Summary

Chapter 1: Richie Perry is a seventeen year old from New York on his way to fight with the U.S. Army in Vietnam. On the airplane ride from Massachusetts to Anchorage, Richie meets Judy Duncan, an Army nurse from Texas who is also on her way to Vietnam. The two talk about where they grew up and what they expect will happen in Vietnam. From Anchorage, the group flies to Osaka, Japan and spends the night in the airport before boarding a plane for Vietnam the next morning. The plane lands at the Tan Son Nhut airport at 2 p.m. that day, and the soldiers line up in the hot, muggy heat. The medics, including Judy, board a bus and leave for their post. Judy gives Richie a smile and a wave and is gone.

Richie is assigned to the Twenty-second replacement company and meets...