Richard Perry Timeline and Summary

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• Perry flies from Alaska to Tan Son Nhut. He banters with a guy named Peewee and sort of flirts with a nurse named Judy.
• Perry says goodbye to Judy and is sent to Chu Lai, where he's assigned to the Alpha Company and picks out a bunk. Home sweet home.
• Perry goes on his first patrol. He's shocked when a guy who arrived with him, Jenkins, steps on a mine and dies. Yeesh.
• Perry tries to talk to Lieutenant Carroll about his medical profile, but it hasn't arrived. He decides he'll just wait for it to show up. Because waiting around while you're in Nam isn't dangerous or anything.
• A TV crew films Perry's squad going on patrol. Perry tries to shoot at the enemy, but he forgot to reload his gun. That's great TV right there.
• Perry gets a virus and misses patrol.
• He gets loaned out to another company, the Charlie Company. He loads a gun for a man named Scotty, but it turns out they were accidentally ordered to shoot at their own men. Um, oops.
• Perry goes to a Vietnamese hamlet village for a "pacification" mission. He yells at Brunner for pocketing something from one of the huts.
• Perry and his platoon are sent to a cemetery to ambush Vietcong soldiers. When Lieutenant Carroll is hit, they travel to the hospital in Chu Lai with him.
• Carroll doesn't make it. Sad face.
• Perry writes a letter to Carroll's wife telling her what happened. Captain Stewart calls him in to compliment him about the letter. Big deal.
• Perry's mom writes to Peewee, asking Peewee to tell Perry she loves him. Cute, if inefficient. Perry writes back to her directly, saying he loves her.
• Perry's squad goes on a mission under their new Lieutenant, Gearhart. Perry sets up claymores facing the wrong way. Luckily, a Vietcong soldier turns them around before they kill anyone.
• Stewart asks Perry to write another letter to the family of Turner, another man who died. Gearhart had written the original letter, but it was too full of guilt. Apparently, guilt isn't the way to break news to a grieving family.
• Perry and the others are sent to protect the hamlet village from earlier, which has been attacked by the Vietcong. In the village, Perry goes into a hut and faces off with a soldier he has to kill up-close. Afterward, he freaks out a little.
• Perry and the others move to a new hooch outside Tam Ky, a dangerous "boonies" area.
• On the next ambush, Perry is hit in the legs. He rides in a chopper to the hospital with Brew, who dies on the way there. Bye, Brew.
• Perry recovers in the hospital and sees nurse Judy again. He's super anxious when he has to return to his platoon.
• Perry's platoon and the ARVN try to take a hill with Vietcong activity, but they get ambushed instead, so it's kind of a disaster. Perry kills more men up-close and dissociates from his body a little as they run back to the chopper.
• Perry's squad is sent to a river with Vietcong activity. Perry and Peewee check out a ridge and end up separated from the group.
• Perry and Peewee hide out in a snake hole overnight, and Perry helps to kill the Vietnamese soldier whose snakehole it is. It's not friendly, but it saves their lives.
• Perry and Peewee fire at the Vietcong soldiers holding Monaco hostage. Perry is hit in the leg again, and they all get flown to the hospital.
• In the hospital, Perry pays someone to look up Judy, but she was killed at a field hospital. Sad.
• Perry and Peewee are sent back the United States together. It's back to the real world.