"Memorizing that letter for a game show, Danny?" "Yeah." "My girl... or used to be." "It ain't no big deal." "Your rodeo queen?" "I'll bet some Jody's circling that right now." "Guaranteed." "Lay off it, Hazzard, okay?" "Some people got feelings." "Oh, yeah?" "Well, I guess you're one real sensitive guy with the ladies, huh, Ruiz?" "Yeah." "I'm going to get married when I get home." "Have a big wedding and a lot of little babies." "Oh, just what we need... more Puerto Ricans." "How are you going to support all these kids?" "Steal cars?" "I've got a cousin who books music acts... salsa... rock 'n' roll... all over the Bronx the Jersey Shore." "I'll work for him." "Rock 'n' roll... the Jersey Shore..." "all right." "Give me a break here, Danny?" "Yeah." "You have to have x-ray vision to see anything out here tonight." "Like Superdude." "Ought to ring him up." "Tell him to grab his cape and join the party." "Yeah." "Some party." "You know, the thing" "I'm going to remember most about this place is the smell... the smell of napalm, the smell of flesh burning..." "Ain't nothing that smells like 'Nam smells." "You know, when I was in ROTC, she liked the uniform." "Now it's as if she don't even want to write because..." "I don't know," "I've got blood on my hands or something." "Rodeo..." "Wynette..." "that's where I met her." "She was the prettiest thing you'd ever seen." "It was love at first sight." "Hey!" "Hey, I've got movement in the wire!" "I've got movement in the wire!" "Blow the claymore." "Medic!" "Medic!" "Percell, come on!" "Well, we're not out the woods yet." "EOD's checking them for booby traps." "They booby trap their own bodies?" "Yeah." "Sappers." "These guys can get through this wire like a needle through a screen door." "Make you flat-out believe in ghosts, that's for damn sure." "Been a lot worse." "We were lucky this time." "The question is what's Charlie's strength." "If it's a new build-up, then we've still got to secure those bridges." "Can I offer an opinion, sir?" "Spit it out, Anderson." "It's been a long night for everybody." "That's my point exactly, sir." "I mean, everybody's very tired." "The men are beat." "They need a break." "I'll be sure to point that out to battalion, sergeant." "In the meantime, you'll take the platoon, and you'll secure those bridges for the engineers." "Police those bodies and bury them." "Let's see if we can get the body count right this time, okay?" "That Ercolani?" "He just got married before he came over here." "All right now, Percell, you let it go now." "Otherwise, it's going to eat you up." "Percell?" "Myron!" "Nikki!" "What the hell are you doing here?" "EVAC hospital." "Chu Lai." "I just transferred in." "Come on, lieutenant, we're leaving!" "Story of my life, huh?" "Wait a minute, wait a minute." "I tried to get a hold of you." "I couldn't find you." "I don't believe this." "How do I get in touch with you?" "Well, my pink princess phone is on the blink, but you can reach me at the hospital, okay?" "Okay." "Hey, GI!" "VC come through, burn and kill." "We come through, blow the hell out of everything, and those rice patty daddies keep on trucking behind those stupid water buffalo." "How many wars they been through before we got here?" "To them, it's just another day." "Everyone of them VC just laughing at us right now." "If anybody's laughing, I'd better not hear it." "Oh, so you gonna win the war all by your lonesome, Percell?" "I didn't come here to lose any war, friend." "Yeah, well, what did you come for, huh?" "To be a hero?" "Get off it, Hazzard, before somebody forgets which side you're on." "Bravo Six, this is Bravo Two Six." "Over." "This is Bravo Six." "Go ahead." "Six, we've reached objective eagle." "Prepare to secure for the engineers." "Go." "All right, Two Six." "Use the mine sweep team to clear the road and bridge before the tracks come though." "Over." "Two Six, roger." "Out." "Sweep the bridge, call for tracks, and hope Victor Charles is on R and R." "Be nice if one of us was." "Yeah, it'd be nice." "LT?" "Hm?" "You got a faraway look in your eyes." "Any place or anybody in particular here?" "None of your damn business, sergeant." "I heard that." "All right, people." "Sixth floor..." "ladies' lingerie." "You can try them on, but you can't wear them home." "Come on." "Go, go, go." "Move, move, move." "How you doing, Percell?" "Just great, sarge." "He got a letter from his girlfriend saying adios, then Ercolani getting sent home in a body bag has got him all messed up." "Hazzard still on his back?" "Hazzard's still on everybody's back." "Hazzard's going to be on the endangered species list if he isn't careful." "Well, this ain't the NFL draft." "We take what we can get." "You mean to tell me I re-upped for this, LT?" "I got men sleepwalking 'cause