Fallen Angels

As the evacuation begins, the South Vietnamese soldiers surround their American allies and threateningly point their weapons at them; they want to be evacuated first. The American helicopter pilots notice what is occurring and open fire on the Vietnamese soldiers, letting the Americans evacuate. When they return to the camp, Lieutenant Gearhart tells the squad to rest, but Perry thinks that he will never be able to truly rest again. In the middle of the night, Monaco experiences a vivid flashback, opening fire on the door of their hooch because he believes that he sees a Viet Cong soldier dragging away an American soldier. The members of the squad try to comfort Monaco, who is embarrassed by what happened. Walowick admits to Perry that he has experienced something similar to Monaco. The next day, the squad celebrates what would have been Brew’s 19th birthday with a pound cake and some fruit cocktail.

Later, Lieutenant Gearhart gives Perry and Walowick copies of a letter to send to his wife in the event that something happens to him. Peewee demands that they open one of the letters. The squad reads what seems like a normal letter home but sees that Lieutenant Gearhart emphasizes how much he loves his wife and children within the letter. Perry thinks about how he would love to have someone to contact about the war who makes him look forward to getting home. Perry decides to write a letter to Kenny about the realities of war. He hopes to show his brother that the “hero” and the “villain” aren’t always easy to determine. He writes about Peewee’s words, stating that war is about killing the enemy before they can kill you first; there isn’t time to contemplate what is wrong and what is right. Captain Stewart reports that over 433 Viet Cong soldiers were killed during their last battle—a grossly overestimated number—and tells the squad that they will be moving to patrol the region east of a firebase.

Lieutenant Gearhart tries to get a few of the members of Perry’s squad to move to a different one so that the numbers between squads can be more even. Each member of Perry’s squad immediately refuses, despite knowing that they will likely be sent into more dangerous situations first because they have more members. For a few days, the men in the squad busy themselves by playing games and messing with each other. The squad discusses the rumor that some soldiers have begun cutting the ears off of dead Viet Cong soldiers to create a necklace; they decide that, while that is extremely cruel, it takes cruelty to fight cruelty. Brunner tells the squad that they are going on patrol through a stream called the Song Nha Ngu River.

Brunner, now the highest-ranking soldier among the squad, is told to lead the patrol in the absence of a sergeant. The squad begins sweeping the stream and does not see anything for a kilometer out of the landing zone. Johnson, whom everyone in the squad views as the real leader, suggests returning to the landing zone because it seems like it is going to rain. Brunner refuses, and the squad reluctantly follows his direction. The river seems to be quiet at first, but as night falls upon them, the squad spots a few Viet Cong soldiers hiding in the water among the reeds. The squad kills them and begins to head back toward the landing zone. As they approach the evacuation site, Brunner sends Peewee and Perry to secure a ridge where Viet Cong soldiers are known to attack from. Once they secure the ridge, a firefight breaks out below them, and they dive to the ground.

As silence falls upon them, Peewee and Perry worry about their squad. In the darkness, they slowly make their way down the hill and hide from a Viet Cong soldier in a small spider hole. It quickly becomes apparent, as more voices surround Perry and Peewee, that an entire North Vietnamese battalion is patrolling the river. They hide in the small hole together until daybreak. Peewee looks out of the hole and sees a Viet Cong soldier approaching the hole. The soldier seems unsure about the hole and ties a knife to the end of a pole, thrusting it in and out of the hole. Peewee is mostly able to redirect the knife gently, but he is stabbed in the stomach. The Viet Cong soldier sticks the nose of his rifle into the hole, and Peewee and Perry pull him into the hole, killing him.

The duo begins to slowly and carefully make their way back to the original helicopter’s landing site. Perry realizes that Peewee is injured and helps him to keep going. As they approach, they see Monaco sitting against a tree with his head in his hands. Peewee realizes that there are enemy soldiers hiding in the grass next to Monaco; the Viet Cong are hoping to ambush the helicopter sent to evacuate Monaco. Perry and Peewee wait until the helicopter approaches before opening fire on the Viet Cong, alerting the helicopter to the presence of enemy combatants; the helicopter opens fire on the Viet Cong soldiers, killing some of them. The helicopter crew pulls Peewee, Monaco, and Perry on board, and Perry is shot in the leg, fracturing his bone.

In the hospital, Monaco tells Perry that the squad returned to the evacuation area, but he was knocked unconscious and left at the evacuation site. The Viet Cong found him and used him as bait for a medical helicopter. Monaco reassures Perry that the squad was able to evacuate without any casualties or injuries beside them. Peewee is rushed into the operating room for emergency surgery, and Monaco tells Perry that he and Peewee saved his life; he struggles to understand the fact that he isn’t dead.

Two days later, Peewee tells Perry that he is being sent home in two weeks. Later, they celebrate the news by drinking beer and crying together with Monaco, who is being sent back to the squad in the morning; Monaco leaves a note stating that Perry is expected to wear a tux at his wedding. Lieutenant Gearhart calls the hospital to tell Perry and Peewee that the squad is doing well and that Captain Stewart had gotten his promotion to major. Perry is approached by a doctor who reads his medical file and tells him that he is being sent home with his second Purple Heart. Peewee and Perry try to keep up with the war by reading a military magazine, but they are disheartened to see that they give no real account of the true costs of the war. Perry bribes a personnel sergeant to tell him where Judy Duncan is, and he is told that Judy was killed when her hospital was bombed.

Perry and Peewee are placed on the same plane home. They watch as new soldiers exit the plane, entering Vietnam, and caskets of dead soldiers are loaded onto the plane with them. As the plane stops in Osaka to collect more caskets, Peewee convinces a lieutenant to allow him to go home to Harlem with Perry. The pair hold hands all the way back to the United States as they think about the fact that they are leaving Vietnam alive. Perry thinks about his other squad members and prays for God to take care of them. Perry realizes that he is returning back to normal life when he overhears another passenger complaining about the fact that the airline doesn’t carry the kind of wine he likes.