A young desk clerk seeking to prove himself is assigned to Anderson's platoon.

Newbie replacements arrive, including a young man that gains Anderson's attention as he and Team Viking return from the field, as the boy proves to be 15 years old. FNGs are moving in all over Team Viking. Goldman (suffering from the same shortage of room) finds himself bunked up with McKay. Team Viking gets assigned a recon mission based on Fontaine's information. Anderson and Goldman spend as much time as possible breaking in the new guys. Zeke and Myron head out with 18 FNG's. Anderson's unit stops to dig in a defensive position to work from, but before completing the bunkers they are attacked by the enemy, and due to outstanding bravery and courage, a few actually survive.

lor is expecting to be promoted at any moment, and opens his mail to find a letter from Johnson talking about how great things are back in the World. Anderson is forced to tell Taylor that he has been passed over for promotion. Taylor starts to deal with the black/white issue -- badly. Percell goes to a black ""bar"" to get Taylor when it becomes obvious that Taylor isn't coming home unless someone goes to get him. Goldman is told that Team Viking is going to go on a mission being dictated by a local Vietnamese Province Chief. The man is going to trade permission to use his village as a base for artillery (which will save many American lives) for the team's going to get his wife). Only after the team agrees do they discover that the woman is pregnant (with another man's child), sick and running from her husband.

Christmas finds Team Viking the bush trying to capture prisoners in Cambodia. Doc tries to show compassion to one of the captured men... who turns out to be able to speak English. Anderson and Goldman exchange Christmas gifts, back at camp. Ruiz takes flowers to Susanna. Taylor finds that he misses Johnson. Team Viking prepares for a Christmas party at the orphanage. Meanwhile, Sgt. Marvin Johnson returns home and finds out that bigotry is alive and well there.

While Zeke is back in the States, Brewster sends the men out to locate a missing SOG team. Once in the bush, Team Viking locates the missing soldiers, who all appear to be dead. It is an NVA trap; the enemy opens up just as the American reach the bodies but retreat quickly when Johnson leads a counter-strike against them. Johnson faces a crisis of confidence because men under his command were killed. Ruiz is struggling with Doc Hock's pacifist attitudes, Johnson is getting worse and Taylor is losing faith in everyone. Anderson arrives back in Texas and spends time with Dr. Seymour. They spend the weekend together and discuss the days ahead, Zeke has trouble seeing any future that involves him returning to the World.

News that Goldman and Anderson are missing and believed dead devastates the platoon and Alex.

Several months later, McKay -- mostly recovered -- is told that he will never fly again. Bitter, he tries to get a civilian job flying but is told that Vietnam vets are too freaky. When he finally gets a job flying air-traffic monitoring, he loses it -- not to a ""flashback"" but to sheer irritation. Ruiz returns home to New York but can't find a job. In Montana, Percell is now a carpenter and is nearly freaked' out by finding a Vietnamese worker on the crew. That same night he runs into a peace-activist at a blind date. Bill Griner returns home to North Carolina -- having been blinded. His parents turn to faith healing and Griner retreats to the ""comfort of the fields and a faithful dog"". Back in Vietnam, Taylor meets a new black soldier who tells him that he came back because the world is nowhere for a ""black"". Doc has been sent to a field hospital but gets in trouble even there because he shows compassion for a dying man.

The men of Team Viking are receiving medals in a ceremony in recognition of their heroism. In the midst of the ceremony, General Higgins arrives and reads out Brewster. Higgins thinks Brewster should have kept his mouth closed about Phu An. Higgins leaves with the threat that he will destroy Brewster if the colonel keeps ""forcing the issue"". Anderson talks with Percell who is off drugs, finally, and is now spending time at the Psych Ward. Doc calls home and finds out that his girl friend is sleeping with someone else. Brewster takes the story of Phu An to the press and is relieved of duty.

A drunken GI steals a chaplain's jeep and goes on a joy ride with a Vietnamese hooker. They nearly collide with a jeep-load of MPs who chase him down. His arrest is witnessed by Zeke, who recognizes him as Decker, his former drill sergeant and role model. Anderson rescues Decker from a certain court-martial (his second) and drafts him into the squad without checking with Goldman first. Decker is popular with the guys but he almost immediately starts to disobey orders. Decker mans a listening post with Horn to watch for enemy troops movements, but he gets drunk and falls asleep. As a result, Horn is nearly killed.

