Fallen Angels

A pared-down platoon of soldiers—maybe half their usual number—loads into choppers a little before dark. Simpson arranges them in a line along the path they expect the Vietcong to take to the village, which runs through a small cemetery. They put mines in the cemetery. Perry digs in behind his five insufficient sandbags. The night grows dark and still. It’s 10:30 p.m. Back home in Harlem, Kenny should be fighting Mama over bedtime. Perry wonders if Kenny would be able to feel it if he dies in Vietnam. He wonders what Mama thinks about the allotment checks she gets in the mail.

Perry tells himself he’s bored. He rolls over and pees downhill, too scared to stand up in the dark. He considers his virginity. He fantasizes about movie stars and singers he’d like to have sex with, but he mostly just feels frustrated—and scared—at the thought that he might die without having loved anyone deeply.

Suddenly, voices and shadows fill the cemetery. The platoon opens fire blindly. Eventually, Simpson tells them to hold their fire while Carroll sends up a flare.  By its light, Perry sees dead and dying Vietcong fighters on the ground. Peewee finds one body just outside the entrance to the tunnel they used to bypass the American ambush. Simpson throws a grenade down its mouth, and the squad begins to retreat toward the landing zone. But then, Perry hears a single gunshot. Lieutenant Carroll cries out and collapses. The squadron opens fire toward the trees as Johnson and Walowick drag Carroll toward the shelter of the hamlet.

Monaco and Peewee pump rounds into the village to keep the villagers—and any Vietcong among them—at bay while Johnson sets up his machine gun. Terrified and angry, he and the rest of the squad fire blindly into the darkness, even though they have no idea where their enemies might be. Or even if they’re out there. When the chopper arrives, its blades level the village and its gunner shoots down the fleeing villagers. The soldiers shove Carroll in then climb up after him. They all ride to Chu Lai, where an ambulance rushes Carroll away.

Perry can’t stop shaking. Peewee tries to hold Perry’s hands still. Eventually, someone leads them to the mess hall, and they get some coffee. A medic directs them to building A-3, where a doctor explains that Carroll was fatally shot under his arm. Monaco leads the squad in Carroll’s prayer for fallen angel warriors.