Free Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers

that we were trying to free the South Vietnamese people to do what they wanted to do.
    Brunner said he was fighting because he hated Communism.
    Walowick said that he was fighting because his country asked him to. I liked that.
    Lobel said something about the domino theory, how if Vietnam fell to the Communists then the rest of Asia might fall.
    Brew said the same thing about the domino theory. I think he was just repeating what he had heard Lobel say.
    I said that we either defended our country abroad, or we would be forced to fight in the streets of America, which everybody seemed to like.
    Then the news team got to Peewee and asked him why he was fighting in Vietnam.
    “Vietnam?” Peewee looked around like he was shocked or something. “I must have got off on the wrong stop, I thought this was St. Louis!”
    The news guys just walked away from him, and then they started talking to Brunner, who talked a good five minutes. Captain Stewart watched Brunner, and I could see he liked what Brunner was saying. He left for a few minutes and then came back and told Lieutenant Carroll that we had to go on patrol. Captain Stewart said that the television guys were coming with us.
    Lieutenant Carroll looked over at Simpson and Simpson looked away.
    We got into the Hueys — big, mean-looking choppers — at 1200 hours and headed north. Part of the squad was in the first chopper and the rest in the second. The news guys were filming everything. We landed in a sandy area about two kilometers from the sea.
    Simpson put Monaco on point again, but this time he told Johnson to be the trailer. Johnson looked at me, and I could see he wasn’t happy to be the last man on the line.
    The news team was in the middle. We walked along a trail for about twenty minutes with the television guys photographing us, and then headed back toward the Hueys.
    We were in sight of the landing zone when Monaco opened up.
    “Hold your fire! Hold your fire!’’ Sergeant Simpson had ducked behind a tree.
    Carroll moved toward Monaco, who was still firing, and yelled something to him. Monaco stopped firing and yelled back.
    Carroll put his back to a tree, pointed to his eyes, and held up one finger.
    “What’s that mean?” Peewee asked.
    “He means he saw one VC,” Brunner said.
    We stayed low for a while, then the cameramen started getting up and easing forward.
    There was another burst from Monaco, and then I heard Lobel yelling.
    “There he is! There he is!”
    I didn’t see anything. I looked, but I didn’t see anything. Monaco was firing on a stand of trees and soon the whole squad had opened up. Simpson was crawling back, and I saw him grab Johnson and turn him around. He wanted Johnson to watch our rear.
    I looked to see what they were shooting at, but I still didn’t see anything. I decided to shoot anyway.
    I looked closely at where the others were shooting, then thought I saw something move. I lifted the sixteen and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened.
    “Cease fire! Cease fire!” This from Simpson.
    Simpson, Monaco, and Walowick moved out. Lieutenant Carroll was telling everybody to hold their fire.
    They found the guy. Walowick dragged him out of the trees. The newsmen went to take his picture while Simpson was posting us around the LZ. My hands were sweating. I looked at my rifle, wondering why it hadn’t fired.
    “You okay, Perry?” Lieutenant Carroll came over to me.
    “Yes, sir.”
    “Soon as you fire off a clip put a new one in,” he said. “We got better supplies than the VC, we have to use them. Got that?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    I looked at the rifle after he had left. Then I shoved in a clip. I had forgotten to load the damn thing.
    The newsmen were on the chopper first, then the rest of the squad. Brunner threw on the VC before he got on.
    I didn’t want to look at the VC. I knew, by the way that Brunner had thrown him on, that he was dead. The news guys were getting still photos of the dead VC. Brunner took out a cigar and