"This is awful, Carl." "What a waste." "You're right, colonel." "Damn right, I'm right." "We put enough artillery into this place to obliterate Pittsburgh, and what do we got to show for it?" "Ferguson." "Ferguson!" "He's dead, man." "He's dead, Johnson." "Found some web gear, colonel." "Pieces." "This... and one NVA headgear with a bullet hole." "That's all." "Like you said, colonel, too much time." "They carried out all their dead and their wounded." "What's your estimate?" "A lot of blood trails." "I guess a body count of 20 or so." "Better make it 30." "Thirty?" "Hell, make it 50." "We know they were here, we know we hit 'em." "What's that?" "Ferguson, the RTO." "They found... parts of him." "Any sign of Goldman or Anderson?" "No, sir." "Nothing." "Order an air recon of the area and lift this company out of here, and no duty for Goldman's platoon tomorrow." "They earned it." "Yes, sir, colonel." "Three good men blown to hell for nothing." "Not one dink body." "A damn shame." "It's a real damn shame." "We are going out to look for them before we pull out, aren't we, captain?" "You heard the colonel, Percell." "He called for an air search." "Captain, the lieutenant was wounded." "Him and sarge would have gotten under cover." "What if the dinks took them?" "Either way, they'll never see them from the air." "Saddle up." "We're pulling out." "Well, how about it?" "I mean, it looks to me like we're the only chance sarge and LT got." "I say we stay behind and look for them." "You're talking AWOL, Danny." "It wouldn't stop either of them if it was one of us in trouble." "The four of us can't cover enough ground." "At least we'd be doing something." "Yeah, getting our butts shot off." "What, Johnson, you're not up to it?" "Yeah, I'm up to it." "I'd do anything for sarge and LT, but this is dumb." "What about you, Marcus?" "Wasting your time and mine." "Even if they was alive... they could be anywhere." "I'll stay with you, Danny, but they're right." "We ain't got no chance, man." "Coming?" "Come on, man." "I'm telling you..." "they're out here, Ru." "Come on." "Several vibrations." "The way she was pounding," "I thought I was going to lose her fillings and maybe the teeth too." "Just track the rotor, that ought to do it for now." "Any sign of them, LT?" "No, nothing." "Latrine duty's bad enough, but, man, does he have to burn that stuff upwind?" "It's always upwind for the guy that has to burn it, lieutenant." "Are you going back out?" "Not today." "Me and the guys'll go with you." "Four sets of fresh eyes, and you might be able to see something." "I'm going back at 0600." "You're welcome to come along then." "Lieutenant, we shouldn't wait." "If LT and sarge are hurt, a few hours can make a difference." "Percell, my chopper won't fly." "If I try to fly it, it'll fall down." "Understand?" "It's gotta be fixed." "Couldn't we just...?" "Damn it, private!" "I want those guys found just as much as you do, but in 30 minutes, it's going to be dark, and that's not enough time to do any good." "Well, I'm sorry, lieutenant," "I just feel like we ought to be doing something." "Yeah, I know you do." "A lot of us feel that way." "Well, okay, we'll..." "We'll be here in the morning." "Thanks." "All right, buddy." "I didn't think you knew how to fieldstrip a rifle." "Yeah, Marcus, I thought all you could fieldstrip was somebody else's wallet." "I take care of business." "Different times, different business." "Right now this business needs doing." "You know, we could have jumped off that chopper." "We should have jumped off once we saw sarge and LT weren't going to make it." "We shouldn't have left them, man." "We should have stayed with them." "Hey, come on, Ru." "We should have, damn it!" "Might have made a difference, Marvin." "Might have got 'em out... alive." "Man, I don't know." "I just don't know." "I mean, I feel ashamed." "You know, but I..." "I can't help but feel like if it can happen to sarge... it can happen to me now... or any one of us." "Maybe all of us." "It always could." "Maybe." "I just know I felt safer with sarge around, no matter how sticky it got, and I don't feel that way now." "Listen at you two." "You're sounding like two kids." "Oh, shut up, Marcus." "If you'd have jumped off that chopper, sarge would've drop kicked your sorry ass back home." "What the hell's the matter with you?" "You're what's the matter." "You learn anything from sarge?" "Why don't you tell me what I missed?" "I'll tell you what he'd tell you now." "He'd tell you to put this behind you and stay alive." "You expect a body bag, that's what'll happen." "And I don't want you dragging me or anybody else in there with you." "So, what about it?" "What did McKay say?" "He said to meet him at first light." "Hey, at least we'll be doing something." "Yeah, well, little enough, if you ask me." "What happened?" "What's eating you?" "Nothing!" "We need people on the ground looking for 'em." "Come on, man, you know the