“Cover me, when I run
Cover me, through the fire
Something knocked me out the trees
And now I’m on my knees…”
~ Peter Gabriel.
May 1966.
Patrick once again mans the door gun of his Huey without wearing his “monkey harness” as they fly toward “Landing Zone Monkey.” As they touch down and soldiers dismount, the last person bumps into Patrick which causes his trick knee to give out. He falls from the chopper just as it lifts off, and he watches in horror as it gets raked by machine gun fire and crashes.
Charlie, shocked to see Patrick on the ground, hands him a rifle from a dead American soldier. As Sgt “Hero” gathers his men and plans an attack on a pillbox in the treeline, Patrick volunteers and successfully executes the mission. As night falls, Sgt “Hero” details the plan of attack to relive the besieged troops further up the valley and sets up a perimeter.
In LA, a very ill Nicky succumbs to the final stages of liver failure. As Liz attends to him, he asks her if Patrick turned out to be a good person or an asshole like him. She reassures Nicky that he turned out good, and with a smile he passes away.
The next morning Sgt “Hero” instructs his men to take their “pep pills.” Rather than taking one, the men pop them like Tic Tacs and, without their knowledge, get high on dextroamphetamine. As they approach a quiet village, they open fire on women and children and, in the process, accidentally kill Charlie. Patrick, who didn’t take any pills, spots movement to his right and charges off to investigate. Moving through the brush, he comes face to face with a young Vietnamese woman and her twin girls escaping the carnage.
