"It's kind of unusual, ain't it?" "Formation in the middle of the day?" "I wonder what that old man wants." "Bet it's to do with that big battle." "I understand they might be giving sarge the DSC." "The DSC?" "That's the Distinguished Service Cross." "Man, that almost like the Medal of Honor." "I hear all you guys are getting medals." "Well, the way I figure it, you all deserve it." "Anybody who survived that battle ought to get a medal and get sent back home." "Now you're talking." "Maybe we should get two medals." "Group, ten hut!" "And at ease!" "This could be the sorriest group of soldiers" "I've ever had the displeasure of commanding." "When I gave you three-day passes, it was in recognition for your bravery at the patrol base battle, plus to let you blow off a little steam after the horror and anxiety of that battle." "It was not... an excuse to behave like animals." "You may think that because those buildings are bars and whorehouses, you somehow have the right to brawl and break things to your heart's content." "Well, I'm here to tell you that you do not have that right." "The damage and destruction will be cleaned up." "Restitution will be made." "And you will... start acting like soldiers again or you will pay the price." "Major Duncan, dismiss the troops." "Yes, sir." "Group, attention!" "Get down!" "Go!" "Go!" "Oh!" "Oh, my God!" "Shoot him!" "Shoot that SOB!" "I can't see anything!" "I don't give a damn!" "Spray that tree line!" "I want that sniper killed!" "Morales!" "Get me artillery!" "I want that sector blown to hell!" "Get me gunships, and get the damn Air Force on the horn." "I want them on standby." "Yes, sir!" "I want all platoon leaders and company commanders to put their men on alert!" "Meet me in 05." "Lieutenant Goldman, I want your men blocking here." "We'll walk artie through this sector and either blow him to pieces or chase him into your waiting arms." "Colonel, that's cutting it a little close." "Captain Morales will be coordinating the artillery." "It shouldn't be any problem." "Well, sir..." "I don't want arguments, lieutenant." "I want results." "A damn major in the United States Army nailed by some underfed, underarmed, pissant gook?" "You better bring me his head." "Tough break for Duncan." "Out of everybody out there, sniper picks him." "Yeah, it's rough, man." "I heard he has a wife, two kids." "I wonder how much money the Army spent on trying to get that sucker." "Thousands." "Listen to all that artillery they're capping off." "Try many thousands." "Those 105s, couple of hundred bucks a pop." "They've been running three batteries for half an hour." "I hear they're scrambling gunships." "Right on, kid." "Those many guns put out 3600 rounds per minute." "And those rockets don't come cheap either." "One dink shoots one major with one 12-cent bullet, the Army spends a million dollars trying to get him." "Maybe that's how they plan on winning this war." "Gonna drive us all into bankruptcy." "One man would have better luck tracking him himself." "Ain't like tracking deer through the woods, Griner." "These guys shoot back." "I know that." "You so good, Griner, why ain't you out doing it?" "Yo, Bell, where are you?" "Nobody asked me." "Right here." "All right, Bell, good news." "You're gonna sit this one out." "Sister Bernadette needs some help moving her orphanage to the new building." "You're the help." "Along with Doc Hockenbury." "What about the mission?" "Well, now, Doc, there are other medics in the unit besides you." "Think we can go on a mission without you, don't you?" "Sarge." "Sarge!" "Sarge, can I talk to you for a minute?" "Talk." "In private." "Talk." "Sarge, I don't wanna stay behind." "Oh, no, no way I'm gonna have a 15-year-old kid get wasted on one of my missions, now." "The LT and I talked to Colonel Stringer." "With any luck, you're gonna be out in two or three weeks..." "I don't wanna leave the Army." "I'm happy here." "You already proved yourself, Bell." "You're a man." "You're a brave man." "Now