It's 1970 and the war in Vietnam rages on. Three soldiers from very different backgrounds come together in B Company, 196th Light Infantry Brigade, Americal Division, where their lives are changed forever by the events of the war.

Lt. Brian Calhoun, fresh from West Point, Sergeant First Class Jack Peterson, on his second tour in Vietnam, and drafted Ohio State graduate John Whalen, who protested the war in college, find themselves in the midst of a war that they don't totally endorse.

Despite their indifference to the war, they lead the men of second platoon against North Vietnamese Army regulars and Viet Cong soldiers who continue their relentless pursuit to unify Vietnam into one communist country.

Follow their paths from their life before they went to Vietnam, through their year long tour, and then their subsequent return to the United States.

Captain Murphy had barely started to unwind from a grueling three weeks in the field when he heard the company jeep head his way while on the way to his hootch. Stopping, Murphy watched as the driver Buck Sergeant Scott Jervis, skidded to a halt barely six feet from him, kicking up a cloud of dirt and dust that covered LZ Hawk Hill. Jervis was now driving the company jeep after receiving three purple hearts for wounds received in the field.

"Sir, they want to see you down at Brigade Headquarters. Top says they want to talk to you about the patrol."

Murphy threw his cigarette in the sand and angrily stomped it out. "They don't give you a minute, do they Jervis?"

Taking off his boonie hat and rubbing his hand through his thick non-regulation hair, Jervis laughed. "Guess not, sir. Same shit, you know. May as well get in and let me drive you there." Jervis threw the jeep into gear and headed off in the direction of Brigade Headquarters. "I heard it was a tough patrol, sir, not many gooks, huh?"

Murphy, lighting another cigarette, let out a small laugh. "Well, Jervis, that would be the understatement of the year. Naw, the gooks are out there, but they're holed up some place. I got a feeling they are getting ready for a big push. Rice caches in the villes ain't a good sign. But what the hell, the old man here at Brigade, well, he's probably going to kick my ass. All he wants is body count. By the way, do you know anything about Hutchinson and McDivers? You know the two who were wounded last week?"

"Hutchinson will be okay. He'll probably be back in another week. McDivers? I don't know, sir, it doesn't look good. If he makes it, he'll be going to a hospital in Japan. He took three AK rounds. Those shells rip you apart inside, but we'll see. He's tough, so we'll just see."

Murphy stared at the dirt road ahead of him thinking about the brief fire fight that caused the wounds to his men. A small tree line and out of nowhere a burst of AK fire. They returned fire, but after five minutes or so, the VC disappeared, leaving his two men wounded. They searched the tree line, but found no evidence they had killed or even wounded them.

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