they ain't closed their eyes in two days." "Edmonds, you re-upped for the same reason I did, because you ain't got no place else to go." "No." "I re-upped because after I processed out," "I was in a bus station in Oakland in uniform, glaring everybody down, and got some sage advice from an old wino." "He said, "Clyde, you best head on back to the war, son", because your mama ain't gonna take you back the way you is."" "I thought the ARVN militia was supposed to be guarding this bridge." "Probably went to have breakfast." "Cheerios going to be the death of me yet." "Is there a problem here?" "You got a problem, Percell?" "No, sarge." "If y'all got something to say," "I'd like to hear about it." "I might even call Westmoreland in the morning." "In the meantime, I'd really appreciate it if y'all paid attention up here." "Roll the trucks." "Stop the truck!" "Stop the truck!" "Stop the truck!" "What the hell's that?" "Stop the truck!" "Stop the truck!" "Bravo Six, this is Bravo Two Six." "Over." "This is Two Six." "I need an immediate dust-off." "I've got people down." "Command-detonated mine." "Suckers must have been waiting for us to complete the sweep." "Probably headed for that ville right behind the treeline." "God." "This could be hot." "Keep your eyes open." "Alpha team, let's do it." "Go, go, go." "Hold your fire." "A kid." "Nice shot, Percell." "You greased yourself a kid." "All right, let it go, Percell." "You can't account for every bullet fired here." "I didn't come here to kill children." "Percell, now, look, this whole village could be VC for all we know." "We don't know who pushed the button on that mine." "It might have been a kid." "Or not have been!" "Sarge, she's got a sick baby here too." "All right, doc, you do what you can for the baby." "Then let's get out of here." "Let's get out of here now." "I'm sorry." "I'm sorry." "I'm so, so sorry." "I didn't mean for this to happen." "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned." "It's been..." "I don't know how long it's been since my last confession." "Go on." "I, uh..." "I'm not very good at this." "You don't have to be." "Just say what's in your heart." "Father..." "I killed a child... a little boy." "Was..." "this intentional?" "No!" "No!" "God, no." "I mean, I intentionally pulled the trigger, but I thought it was a man... a VC." "Lord, we were there to secure a bridge, and then, I don't know... it all just happened." "I can hear your confession, absolve you of your sins, but all any of us can do is the best we can." "I guess I'm..." "I'm confused... about a lot of things." "We're all searching for answers." "Yeah." "Yeah..." "I guess I am looking for answers as to what the hell we're all doing in this Godforsaken excuse for a country." "What we're doing here?" "Son, I'm here to give you comfort and support... but sometimes, I'm just as confused as you are." "You know I don't want you to go." "I know." "I know." "Then don't." "If I don't get to Travis on time," "I will miss my plane." "Then miss it." "By all means, miss it." "You don't give up, do you?" "No, never, ever, ever." "You wouldn't want me to get court-martialed before I start my first tour, would you?" "Would you?" "I'm thinking." "I'm thinking." "Well, don't think." "Besides, you want to know what?" "I'll bet you that when your orders come through for 'Nam, we end up in the same neighborhood." "And maybe we won't." "Maybe we'll never see each other again." "Well, then I'll find you." "I promise." "No promises." "Nothing I hate more than a broken promise." "I mean it." "I know." "It's a big war out there." "If we find each other, it will be important, but if we don't, then the time we have together will be even more important." "Yeah." "Lieutenant?" "What is it, Percell?" "I talked to doc about, uh... well, sir, there was a baby in that ville today." "Yeah, there was a baby in the ville." "What about it?" "Spit it out." "The baby was sick, sir, very sick." "It needed attention." "Percell, there's sickness all over this damn country." "Now, we've just got to learn to live with it." "Sir, there must be some way..." "I mean, we've got to go back, help that family." "The ARVNs have secured the bridge." "We're not going back there unless we're ordered to go back there." "Lieutenant..." "Percell, forget it, just forget it." "Why does everybody keep telling me to forget." "If I knew how to forget, I would, wouldn't I?" "Doc, you seen Percell?" "Yeah, this morning." "He's still worried about that baby." "How sick is this baby?" "He looked bad." "He's dehydrated, covered with lesions." "Could you do anything?" "Well, I gave him a shot of antibiotics for secondary infections, but I don't know if it did any good." "Why?" "Some of the people out here have never even seen a bar of soap." "The water