go on home and be a boy for a while." "Hell, you've only got a couple years to do that." "Once you're an adult, you're an adult forever." "No, sarge..." "I got no home to go to." "Okay, sometimes it gets rough with your parents, but, uh..." "No, no." "You don't understand." "I don't have a family." "Oh, come on, pal." "I saw your file." "You may have lied about being 17, but somebody had to fill out your papers..." "All I had to do was give some wino 5 bucks to fill out those papers." "I got no mama, I got no daddy." "Boy, somebody raised you." "You must mean Uncle Eddie, then." "First thing I remember is waking up and finding some greasy-faced hobo looking down at me." "Scared me to death." "One day, I must have been 10 or 12, he was gone." "He never came back." "This is the only family I got, and it's the best one." "I got a roof over my head, three meals a day, and that is all I'm ever gonna want." "All right, I'll talk to the LT." "I ain't promising you nothing." "I'll talk to the LT." "Now, get on back over there with Doc Hockenbury." "Stay out of people's way." "Go on." "Thanks, sarge." "I don't know, kid." "Sarge and LT are trying to get you out of the Army, and you're trying to stay in the Army." "I'm a little bit worried about your sanity." "It's not that I don't appreciate what they're doing, it's just I really don't want to leave the Army." "It's a big world out there, Eddie Bell." "Don't I know it." "Lieutenant McKay on a mission today?" "He sends his regards and said he's gonna try and stop by tomorrow." "Sister." "Très bien." "What do you think?" "Perfect." "Absolutely perfect." "Hey!" "Hey, put that down." "Where do you think you're going with this?" "Inside." "I was trying to help you." "This is Tien Ly." "She is the daughter of the man who is letting us use the building." "Papa Bear 3, this is Baby Bear 6." "We've reached Checkpoint Rainbow." "Negative contact with the enemy." "Over." "Roger, Six." "Barrage will lift in 01 mikes." "Get ready to roll." "Over." "LT, we've got movement on the trail." "Papa Bear, we may have something." "We're gonna investigate and advise." "This is Baby Bear." "Out." "Let's go." "Okay, let's see if we..." "Where the hell did they...?" "Pull back!" "Let's go!" "Radio!" "Papa Bear 3, this is Baby Bear 6." "Over." "Go, Six." "Papa Bear, we're taking small arms fire." "Request gunship support." "Red 40027-niner." "Over." "Roger, Six." "We'll relay that to Red Rider." "Over." "Baby Bear 6, this is Goldilocks 1." "We're spotting two clicks Echo your Checkpoint Rainbow." "I can give you some machine gun support if you like before the Snakes come in." "Over." "That's affirmative, Goldilocks!" "Your target will be estimated inside force 50 meters November red smoke, over." "Ok, guys, stay alert." "We're going in." "Yee-haw!" "Watch it!" "Watch it!" "Ammo!" "I copy your red smoke, Six." "Will commence firing against November." "Over." "Affirmative, Goldilocks!" "Over." "Ok, give it to them, boys." "North of the red smoke." "Move in!" "Let's go!" "They're pulling back." "Let's go!" "Whoa!" "You guys didn't tell me they had heavy stuff." "Hold on!" "I'm taking evasive action." "Radio!" "Radio!" "Cease fire!" "McKay, cease fire!" "You're hitting your own guys!" "Cease fire!" "Stop firing!" "Come on, let's go!" "All right, now." "Let's go." "Okay, get ready here." "Here we go." "Hydraulic fluid will get us up again." "Yeah." "I can't find him." "I got it." "Three killed, three wounded, from friendly fire." "I want to know what the hell happened out there!" "Sir, Lieutenant Goldman's men made contact with the enemy and asked for fire support." "I was closest to their position, so I thought I'd give them a hand until the gunships got there." "I instructed my door gunners to fire north of their smoke, sir." "Then what went wrong?" "We encountered heavy fire." "I took evasive action." "One of my door gunners stopped firing, the other one didn't." "Isn't it SOP to stop firing during evasive action?" "Yes, sir." "He's