Fallen Angels: Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

In the supply hut, the clerk takes a body bag off a tall stack and hands it to Perry. Perry asks how many bags the base has on hand but gets no answer. He knows the answer anyhow: enough to indicate that they expect a lot of guys to need them. He takes it back to where Jenkins’ body lies in the dirt, and watches while other soldiers zip Jenkins’ body into it. Another soldier in the squad, a little Italian kid named Monaco, tries to comfort Perry, but doesn’t know what to say. Perry feels numb. After a while, Lieutenant Carroll rounds up the squad and leads them in a prayer for Private Jenkins and all the “angel warriors that fall.” The next morning, Perry asks why Carroll calls the soldiers angels. Carroll replies it’s because “they get boys to fight wars.”

Lieutenant Carroll hangs out in the hooch with the squad for a while, checking their supplies and morale. A Black solder called Brewster—whom the guys usually call “Brew”—tells Carroll that he got a hopeful letter from Virginia Union theology school. Carroll confesses that he almost followed his brother into theology school, and when the Polish soldier Walowick, says he still could, Carroll replies that he has too many doubts about his own worthiness now. After he leaves, Peewee observes that Carroll doesn’t look much like a “holy guy,” and Walowick tells them how Carroll changed after the squad got split in half while clearing a road. One half got pinned in a ditch, and as dark fell, Carroll “went wild” and stormed across the road and  “wasted” all the “charlies.” That day, he showed his true color—his willingness to put his “ass on the line” for others.

Perry writes a letter to Mama about Jenkins’ death. He tears it up. He doesn’t want to upset her or admit that he feels bad—but also glad that he didn’t die instead. He starts over. Later that day, the platoon brings in a Vietcong fighter for questioning, and when Peewee discovers the enemy in the storage hooch, they strike up a friendly conversation, at least until the VC fighter tries to escape. Peewee gets in trouble, but he’s glad he told the fighter about Chicago; he wants to be on their side if they ever make it to America. Lobel, another squad soldier, says they could end the war faster if they just took the “charlies” to Hollywood and started making war movies, using them as extras to help them assimilate. Brunner says that Lobel’s idea is a “fag solution,” and the two bicker.

The next morning, the soldiers listen to heavy artillery up north while Monaco and Simpson argue about whether squirrel hunting is a sport. Monaco points out the unfair advantage an armed, 200-pound human has against a two- or three-pound, unarmed squirrel. If a man needs a rifle against a squirrel, what’s he gonna use against a bear, Monaco asks, artillery? Brew and Lobel suggest hitting a bear with some white phosphorus then calling in an airstrike, or just finishing the animal off with a few frag grenades.

That day, the squad goes to a nearby village to do public relations work, or “Chieu Hoi,” which Peewee calls “chewing the whores.” Everyone seems relaxed, but Perry is scared—just like he is every other time he leaves the hooch. When they reach the landing zone, the departing squad warns them that all the village females are either under six or over 60. Simpson adds that all the men will be gone, fighting either with the Vietcong army or the Americans’ allies, the South Vietnamese army (ARVN). Most Vietnamese men seem to join less out of ideological conviction than the desire to avoid being punished for not fighting.

The soldiers hand out first aid supplies and food to Vietnamese people in an attempt to “make them love [the Americans],” Captain Stewart says with a smirk. Perry and Lobel give chocolate bars to a Vietnamese woman with a girl so tiny and pretty that Perry thinks she looks like a doll. The girl clings to Lobel and Perry, and they carry her around the village with them. Lobel eats the rice a villager offers him, but Perry refuses, afraid of being poisoned. Lobel describes how he would turn the village into a movie set. He says he would bring the little girl, An Linh, back to Hollywood and make her a star, but she’d need a new name. They decide on Arielle. Peewee buys a bottle of wine from a villager for $2 and drinks it on the spot. His life goals, he says, include drinking wine from a bottle with a cork, making love to a foreign woman, and smoking a cigar. 

Later, as the helicopters take the soldiers back to the camp, Brunner says that the villagers will probably be “having supper with the VC” by the time they get back. Johnson demands to know why “VC” has the same tone as the n-word in Brunner’s mouth, and Brunner replies that Johnson is hearing things. Simpson shuts them both up.

Perry and Peewee eat the night’s dinner—roast beef, mashed potatoes, and carrots—outside, under a tree, while bugs crawl up their legs. Simpson joins them. Perry tells Simpson that he’d rather be home in New York City. Peewee sarcastically calls camp the best place he’s ever been. He especially likes the bugs, which are as loyal as dogs—they keep him company when he sleeps, wakes, and eats. Simpson warns them that Captain Stewart wants to be promoted before his tour ends on March 15. For that, he needs the squad’s body count to be higher.