they use is contaminated with human and animal waste." "So unless he cleans up, he stays infected, right?" "God knows what else." "Thanks." "I'm looking for Percell." "He decided to use that pass he was saving up." "He didn't sleep all night." "Nightmares?" "It wasn't Snow White and the Seven Dwarves." "He was headed for a heavy day with the bottle from what I could tell." "LT, take a walk?" "Yeah." "LT, this side of Johnson," "Percell's about the best soldier you're going to find, but this war makes old men out of young men fast." "Well, a good drunk I can understand..." "I mean, he's got to blow off some steam, especially under the circumstances." "The circumstances aren't going to change, no matter how much whiskey you pour on him." "What are you saying?" "Percell going south on us?" "LT, if anybody out here is gonna crazy," "I figure I'm first in line." "But, yeah, Percell's in a pretty fragile state of mind." "And we should pay attention." "If we want back a solid soldier, we'd better pay attention." "All right, let's go find him." "You've got to be kidding." "Isn't this place restricted?" "Uh-uh, uh-uh." "We've just got to be out of here before dark." "Mama-san, we're looking for one of my troops." "No here." "No trouble." "There's not going to be any trouble, unless you make us make some." "Got that, slim?" "You look nice." "Well, now... how you doing there, Percell?" "I'm doing just great." "Real fine." "We're giving you a lift, soldier." "Get it together." "You're wasting your time, lieutenant." "I can't go back." "Why is that, Percell?" "Getting married... to old what's-her-name here." "Brenda." "Brenda." "I can't let you do that, Percell." "Oh, sarge, how come?" "Well, because I married her myself last week, didn't I?" "Except your name was..." "Daphne last week." "Daphne." "GI want boom-boom?" "See, what did I tell you, now, Percell?" "Women are very fickle creatures." "No, sarge, see... that woman of mine back home... that one there, she's sharp as a tack." "Going to college..." "Missoula!" "Marching in peace marches..." "Look, Percell, everybody's got an opinion." "Everyone's got an an opinion." "The point is," "Your little honeymoon suite here is going to be crawling with VC after dark." "She thinks we're all baby killers." "Well, I guess I proved that." "This is a war." "People get killed, even kids." "It's nobody's fault." "Like the boy I shot, and baby we left in that ville left to die." "All right." "Are you getting up out of bed, or am I going to have to pick you up over my back?" "Sarge, sarge... listen to me." "You know, I really want you to be my best man with Brenda here." "All right, Percell, I will be your best man." "I promise you." "Honest to God, as soon as we get back to the World," "I'll take you to Missoula myself, and we're going to look at that little rodeo queen of yours and I'm going to tell her what a good soldier you are." "No." "No, damn it." "No." "Now!" "I want you to be my best man now!" "You're acting like a jackass." "Percell, you've really done it now." "See what I mean?" "Oh, jeez!" "I broke my hand." "Next, you'll be hearing the sound of Ho Chi Minh slippers." "Let's get out of here!" "Sarge, let's have another drink." "You're getting to be more trouble than you're worth." "Thank you." "Very much." "Spread out along the road." "Be prepared to move out." "As long as we're in the neighborhood," "I thought we'd check out that ville." "It butts up against the area we're supposed to sweep." "Does the captain know that?" "Sergeant, we found VC there before." "Want to bet we don't find some again?" "Well, I make a point never to bet with officers." "Why's that?" "Well, it's been my experience, LT, that some are slow to pay." "Some never stick around long enough to pay." "Which one do you got me pegged as?" "Can I get back to you on that?" "I know you're doing this for Percell." "Sergeant, I am doing this to dig for VC." "All right, anything you say." "Anything you say." "So... how you feeling this morning... pit bull?" "Sarge, like I'd like to be flat put out of my misery." "Why don't we tie on the hair of the dog tonight then?" "Sarge, please, unless you want me to wipe my breakfast off your boots..." "No thanks." "I've been there." "I've tied on a couple my second tour here." "I still got brain damage." "Look, Percell... we're going to be going back in that ville now." "I just want to prepare you for the worst." "I mean, that little kid might already be..." "And maybe not." "Doc." "Mama-san, I don't mean any harm." "No trouble." "No trouble." "Mama-san, I bring doctor." "Doctor." "Bac-si." "Bac-si." "Yeah." "Bac-si for your little one." "Baby-san." "Mama-san, please let me help you." "Please." "It's okay." "Shh." "Shh." "Shh." "It's okay." "Doc, how is he?" "He's even more dehydrated