Army has its way of doing things." "That's a lot of crap." "When we go out there tomorrow," "I'm going to tell McKay to set us on the ground to look for 'em." "You guys gotta back me up." "Just as long as you don't do nothing stupid." "Yeah, well, all I'm gonna do right now is hit the showers, head for the club." "Maybe a couple beers will help me sleep." "Cat's coming unglued." "We all are, man." "You too." "Alex." "I can't stop in the middle of this, Johnny." "Oh, come on, no story's that important." "This one is." "It's about Myron and Zeke, and I've got to get it down while it's still fresh in my mind." "It's the best piece I've written since I came to this war." "Wait a minute." "Alex!" "What?" "This says he's dead." "I came to tell you we didn't find anything, but you've already got him dead, and you're filling in his grave." "I'll admit, you sent him off in style, but come on." "I knew you weren't going to find him." "He's gone." "Now, I'm sorry for that, Johnny, but I knew it was coming." "Alex, I know better than anybody how much you love him." "It was over between us." "Oh, come on, you're lying to yourself." "Goldman deserves better than this." "Sure, lie about loving him, but don't deny the guy his life." "He's not dead, he's missing." "I don't want to talk about him, Johnny." "Alex." "I don't want to talk about it." "Can't you understand I do?" "You know, I'm scared as hell that what you say is true." "That they're both gone for good." "Hey, Johnson." "I guess we can call you sarge now, huh?" "We still got a sarge!" "What'd you do that for?" "You said I wanted to take sarge's place in the platoon." "No way, man." "I just saw your E-5 papers go through today." "You're on your way to being a buck sergeant." "Hey, I'm sorry, man." "I'll tell you what, the rest of Chambers' beer is on me." "Hey, come back tomorrow night, Johnson." "I'll, uh..." "I'll turn the other cheek." "Did you play this song, Danny?" "Sounds like somebody ran over a dog." "Helps me think, Marcus." "What do you got to think about, Percell?" "What's going on." "What's going on?" "You mean what's happening?" "No, I mean what's going on." "I can't understand what's going on." "What's going on is one of us is getting real drunk." "Why aren't we out there looking for sarge and LT?" "You know, it don't seem like the Army is..." "Is looking out for its guys anymore." "It don't seem like the Army... is in charge of this fight." "Well, who is?" "That's what I want to know." "We are, Danny Percell." "Us grunts." "I'm General Ruiz, and this here is Rear Admiral Johnson." "Wait, why has it got to be rear admiral?" "No, hey, come on, guys." "That's bull!" "I'm serious!" "We kicked Charlie Cong's butt at Tet." "And they get rid of Westmoreland?" "That's crazy." "There it is." "Out of the mouths of drunks." "If they ain't gonna send any more guys over here... to help us win this thing... well, what do you suppose is gonna happen to us?" "They'll leave us here until we all get zapped." "That's what they'll do." "Who's this "they" you keep talking about?" "You tell me." "Is it the long-haired homos I keep seeing on the TV?" "Is it the TV news?" "They lied about Tet..." "and a whole lot more." "Them people back home, guys, hey, they don't know what to think." "You say, "Who?"" "Well, I don't know... who." "But I'll tell you what..." "I just ain't so hot to be part of it anymore." "Drunks and jealous women, they'll talk your arm off without making a lick of sense." "We got to meet McKay at 0600." "I'm hitting the rack." "Me too." "I had about all the good time I could stand." "Take it easy, brother." "Are you coming?" "Think I'll have one more... brew." "If they can walk, they'll be looking for friendlies, so we're gonna look a couple klicks to the south." "What if they can't walk?" "Put us in and let us look." "Negative." "It's too slow." "We'd be wasting what time we got." "How's that leg, LT?" "Don't count on me for volleyball." "And it's hot." "I think it's infected." "Maybe they got a doctor." "I think I'll stick with the infection." "LT, they get the idea you're slowing down, they'll do something rash." "Push up against me." "Nice day, ain't it?" "Listen here, you got a doctor?" "Bàc sï?" "My friend here has got his leg hurt." "Doctor?" "You're breaking his heart." "Hey, I noticed y'all are having lunch over there." "Looks good." "I don't know about you, LT, but I'd like, uh, uh, a cheeseburger, no onions, and a small order of fries." "Where do you figure they're taking us?" "If they were gonna give us to the VC, they would have done it by now." "I think we're going north." "Well, the further we get in their territory, the harder it'll be to get away." "Yeah, if we're gonna make a move, we better make it soon." "Can you run?" "Hell, I'll fly if I have to." "Mama-san, untie, so I can eat." "Wanna swap lunch?" "Mine's got sauce on it." "That's good." "It's very good." "That's the kind of story that made your reputation as