“Welcome to the jungle, it gets worse here every day
You learn to live like an animal in the jungle where we play…”
~ Guns and Roses.
March & April 1966.
Patrick arrives “in country” and searches for Charlie at Camp Radcliff. Finding him in “The Jungle,” Charlie invites him to bunk there since one of their tent mates recently got killed. Cedric objects, but Charlie insists and shares about Patrick’s antics back home, including the night “Lucky” carried John Lee Hooker’s guitar and how they avenged Ali’s death.
Nicky, in the late stages of cirrhosis, returns to the hospital asks for Lizzie. This time she finally confronts him and shares the truth about Patrick. But rather than having a “moment,” Nicky laughs it off and boasts that he probably fathered children all up and down the west coast.
On Patrick’s first patrol, they come under enemy fire while flying above the canopy. Patrick, refusing to wear his “monkey harness” as he mans the door gun, admires the view despite incoming rounds tracking their Huey. When the pilot orders him to return fire, he blindly unleashes a burst of machine gun fire on the unseen enemy below. On reaching the LZ, Charlie and his squad dismount and disappear into a treeline.
After an uneventful patrol, Pat shares with his tent mates what Ms. Allen told him after Ali’s death, how “when you’re time’s up, it’s up” and nothing can change it. Cedric tests “Lucky’s” conviction and removes a revolver from under his cot and loads one bullet in the cylinder. Giving it a spin, he hands the pistol to Patrick and explains how “Russian Roulette” works. But as “Lucky” points the loaded gun to this temple, Patrick’s crew chief bursts in and orders him back to the flight-line. Once Patrick leaves, Cedric points the pistol at the dirt floor and pulls the trigger, discharging the round.