than before." "His face and body are puffed, belly's distended." "He's in bad shape, Danny." "All right, LT, it's like I say," "I don't ordinarily bet with officers, but I'll bet you this little sucker's going to be tough to get information out of." "You think so, huh?" "I know so." "He ain't got no tongue LT, at least nothing but a half of one." "Somebody must have cut it off." "You want to see?" "Spare me, Taylor." "What's he going to tell us, huh?" "I say we grease this little monkey right now!" "Hazzard, you stow it, right now!" "Lieutenant, captain says it's a negative on a dust-off for the woman and her baby." "He can't authorize..." "Give me that!" "Bravo Six, this is actual Two Six, over." "This is Bravo Six, over." "Bravo Six, we got three VC here." "They may want a Chieu Hoi, we need an immediate chopper to evac them out to S-2." "Go." "Lieutenant, I only see one, I don't see three." "Okay, roger, Two Six." "Out." "Three, Horn." "Got it?" "We got three." "Yes, sir." "Three." "All right, Anderson." "Sir." "I want you to get mama-san and the baby." "We're going to evac them out to Chu Lai hospital, and we're going to take the suspect with us." "Then I want you to take the platoon, move them back to the firebase." "You explain it all to the Captain Wallace." "Percell, you come with me as a prisoner escort." "Escort?" "You don't think I can do it by myself, now, do you?" "No!" "Lieutenant Goldman?" "Right." "Lieutenant Ferragamo." "S-2 Shop." "Where are the Chieu Hois?" "We don't have any." "We were told there were three." "Well, we did have one, but a cat got his tongue." "Corporal, I need some assistance." "Sorry, sir, I've got two deuces coming with casualties." "Lieutenant Raines..." "OR or triage?" "Down the hall to your right." "Come on." "Excuse me." "I have a very sick baby here that needs some attention." "You think you can just drag anybody in here for treatment?" "Hey, this baby is dying." "So are these GIs." "Mary, IV." "Doctor, I need some help here." "I don't have the time, lieutenant." "Fine." "I'll do it myself." "Take the mother outside." "Anyway, I, uh... see, I felt it was my duty, even though my mom didn't want me to." "My dad fought in Korea, enlisted to fight communism, so I did the same." "What about you, sir?" "I was born to it." "Army brat." "No place to run and a father that dared me to fill his boots." "I know how that is." "After Korea, my old man did some championship rodeoing." "Cut a path I'd have to be Tom Mix to match." "Funny thing is, before I came over here, I never saw anybody dead, except my grandmother." "At her funeral." "But they told me she wasn't really there, she was in a better place, so I wasn't scared." "Now..." "Percell, you'd be a fool not to be afraid." "I didn't feel anything when Hazzard was killed." "Not a thing." "Like the first time I went hunting with my old man, and he... took me out, and I shot my first deer." "I didn't feel a thing then either." "How do you explain that?" "Okay, we x-rayed, and we found intussusception." "It means part of the intestinal wall collapsed and caused blockage." "We operated and now he's on a support system." "Will he be okay?" "Yeah." "The little guy's got a lot of kick." "No guarantees, but I think the odds are he'll make it all right." "Excuse me." "Mama-san..." "Mama-san, your baby's okay." "He's going to be okay." "You understand?" "He's all right." "You no worry." "No... no worry." "I don't have a lot of time." "I've got to get back to the firebase." "Well, I'm off in a half an hour." "I could meet you at the officers' club." "Fine." "Could you do me one favor, lieutenant?" "Anything you want, lieutenant." "Um, your five-day deodorant must have run out a couple days ago." "There's a shower inside at the end of the corridor, and I'll have some fresh greens sent down." "Very impressive." "Well, I've got brain surgery at 3:00, so we'd better get on with this." "A few more scotches, and your hand will be real steady." "Well, ma'am, if I had to go through what you go through," "I think I'd pound a couple of these back before I even got to the starting line." "Sometimes you do your job for whatever it takes to get you through the night." "Sometimes I'm in there 20, 22 hours straight." "So damn tired, I'm like a zombie, and I still can't get to sleep afterwards." "You look like you could use some sleep yourself." "I'm sorry about the deodorant thing." "Spend a couple of weeks out there in the weeds, and the human body starts to smell pretty bad." "Thanks for the shower... it was almost as good as seeing you." "Almost?" "Well, the problem is, we don't get running water out there, and you don't make house calls, do you?" "Wish I could be out in the field more." "But that medcap may be the last if those rumors of increased NVA