Tue, Jan 3, 1989
Pilot Lt. McKay says rock 'n roll is here to stay and blasts it from his chopper. He flies back to where Bravo Company is pinned down by VC and joins the fight from the air, playing rock 'n roll the whole time. Alex Devlin, a reporter, is working a drug story but learns from Jake Bridger, the owner of a hotel in Saigon, that there has been a big increase in VC activity all around with the Tet coming. Taylor and Johnson want to invest in a hotel chain with Bridger, even though Anderson warns them that Bridger is a hustler. Anderson meets with his ex-wife in Saigon.
Tue, Jan 10, 1989
Carol Anderson informs Zeke that she is marrying a nice guy; he wants her to be happy. Stacy Bridger travels to Saigon to meet her father, Sgt. Jake Bridger. He was killed by VC a week before. Except Bridger is in hiding and getting information about the VC to pass on to Command. McKay sends Goldman on a wild goose chase down the Fu Loc Highway so that he could be alone with Alex; McKay didn't know VC were all over the area. He flew to the rescue. That night, the VC launch a coordinated attack in Saigon, on Tan Son Nhut (the American base), and in cities throughout South Vietnam.
Tue, Jan 17, 1989
Soldiers need someone to talk to regarding the horrors they experience. Tan Son Nhut has a priest who is there to listen. The Army also has a contract with a psychologist, Dr. Jennifer Seymour. A fragger kills the priest, making the base paranoid. Anderson listens to tapes of Dr. Seymour's notes about her patients and figures out who the fragger is, saving lives by doing so. Yet Dr. Seymour is angry that he violated her patients' privacy.
Tue, Jan 24, 1989
Battle fatigue can be totally enervating. McKay verbally abuses a soldier in the field who could not let go of a tree and get into the helicopter; they manage to get him into the chopper and back to base where Dr. Seymour deals with him. The policy is to get men without casualties back in to the field as soon as possible, but Anderson requests that Dr. Seymour find a way not to send Martsen back to the field. The major in the psych ward orders Martsen back to active duty, and he is shot in the next skirmish. Ruiz finally goes to see Dr. Seymour about his view that he is a coward because he is afraid to go into battle. A Vietnamese girl tells Johnson he is the father of her baby, and though the truth of the claim is questionable, Johnson wants to help her.
Tue, Jan 31, 1989
Bravo Company gets a new lieutenant, as Lt. Goldman is the new press officer for Major Darling. Lt. Escobar is shot and brought back by Ruiz. Lt. Escobar comes from a family with connections, and his father arranges for an early out for Escobar - and Ruiz. Ruiz turns him down. McKay and Bravo Company pick up two additional injured soldiers who had items for Major Darling apparently looted from a temple. Major Darling grounds McKay for doing this. Devlin picks up the story about the artifacts and offers a deal to Darling: he is to quit looting and he is to put Goldman back in the field. Major Darling threatens McKay with a court martial when he goes out to help Bravo Company despite his grounding, and McKay says he would welcome the opportunity to tell the court about Major Darlin's looting. Dr. Grennly, a colleague of Dr Seymour, arrives. Part of the deal to get Dr. Grennly to come over was that he is to get all the publicity he wants to help his state-side clinic succeed.
Tue, Mar 21, 1989
Dr. Seymour is offered a direct commission as a major and a posting at Fort Sam Houston to teach her methodologies. PFC Thayer admits to Dr. Seymour that he is a homosexual. The Army doesn't allow homosexuals and it doesn't allow officers to fraternize with non-officers. To take the men's attention away from Thayer's attempted suicide, they set up a boxing match. Taylor promotes Woods to box. Woods, though, is hesitant because he will lose his amateur status, as the fight is not sanctioned. Taylor's conscience bothers him, but Woods proceeds with the match. When Woods learns that his amateur status is protected after all, Army defeats the Air Force in the boxing match.
Tue, Mar 28, 1989
In a VC village, Purcell shoots a VC and Bravo Company rescues a Quaker woman who is providing care for children in the village. She takes a little girl back to Saigon to find her mother. There, Purcell interrupts two Vietnamese trying to rape the Quaker woman. In his struggle with one of the men, the Vietnamese man is killed with his own gun, but the Quaker woman will not testify that Purcell was acting in self defense. The little girl's mother witnessed the fight, however, and Anderson, with the help of the widow of his friend who was killed in action, persuades the woman to come forward and clear Purcell. McKay's chopper is shot down after leaving Bravo Company on this mission. He survives and is rescued by Bravo Company who volunteered to go find him.
Tue, Apr 4, 1989
Anderson has to bring the body of a (black) soldier to the U.S. and meet with his family. And it all coincides with the recent assassination of Martin Luther King. At the same time several of the black soldiers are reeling from it and the Lieutenant in charge of these men who is black, tries to get them to go on. When they disobey his orders, he considers action but Goldman tries to talk him out of it.