On patrol with television crews, Richie’s squad kills a Vietnamese man and claims he is an enemy soldier, though the papers on the man prove otherwise. His squad mate Jenkins is killed a few weeks into the tour of duty after stepping on a booby trap set by the Americans. Oldier who has been there nine months without seeing any fighting.Īs time goes on, however, Richie finds himself in the middle of combat and death. Richie hears the company will soon be leaving for Hawaii as peace talks are in the works and he talks to another s
Judy leaves for an Army medical facility and Richie and Peewee are sent to join the Twenty-second replacement company. He meets Army nurse Judy Duncan and his squad mate Harold “Peewee” Gates on the flight. He was trained in Fort Devens, Texas and is being sent with his unit to the conflict he hears is almost over. Richie is en route to Vietnam when the book opens. Richie has a strained relationship with his mother, an alcoholic who suffers from depression, and worries about his teenage brother’s safety in the racially tense streets of Harlem. In the meantime, he sends money home to support his younger brother and mother. An excellent writer, Richie hopes one day to be able to write like the author James Baldwin. Richie Perry is a recent high school graduate who gave up dreams of an expensive college education to join the United States Army.
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