Summary

The first chapter is 1963. The story opens the day after President John F. Kennedy is assassinated. Seaman Apprentice William Houston, Jr., known as Bill, is in the jungle of Grande Island in the Philippines. He finds a monkey and shoots it so that it falls out of the tree, fatally injured. Bill, 18, cries as he holds the monkey until it dies. He returns to the club near the water where there are some other military people. One of them is Colonel Francis Xavier Sands. He calls out to an Asian man he calls Lucky. His name is Captain Nguyen Minh and he's a South Viet Nam Air Force captain.

Bill has been in the military for awhile. He advanced but was then demoted. He signed up for a second tour, mainly because he had the power to decide this for himself. In 1967, Bill doesn't board...