Summary

Chapter 19: As Richie’s company awaits the medevac choppers, they pile as many dead bodies as they can find in a hut and burn it to the ground. They first strip them of their clothes and dog tags, deciding they would rather burn the bodies than let the Vietcong find them and mutilate what is left. They find a soldier who is still alive in a pile of bodies, barely holding on as blood flows from a chest wound. A fellow squad member of the injured soldier shoots him, ending his misery. When all the bodies are gathered, they use a flamethrower to light the hut.

Richie’s group hears Vietnamese soldiers closing in on the village and they retreat from it. The ARVN take a shorter route through a rice paddy and dodge gunfire. Richie’s squad takes a longer route along a tree...