one of our best." "Well, I'm flattered, Mr. Siddons." "It's the truth, not flattery, and call me Howard." "But I didn't fly all the way to Saigon to talk about your past work." "No, ma'am." "I came to talk about your future." "You're going to Paris." "Paris?" "The peace talks?" "Well, the focus of this war is changing." "The negotiations in Paris, that's the next chapter." "But it's not finished here." "There are American boys who aren't old enough to vote or buy a beer back home, and they're still being blown apart here." "What's decided in Paris will have more to do with their futures than what happens here." "If they live through what happens here." "Alex... this assignment is a career-maker." "I want it to be yours." "You deserve it." "I don't know." "Listen, one of the men in that story, we were close, and..." "I feel he's dead," "I..." "I'm almost sure of it, but I..." "I couldn't leave without knowing." "You understand?" "I do, but the kind of confirmation you're talking about can take a long time," "I don't have a long time." "I'm assigning the job before I leave for New York tomorrow night." "Um..." "I'll know by then." "Hey!" "Stop it!" "He can't get up!" "No!" "Stop!" "Stop it!" "No!" "No!" "Hey!" "Stop it!" "Thanks, man." "About to ruin my new suit." "You okay?" "Just wet." "Maybe now I can get the ropes loosened up a little bit." "Danny!" "You got it!" "All right?" "You got it!" "One dead mother footlocker, okay?" "We should have found something." "We should have found 'em, Ru." "There's a damn war going on, man!" "They're doing everything they can, all right?" "Ru, what is with you?" "You keep talking the damn Army line!" "Hey!" "Put a lid on it." "Who are you to bitch?" "You think you're the only one who feels the loss?" "You ain't got no corner on feelings!" "Oh!" "Maybe not, but it's not yours to call." "You weren't there, remember?" "You had your nose so over that lieutenant's skirt, you couldn't think straight." "Sarge sent you home on a dust-off with the wounded!" "You think I forgot that?" "Could've made the difference!" "It wouldn't matter!" "It might have!" "It wouldn't have mattered!" "Your time comes when it comes, Danny!" "And that's it!" "It was their time, man." "Knock it off!" "I said, break it up!" "We're rolling out at 0500." "That's 600 rounds for the pig, Ru." "Rifles packed, 300 rounds, plus four grenades." "That's three frags and a smoke." "Rations for one day." "Where'd you get your information?" "Captain Sykes gave it to me." "He also gave me your sorry butts." "Congratulations, sergeant." "Do you see the guard?" "Yeah." "He's asleep." "I could use some sleep myself." "I heard that." "I figure we're in the Boi Loi Woods somewhere." "Now, there's a branch of the Ho Chi Minh trail that ends somewhere around here." "That puts us by the Saigon River." "About two or three klicks east," "I'm guessing." "I figure they'd keep us here and then put us on the red, going north." "Well, you know what, LT?" "We ain't the first ones." "I mean..." "Not in this little old cage." "Hey!" "Thank you." "What do you need?" "The battle at Binh Khê two days ago, two Americans might have survived." "Would your VC friends know?" "Many have been killed." "They filled trunks with soldiers from north." "Very risky to ask." "It's important to me." "One of the Americans was Goldman." "Many favors in the past." "Which I've rewarded." "Risk become greater." "So does the reward." "Here." "I try." "LT." "Yeah." "Got my hands free." "Can you untie your feet?" "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!" "Come on." "Got 'em." "Give me your feet." "Take off." "Give me your feet." "Take off." "Forget it, he's coming." "Get out of here." "All right." "I'll be back." "I'll be back." "Dung lai." "Didi mau." "I don't want to hurt you now." "Get out of my way." "What do you think, sergeant?" "Is there a lesson?" "English." "He's talking English." "Do you understand, sergeant?" "Staff sergeant." "Clayton Ezekiel Anderson." "That's a boot." "That's my boot." "Those maggots took my boots." "Citizen Dong lost his arm to the American artillery." "He hates Americans, like all loyal citizens." "The people of the countryside would have killed you if my men had not been there to protect you." "Do you understand, sergeant?" "I hear you." "You tried to go to the river, but there was a field of mines in front of you." "You were lucky that Dong caught you, or you would have been killed." "You were lucky twice." "You escaped death at the hands of the loyal citizens, and you escaped death from the field of mines." "Try and flee again, and I will execute you both." "Tell you what, it feels pretty strange being out here without sarge." "I know." "We'll have to be pretty lucky to get ourselves back this time." "Hey, come on, guys." "Don't bunch up." "Watch your intervals." "While I'm watching their intervals, why don't you put a muzzle on those two?" "Yeah, hold down the yackety-yak." "We're not