activities are true." "We hear the same rumors you do." "Just hope they're not true, dig in, lock and load." "How many kids you see like that out there?" "Too many." "After a while, it's just people dying." "You don't really think about their size or color, you just think about yourself." "When I was doing Basic at Sam Houston, all I could think about was getting to 'Nam, and doing my duty, and going back to something that had a little more sanity to it." "Pediatrics." "But now I'm thinking about the VA after I'm out." "Maybe San Antonio, maybe Dallas." "You are a masochist." "And you're the one out there being shot at." "So how's it going so far?" "Well, there's good news and there's bad." "The bad news is you're here, not back home, married, and raising three kids." "Got anybody in mind?" "Well, see, there's my cousin." "She's got a good personality, but she's kind of fat and wears braces." "Oh, yuck!" "The bad news is all we got at battalion are people interested in kill ratios instead of fighting effectively." "For every officer who turns his back, there'll be 10 who go the distance for you." "Oh, yeah, right." "All most of them understand are body counts." "It's like a damn game." "All we've got are dead bodies to prove we're right." "I'm still trying to locate the good news in all this." "Well, I lucked out with the platoon sergeant." "Kind of a lone wolf." "Got this kind of crazy quality about him and this strange look in his eye, like he's in on some secret that nobody else is." "Is he?" "I don't know." "I think his secret is that he's not political." "He figures the more American lives he can save, the more he's contributing." "Those guys under you... if they're like Percell, you really lucked out, you know?" "Percell's going through some stuff, but he'll pull through all right." "It's me I'm worried about." "What are you talking about?" "You've got more confidence than anybody I know." "Oh, yeah, going in." "Going in was easy." "Getting out's going to be hell." "I missed you." "Tried to write you, but I didn't know where." "I know." "I haven't been able to settle down long enough." "Is there someplace we could..." "I'm kind of sharing a room." "Probably somebody who spent all night in OR." "Got to get her beauty sleep, huh?" "Actually, she's on duty for a couple more hours." "Yeah?" "Yeah." "You know, when I was a little boy," "I used to wake up in the middle of the night... scared, not of the dark, but, uh... because I didn't know where I was." "That's how I feel now." "I'm in Vietnam, but... half the time, I don't know where I am." "When I..." "when I shot your boy... he became a part of me for the rest of my life." "And I know now that I have to work through it." "I can't put that bullet back in my rifle, and there's nothing I can say that's going to change what happened." "I know I have no right to ask you for forgiveness... oh, but I'm burning up inside." "It's burning a hole in my gut." "Mama-san, please." "I need you to understand how I feel." "Please..." "Myron, I know what it's like out there." "I see the bodies coming in." "18-, 19-year-old kids crying out in pain." "They'll never grow up to be men." "Sometimes I think it's God's idea of a really bad joke." "Well, he's got to have a sense of humor, doesn't he?" "Think he's trying to tell us something?" "No." "You know, when you were headed to Travis, you were bound and determined to prove you were a good soldier." "A good officer." "You wanted to prove it to your father, didn't you?" "Not anymore." "You know what?" "I am a good soldier, and I'm learning to be a good officer." "I know who I am." "And where you're going?" "Yeah." "I'm going... straight to hell." "You want to come?" "Hell, yes." "See ya." "You're smoking too much again, you know." "Mm-hmm." "I know." "But I gave up booze, women, and sex for my country." "I'll be damned if I can't have one vice." "So you fell off the wagon for one afternoon." "I won't put you on report." "Thanks." "Nikki?" "I know." "You've got to catch your chopper." "Yeah." "I'll be back." "Maybe we could take R and R together." "Maybe Honolulu?" "Don't tempt me." "I might stay forever." "That a promise?" "You know how I feel about promises." "Well, you take it under serious consideration, kid, okay?" "Excuse me, lieutenant?" "I squared mama-aan away with the doctor and our ride's waiting." "Our ride." "Right." "Well, it was good seeing you again, lieutenant, sharing your thoughts on military matters." "Thank you, lieutenant." "Don't do anything I wouldn't do out there." "I promise." "Sir, I just want you to know how much I appreciate..." "Forget it, Percell, all right?" "But, sir..." "You want to thank me?" "Do me one favor when we get back." "Sure." "What?" "Don't get me killed, at least not until after my next R and R."