Fallen Angels

Jamal, the camp medic, distributes the weekly malaria pills and congratulates Perry on getting three Vietcong fighters. Perry clarifies that they got one. But the medic saw Captain Stewart’s report to Regiment, which listed three. After the medic leaves, Perry flips through a recent newspaper and thinks about home. He wants another pen pal or to have some sort of plan for after the war to make him feel more connected to “the World.” But he can’t think of anything. He wonders if the Vietcong fighter had a life, family, or plans. Before he turned from a human being into the squad’s trophy. The rest of the squad returns triumphant from their volleyball game. Walowick asks if the “dead gook” messed Perry up, and Perry says, yeah, even worse than Jenkins. Walowick doesn’t remember Jenkins.

Walowick and Perry set up a chessboard as Jamal returns with the report, which clearly notes three confirmed kills. Walowick says one can never know how many they actually kill, because the other guerrillas grab the bodies. They also clean up their artillery shells, leaving no trace of their presence. Perry remembers the first death he ever witnessed, a gang shooting in New York. He was going home when it happened, a bunch of Brooklyn gang members jumping from their car and shooting into the street. They killed one kid. Perry wins both games he plays with Walowick, because Walowick’s strategy of capturing the most pieces often leaves him in a bad position.

That night, Perry can’t sleep because he can’t stop thinking about the dead Vietcong fighter. He tries to think about Kenny instead. They used to imagine traveling the world. Perry had a hard time bringing others into his dreams, but Kenny always wanted to bring Mama. Perry wakes with an excruciating stomachache at 4 am. Peewee fetches Jamal, who casually informs Perry that he’s got “the shits, ” and he must just ride them out. Perry “crap[s] out most of [his] insides” at 5:10, 5:20, 5:41, 5:55, and 6:30 am.

By the next day, Perry has recovered enough to pay attention to the excitement in camp. He hears that a Charlie Company sergeant refused to take his squad on patrol, afraid of dying so close to the truce being set. Later in the day, Johnson and Walowick begin calling each other names; their tiff escalates into a fistfight so violent that it takes six men to break it up. Captain Stewart hauls them into his office and calls Perry as a witness, who confirms that Walowick called Johnson a “cootie,” a germ. Johnson protests that’s as bad as being called the n-word, and the pair begin to fight again, right in the captain’s office. He orders them to stop talking to each other.

Peewee asks Perry to help him write a letter to the girlfriend, Earlene, who broke up with him soon after he arrived in Vietnam. Peewee dictates and Perry writes, demanding to know why she traded Peewee for another, less attractive man. Peewee says he knows she needs help taking care of her daughter and that it’s hard to wait, but he promises to be worth waiting for. Perry asks if Peewee thinks the letter will convince her, and Peewee replies that she already married the other man. He just wants to write the letter to break her heart.

Peewee goes to mail the letter, and Johnson comes into the hooch. Brunner starts to tell him that being called a name isn’t a big deal, and Johnson replies that he will beat up anyone who calls him anything but his name. Even the giant, muscled Brunner seems intimidated.

Late that night, the rancid smell of the insect repellant wakes Perry up and he watches Brew praying. This reminds Perry that he should start again, too—he feels guilty about waiting until “Nam” to get back to God, but also doesn’t want to not be close to God there. He fumbles through the Lord’s Prayer but can’t remember it all of it. He used to say it each night with Mama and Kenny, but he stopped the night his dad left them. It turns out he can’t say it in Nam, either.

In the morning, Perry wakes to the sound of incoming helicopters. Outside the mess tent, he asks Lieutenant Carroll what’s going on, but Carroll doesn’t know. Carroll says the patrol Perry missed while he was sick went well but he doesn’t think they should have been out in the jungle. Something seemed off. After breakfast, Captain Stewart summons Perry to fill in for another soldier when Charlie Company goes on patrol.