Well, we were outnumbered about 10-to-1." "And all hell was breaking loose, let me tell you." "I mean, RPGs, mortars, grenades." "And they were airmailing 'em to us too, buddy." "Sarge, what about them Ruff Puffs?" "They pull their weight?" "Saved our bacon." "How'd Sergeant Digby do?" "Not bad for a deserter." "Oh, yeah." "The man was a hero." "So where is he now?" "Well, when the smoke cleared, all there was was a mortar hole where Digby was standing." "We never did find the body." "Oh, come on." "And no one saw him after that?" "Nope." "Come on." "It's true, McKay." "You are such a pushover."