new, sir." "That is no excuse." "Wasn't he given some kind of training?" "Actually, sir, I requested it, but, uh, I was told there wasn't enough time." "I guess everything over here is on-the-job training, sir." "Can Lieutenant Goldman corroborate your story?" "Yes, sir." "Then consider yourself grounded until I can talk to him." "There will undoubtedly be an inquiry." "Yes, sir." "Sir, it's my ship." "My door gunner." "I take full responsibility." "You're damn right you do." "This shouldn't have happened, man." "It should have never happened." "Damn chopper jocks." "Always hot-dogging." "Hey, pal, nobody was doing any hot-dogging." "Stay out of this." "What do you know about it?" "Because I was the one flying that chopper, all right?" "You happy with your work, glory boy?" "Hey, you watch your mouth." "Let me at him!" "Let me at the hot dog!" "We were coming to save your tail." "Nobody asked for you." "We called for gunships." "You came to hog the glory and three good buddies are shot to hell!" "Just back off." "Back off." "It's over, all right." "Come on." "Hey!" "Y'all, what is this, man?" "Six of our guys shot by our own guns?" "Believe it, Doc." "Three KIA wasted." "Wasted's the right word too." "Bad enough to come halfway around the world just to fight in a war nobody cares about, let alone get killed by one of your own people." "There it is." "Um, I'm gonna catch up with you all later." "My man Taylor!" "Shakey, what's up, man?" "Yeah." "How you doing, man?" "Come on, Bell, before we lose you too." "Where you heading, blood?" "We're going to go down to the Happy Time." "Listen to that cowboy music?" "What, you doing penance for your sins?" "After three, three-on, it don't sound so bad." "You keep running with your white buddies, you gonna get yourself killed." "Heard you almost bought it last week." "Ten of us did, Shakey." "White and black." "Next time the bullet could have your name on it." "Why don't you come on down to the Far West?" "Thanks, man, but I'm gonna hang with my guys, I think." "Okay, Tommy, it's your call." "Look, Shakey, I'm getting real tired of people calling me names, okay?" "I'm no Uncle Tom, dig?" "I don't know what's right for you or anybody else..." "Cody, my buddy Johnson..." "All I know is what's right for me, all right?" "Now, these guys are the only family I have here right now." "And I'm not ready to break that up, okay?" "Um Francis Hockenbury." "Where did you learn Vietnamese?" "A couple girls I know who, um..." "I can fill you in on those details later." "I don't know that much, I can tell you that." "But I'm willing to learn." "You would like to buy me drink, maybe." "Yeah." "Definitely." "I'm not a bar girl or a prostitute." "Oh, I'm sorry." "I didn't mean that." "I just wanted to apologize for earlier when I thought you were stealing those boxes." "Oh, there is no need to apologize." "You did not know who I was." "But I'd like to know who you are." "I mean, maybe..." "Maybe I could buy you tea." "Look, the point is, I'd like to spend some time with you, and I'd like to do it, you know, right and proper." "Proper?" "Uh, you mean like meeting my family, perhaps?" "At dinner?" "Whatever it takes." "Do you know Vietnamese custom?" "Yeah, a little." "I got some books back at the camp library." "Tomorrow night?" "Six o'clock?" "Definitely." "Sure." "I'll give you an address and directions." "Okay." "There are four in my family." "Uh... um..." " Come on, let's go in here." " I'll buy you some tea." "Wow, I hope you all ain't having too much fun." "There you go." "I thought this was the Happy Time." "Sure can't tell by the look on y'all's faces." "Still talking about the guys that got wasted by McKay's chopper." "Where is McKay anyway?" "Anybody seen him?" "No, he's probably laying low." "Can't be feeling too good right now." "It wasn't his fault." "It was newbie's fault." "He's still got to feel pretty bad, Ru." "It was his chopper." "I'll tell you one thing." "The cost of killing that sniper is getting