Episode list

The platoon is assigned to defend Firebase Ladybird under siege by a regiment of North Vietnamese troops. At the same time they come under siege by NVA soldiers, they are assigned a new, ambitious commander who complicates an already dangerous situation.

With Goldman recovering from his wounds and transferring to Intelligence, Anderson meets the replacement Lieutenant Miller, who is keen on appearance by the book, which is something the new medic, Francis Hockenbury aka:' Doc Hock', takes lightly. Meanwhile, Alex Devlin gets the rare opportunity to interview NVA General Thoc in the tunnels. After surviving a B-52 strike on the complex, she is happy to be back in Saigon and spend her last night with Myron before leaving Vietnam for good.

Bravo Company has to leave four men behind - Taylor, Ruiz, Wozniak, and Lamb who was killed. McKay takes Goldman, Anderson, and Duke Fontaine back to pick them up. However, some VC get Lamb's radio and lure the chopper in. Taylor, Ruiz, and Wozniak see the VC doing this and release other smoke, and McKay has to leave them behind again. "Pop" Scarlett joins Bravo Company.

Bravo Company takes Hill 1000 - again - and finds no trace of the enemy. All the men, especially Horn, question why they take a hill suffering casualties and then abandon it, only to be required to take it again. A day or so later, a helicopter spraying Agent Orange is shot down, and Bravo Company again goes up Hill 1000 through the dripping Agent Orange. Horn walked down the hill but decides that his friends are worth fighting for. Horn is wounded throwing explosives into the VC bunker. And then the men are ordered yet again to abandon the hill. Medals are handed out that highlight a number of the episodes.

With Thanksgiving 1968 as a backdrop; Colonel Brewster's decision to go to the press about the Phu An massacre lands him a lot of trouble with the higher echelon, especially when he goes on the record with journalist Sid Boyle. Meanwhile, Percell, after quitting heroin cold turkey, is physically fine, but psychologically still shaken. Also, Lt. Goldman, Sgt. Anderson and the squad are gathering evidence for Colonel Brewster's theory that the NVA must have fuel storage dumps at regular intervals along the Ho Chi Minh trail.

In their quest to capture or kill the sniper that has been picking off Americans at Camp Bennett, several Americans die by friendly fire as McKay attempts to support Goldman's patrol who had come under fire. After the sniper shoots at McKay again, he takes off into the bush to track him down. McKay finds the sniper's tree and stakes it out. Doc Hockenbury meets a local girl, Tien Ly, and goes to her house for dinner.

Zeke struggles to get through the military bureaucracy. SPC Sweet volunteers to help him in exchange for a place in his platoon to go out into the field.

Anderson and Goldman are listed MIA in the aftermath of an artillery strike. The platoon, McKay, and Alex Devlin deal with the loss in different ways. Johnson gets promoted to sergeant and has to fill in the shoes of Zeke. Alex Devlin wants to put Vietnam and Myron behind her and accepts a position as correspondent in Paris. Anderson and Goldman in fact have been taken POW. In a stopover village they figure out where they are and realize that they are ferried northwards. They need to escape because their chances to make it back to their own lines are dwindling.

As Bravo Company returns from a mission, they are interviewed by a television reporter. Sgt. Hannagan has received a pile of wrapped presents from groups back home. Bravo Company decides that the presents should go to the orphanage as Hannagan had told the television reporter. Hannagan tries to prevent that from actually happening, but Percell, Ruiz, and Taylor take the presents and load them onto a truck. Nurse Susanna Lozada is grieving a soldier they lost on the operating table. Ruiz comforts her and invites her to the Christmas party at the orphanage. She and several other nurses ride the truck to the orphanage. The truck is attacked en route, and the guys chase down the attackers. They stay the night so that they can go home in the light. As Anderson says, they are standing guard, which is what soldiers do.

Camp Barnett is suffering from food poisoning, affecting everyone except Lt. Goldman and Sgt. Anderson. As a result, they have to go pick up a deserter, SSG Jonathan Digby, an outstanding soldier Anderson knew in Germany.