going to the beach." "What's the holdup, sergeant?" "No holdup, sir." "This is a coordinated hammer-and-anvil operation, sergeant." "You know what that means?" "We set up an ambush, and the company drives the enemy towards us." "And what happens if we're not in position on time?" "It don't work." "Succinct, sergeant." ""It don't work."" "So get with it." "Yes, sir." "Hey, come on." "Don't bunch up." "Watch your step." "Keep your mouths shut." "Hey, watch your intervals." "Watch where you're pointing your weapon." "Watch your step." "I'm sorry, Miss Devlin." "Nothing?" "They knew nothing." "It was not their battle." "It was NVA." "Well, isn't there someone else?" "I know nobody else who would know of your friends." "Be sure those claymores are well hidden, sergeant." "Yes, sir." "I'll check them myself." "And no tripwires." "Command detonation only." "I want prisoners, not body count." "Sir?" "The NVA uses these Boi Loi Woods to connect with the Ho Chi Minh Trail." "Colonel Stringer thinks we might bag a few prisoners, get some up-to-date intelligence." "Your men ready?" "Yes, sir." "They're ready." "Johnny?" "No." "No, it's not that." "Nothing's changed." "They're still just missing, but the, uh..." "The search mission has been terminated." "Well, then, that is it, isn't it, huh?" "Army thinks he's dead too." "No, that's not it." "The air search mission didn't find anything." "That's all it means." "Look, there's a company out there right now with orders to bring back prisoners." "They're going to find out what happened, Alex." "No, I'll tell you what happened." "He died." "He died fighting a stupid war that nobody cares about!" "Alex, look..." "Don't..." "I do love him, Johnny." "You know, I always felt his presence when he was gone..." "And I know he's not coming back." "Why do I keep thinking about train wrecks?" "Wait till you see what I did to the other guy." "So, what do you think?" "Can we trust that guy?" "We don't have any choice." "Come on." "Great." "What are we going to do with a prisoner?" "Why don't we just do what they do to us?" "American!" "Didi mau." "Didi mau." "Didi mau." "I don't think so." "All right, listen, why are you helping us?" "We're Americans." "VC..." "VC..." "American, didi mau." "Come on." "Dong." "Dong?" "VC!" "VC!" "It's as confirmed as it's ever going to be." "The Army's even stopped looking for them, so..." "I'm sorry, Alex, and I feel for your loss, but you're doing the best thing." "Am I?" "I don't know." "I feel guilty for leaving, but I can't even bear the thought of staying here... not now." "I'll take care of everything." "Congratulations, Alex." "Thanks." "I lost them!" "I don't see them." "You're in the ballpark." "Keep firing!" "I saw them a few meters to your right." "Thumper!" "Use your damn thumper!" "LT, those are American weapons!" "Yeah, and you look like an Irish VC." "Hey!" "We're Americans!" "We're Americans!" "We're Americans!" "We're Americans!" "They're hollering they're Americans!" "Sure they are." "I'm Ho Chi Minh!" "Americans!" "Americans!" "You know, I think the kid with the 79s has never used it before." "Oh, forget it, there's only two of them." "Percell!" "Come on, guys, give him some cover!" "Hold your fire!" "Hold your fire!" "Hold your fire!" "Hold it!" "He's in the line of fire!" "Percell!" "Are you all right?" "Sarge?" "Yeah." "Yeah." "Percell, what's going on?" "It's okay!" "It's sarge and LT!" "Hold your fire!" "You see that?" "Yeah, I see it." "All right!" "Come on!" "Come on!" " Look out!" " Where are they?" "Sir!" "Sir!" "It's a company, NVA regulars!" "They're hitting both ends of the line." "Collapse the flanks." "Pull 'em back." "Set a perimeter." "Ruiz!" "10 meters to your right!" "Johnson, get up here!" "New fire lane." "Here to here." "Percell!" "About 10 meters out that way, green line, 30 meters." "We're circling the wagon, sarge?" "Yeah, something like that." "Anybody ever hear of General Custer?" "Look out!" "Look out!" "Oh!" "I can't see!" "I can't see!" "Hold it!" "They're pulling back." "Green River 6, this is Black Jack 6." "The rest of Green River Company is one-half klick to your November-Echo." "ETA is zero-four mikes." "Hang tight." "Out." "Are you real?" "Yeah." "I'm real." "I'm here." "Oh, man." "I'm having a bad dream." "I ain't even asleep, and I'm having a bad dream here." "Evening, sarge." "Hey, sarge." "Whoa, whoa, whoa." "Wait a minute." "You can't do this to me." "It's against regulations." "What regulation is that?" "My regulations." "You gotta help us celebrate, sarge." "Celebrate what?" "It's Johnson's promotion party." "The boy made sergeant." "Yeah." "You're right, Johnson, and I am proud of you, you know I am." "And I don't mean to be rude to anybody here, but get on out here now and let me sleep." "That's okay, sarge." "We're going to stay here, just to watch you sleep." "Yeah, go ahead and sleep." "You're our luck, man." "Yeah?" "Well, you know what?" "Y'all are my luck too."