mighty high." "Well, he's a million-dollar man, Taylor." "Hell of a way to win a war, isn't it?" " Let me show it to you." " I wanna show it to you." "Yo, Doc!" "Come here!" "Hey, hey!" "Oh, man, this is the sorriest looking bunch" "I have ever seen." "Maybe y'all need some more beer, huh?" "Kid, perk up." "You ought to be celebrating." "You're about to be a civilian again." "That ain't nothing to celebrate." "Just learn the creed." "Ma'am, can we have six more beers here, please?" "I'll have the same." "I'm just kidding." "Aren't you going to say something?" "About what?" "Those were your men, Goldman." "Say something." "Well, what do you want me to say, McKay?" "That your guy screwed up?" "All right, he screwed up." "Doesn't undo it." "How can you sit there and be so damn complacent?" "Don't you feel anything?" "Yes, I do." "I do." "You know?" "And I know you're hurting." "But that's not going to bring my guys back, is it?" "Well, I got to do something." "What, McKay?" "What the hell are you going to do?" "It's a war." "People make mistakes." "The best we can hope for is you'll be a little more careful next time you go out." "You're saying I wasn't careful?" "All right." "You weren't careful." "Is that what you wanted to hear?" "Does that make you feel any better?" "Yes." "No." ""... bottles of beer On the wall"" ""Eighty-one bottles of beer On the wall"" ""Eighty-one bottles of beer On the wall"" ""Eighty-one bottles of beer"" ""If one of those bottles Should happen to fall"" ""Eighty bottles of beer On the wall"" "It's Taylor." "It was Taylor." "Hey, y'all!" "Hee-hee-hee!" "Get your Texas self down here." "Hey, Bell, what's going on?" "Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee!" "All right now, Bell." "Hey!" "Hey." "Listen to me, now." "We've all been drinking." "You get down from there, all right?" "This ain't funny." "Oh, baloney." "I've been doing this stuff all my life." "Come on, Bell." "Now get down, all right?" "Hey, Taylor, want me do a handstand?" "No." "No, Bell." "Come on, man." "Get down." "Come on, you can do it, dude!" "Come on!" "Shut up!" "Shut up!" "Bell!" "Do it!" "Hey!" "Hold your tickets." "We may have another drawing." "Go ahead!" "Do it!" "Bell, don't!" "Bell!" "Get down, Bell!" "Bell, get..." "No!" "Bell!" "Bell, talk to me!" "Doc!" "I'm here." "He's dead." "Hard to believe we lost four guys yesterday." "You got a short memory, brother." "What about the eight we lost last week?" "Yeah, but they died in battle, the way a soldier's supposed to." "Ru's got a point." "What are they going to write in Bell's 201?" ""Man died doing a drunken header from the top of a whorehouse on Tudo Street"?" "You know, maybe it's a good thing he doesn't have parents so they don't have to read that." "How are we doing this?" "Notched round does the deed?" "Hey, Doc." "It's not too late to get in on this." "No, thanks." "I refuse to shoot live bodies." "Why would I shoot a dead one?" "Okay, boys." "Here we go." "Your lucky day, Griner." "All right, everybody, listen up." "I got an announcement to make." "Taylor, front and center." "Gentlemen, meet your new sergeant." "Congratulations, Taylor." "Drinks are on me at the team house at 1900 hours." "Anybody seen Bell?" "I might have some good news for him too." "Anybody seen him?" "This might be my imagination, but I could have sworn I asked y'all a question." "Where's Bell?" "Sergeant Taylor, perhaps you could provide an answer to that question." "Where is Bell?" "Uh..." "Where's Bell?" "What in the hell is the matter with you, Taylor?" "We were all in on it, sergeant." "Yeah?" "None of you got any respect for the dead." "Of course we do." "That's why we did it, sarge." "So he could die in action." "Excuse me?" "Look, sarge, we figured if we were to leave him out here, overnight, that sniper might put a round in him." "It ain't right, sarge." "The kid was righteous in that patrol base battle." "We thought he should get a medal." "It ain't right for him not to die in action, sarge." "Yeah, well, you all took real good care of him, didn't you?" "All right, let's..." "Let's get him out of here." "But, sarge, we still..." "Get him out of here!" "This boy deserves more respect than this." "Sarge, we didn't mean no disrespect." "Taylor." "Now, some things you got to do by the book, soldier." "And you're the new sergeant now, so you..." "You get your men there, and get this boy back to Graves Registration in the next 10 minutes, or you're on report." "You hear me?" "Come in." "At ease." "What can I do for you, lieutenant?" "With your permission, sir," "I'd like to request transfer to a ground unit." "I find that a strange request, coming from a helicopter pilot." "Usually it's the other way around." "Yes, I know, but my basic branch is Infantry, sir." "I'm sorry, lieutenant." "I've got all the junior officer grunts" "I can use right now." "You're more important to me as a chopper pilot." "Begging the colonel's pardon, but I won't be doing much flying for a while." "I talked to Lieutenant Goldman." "He corroborated your account of the friendly fire incident." "Captain Ferguson from MACV will be out tomorrow to ask you a few questions." "You'll be back in the air the day after." "I don't wanna go back, sir." "I wanna spend the rest of my tour on the ground." "What is it with you, McKay?" "You want to wear a hair shirt?" "You want a public scourging?" "You made a mistake." "Hell, you didn't even pull the trigger." "Now, you better lay it to rest, get on with your life." "If you don't, it will eat you up." "Sir, I..." "Request denied." "Dismissed." "Yes, sir." "Sergeant!" "Just coming to look for you." "I hope you got your Class A uniform all dusted off." "Huh?" "I just got through talking to Colonel Stringer." "You've just been recommended for a Distinguished Service Cross." "Congratulations." "Well, thank you." "I don't know what to say." "Well, you never do." "Well, I mean, I'm doing my job." "There were a lot of other guys out there too." "Oh, and that reminds me." "I talked to him about Bell." "He doesn't think the higher-ups are going to go for him getting a medal." "They're too worried about repercussions because he's only 15 years old." "That's what I want to talk to you about." "I know it's not fair, but there's nothing I can do." "That doesn't matter anymore." "What do you mean?" "Bell's dead." "He's dead?" "How?" "He got drunk last night, he fell off an overpass on Tudo Street." "Oh, great." "Add one more to the list of my friendly-fire letters." ""Dear Mrs. Bell, I'm sorry about your son..."" "He didn't have a mother." "Well, why don't we just send an RPG round into Graves Registration and list them all as killed in action?" "Well, look here, LT, I'll catch up with you later." "Yeah." "McKay." "Look, I, uh..." "owe you an apology." "For what?" "For what I said last night about being careful." "I know you give 100 percent." "I'm sorry." "I was wrong." "Yeah, well, tell that to the rest of your troops." "They know." "Do they?" "You know, I hear them talk, Goldman." "About how glory-hungry chopper jocks are, how we get to fly above it all." "Then we send grunts back in there to mop up the blood and guts while we go back to hot meals and clean sheets." "Yeah, well, you don't hear the other side." "Like how they appreciate you guys flying in there giving them cover fire, tree-hopping your way through, picking up the wounded even though it's red smoke." "They know what you do." "If they're bitching today, it's just because they lost some friends, that's all." "Yeah, well, I've lost friends too." "Look, I'm trying to help you here." "If you want to help me, go to Stringer, recommend me for field command." "Oh, you want to be a boonie rat?" "That's right." "Why?" "Because I can handle it, Goldman." "I've done my time in infantry OCS." "I've been out on SOG missions." "You've been out on one SOG mission, and Anderson held your hand through that." "So you won't do it?" "What, you don't think I'm good enough?" "Is that it?" "It's not a question of good enough..." "McKay, this is crazy." "You're just gonna get yourself killed." "All right, at least..." "At least let me go with you." "I'll cover your back." "Fine, fine." "You don't want to take me with you, then take Anderson." "Or take one of the trackers." "What do you say?" "McKay!" "Good evening." "Hi." "This is Specialist-4 Francis Hockenbury." "This is my father, Thong, my mother, Phian, my sister Phi Li, and my youngest brother, Phom." "And please..." "let these small tokens show my gratitude at being invited to your household." "Thank you." "Come, please." "Our table is set." "Thank you." "My eldest son is in the army." "He fights in the north." "At the DMZ." "Oh, yeah?" "As our guest of honor, it is Vietnam custom for you to have best part of chicken." "Your command of our language is flattering." "Well, I'm afraid it's token at best." "It's nowhere near as good as your English." "As a young man," "I learned English working in an American hotel, but my daughter Tien Ly, she went further." "She studied at university in Paris." "Where I also learned to appreciate American jazz." "Um, Dave Brubeck, Horace Silver..." "Horace Silver." "Now you're talking." "Are you a fan of jazz too?" "Oh, definitely." "Definitely." "And the blues and rock 'n' roll." "I prefer classical." "You have not eaten the head yet." "I was saving the best part till last." "Come." "I'll see you out." "I really had a nice time tonight." "I did." "I'm glad you invited me." "I'm glad you came." "Good." "Tien Ly, can I tell you something?" "Yes." "Or can you tell me something?" "Yeah?" "What, um, am I supposed to do with this?" "How did you get that?" "Remember when your little brother spilled the tea, and everybody was making a big fuss?" "That's..." "That's when, uh..." "That's when I did it." "I enjoyed your company." "Good." "I'd like to..." "I'd like to do it again." "Um, you know, to see you again." "Me too." "You should go." "Yeah." "Okay." "Maybe I'll, uh, see you at the orphanage next week." "Ru, you still up?" "Can't sleep, Percell." "I keep thinking about Bell." "I know what you mean." "The whole thing just leaves a bad taste in my mouth." "You guys want to knock it off?" "Stuff it, Taylor." "This talk about Bell, man..." "We should have watched him better." "You can't watch everybody, Doc." "Bell, those guys the chopper lit up." "You ain't God." "He deserved a better death." "Taylor's right." "Nothing we could do." "Maybe there is." "I say we go back to the original plan." "Put the boy out on the wire." "You're crazy, man." "We can't go to the GR and steal the body." "Says who?" "Says sarge." "You heard him." "Yeah, well, I'm the new sarge now." "I say that's an order." "I'm going to get that boy killed in action yet." "That's not him." "Let's go." "Check the next one." "Come on." "No, that's not him." "Let's go, let's go, let's go!" "Bingo." "I don't know about this, man." "Man, this place is definitely spooky." "All right, look, get his charts and his records." "Let's go." "Get him out of here." "I'll go ahead, talk to the guard at the gate." "I don't want them shooting at us when we come back in." "Yeah, well, I hope you got a good story, man." "Snipers!" "Put him down!" " Watch your back!" " Watch your back!" "You got him?" "Right." "Bring him around here." "Right here now, man." "Right here." "Little slopes." "Could I get a water wagon over here?" "We got a final tally yet on our losses?" "Yes, sir." "Two wounded, three KIA." "Hendricks and Flindell over by the guardhouse, and then Bell." "I've heard talk that Bell saved one of your men's lives." "Is that true?" "Yes, sir, he took fire that was intended for Specialist Ruiz." "I was thinking maybe we ought to give him that medal after all." "What difference would that make, lieutenant?" "Boy's dead." "No relatives." "It would make a difference to the men, sir." "They were his family." "At least we made Charlie pay." "Hell of a body count." "I'll see that Bell gets his medal."