Taylor, Ruiz and Johnson go in search of Purcell after he goes AWOL. They look for 3 days, finally being taken to a heroin parlor by three drug dealers. Danny refuses to leave and the 3 thugs won't let the soldiers force Danny out. Later, Anderson and Team Viking are trying to find a road that is part of the Ho Chi Minh trail. When they find the road they return to the base where everyone knows about Danny. Brewster tells Goldman to solve the problem and Goldman insists upon talking about the massacre. Brewster puts his own career in jeopardy as he tries to get the army to deal with Phu An massacre. Anderson (under pressure from Goldman) organizes a commando raid and goes into Cholon to spring Purcell -- who then is forced to go through cold-turkey withdrawal. Brewster is ordered to shut up about the Phu An massacre.

McKay decides he is personally going to get the sniper who has been taking out helicopters... but with Anderson and Goldman on the ground and him in the air, HE ends up the next target, crashing and killing his co-pilot. Johnson, with only 72 hours left, gets a bad case of ""short timer's nerves"". Meanwhile a crazy CIA operative -- Duke Fontaine -- takes several VC suspects up in a helicopter and starts throwing them out until one of them will talk. Anderson and the team are going to go out after a VC-recruiter and get permission for Johnson not to go but because Johnson has decided that he ""must stick to the routine"" he ends up going. Taylor and Johnson are captured by the VC and tortured by a sadistic Vietnamese man.

After Firebase Ladybird suffers heavy casualties, Sgt. Anderson goes to division headquarters to make a report and recruit replacements. He selects the best from a group of new recruits and meets fir the first time their new leader, 2nd Lt. Goldman.

Team Viking goes out to capture a Soviet chopper but ends up surrounded and captured. Luckily the mission was just practice. Myron discovers that his father -- Gernal Goldman -- is back on the base. His father has 2-3 months left to live because of cancer. While Myron and his father fight, Johnson attempts to decide if he should re-up or go back to the World. A Mexican/American WAC takes up with Ruiz. Johnson finally decides to go back to the States. Percell wonders if he is yet ready to return to the field. Anderson and McKay butt heads when McKay tries to take over the leadership of a mission.

The men of Bravo are certain that Westmoreland has not yet informed the enemy that they are losing, as Firebase Ladybrid continues to come under daily long-range artillery fire. Suddenly a helicopter approaches and lands despite the fact that the base is taking fire. It is the new company commander -- Captain Larry Heath -- a man who initially wins over the favor of his troops with gifts, but he proves to be a complete fanatic. Heath wants to attack despite the fact that it appears that the base is about to be attacked. Zeke and Goldman set them men to putting up a defense and get in trouble because of it. A large attack proves that Anderson was right when the firebase is over-run and Doc Matsuda, with only 15 days left of his tour of duty, is killed when he refuses to abandon his patient.

Bravo company is on another S mission. A new man is on point, and he stops the patrol when he sees some blood, which he follows to a Vietnam booby trap. He's killed. Taylor takes over point, even though he is a short timer. Later, he manages to survive an encounter with an NVA machine gun nest after he destroys it. Taylor must address his mixed emotions about his near return to home. His fear and distaste for Vietnam is equaled only by the darkness of the life waiting for him at home. Taylor, after a ""Dear John"" phone call from home, signs up for another tour.

Among the villagers being relocated by the platoon is a beautiful woman to whom Goldman is attracted. When they are attacked on the trail, Goldman's life is saved by a VC who turns out to be the woman's husband.

Zeke considers a job offer as a mercenary for the CIA; Zeke and Goldman go on a dangerous mission with a Navy SEAL.

While out on a patrol, Anderson and Goldman observe some VC transporting an American prisoner and photograph him before leaving the area. Although they are badly outnumbered, Ruiz stupidly goes back down the trail after a necklace he dropped, tipping their position and getting a man killed. Alex drops by to see Goldman. Zeke goes to the hospital to try to straighten out some records and ends up saving the life of psychiatrist Jennifer Seymour from a homicidally insane LURP. An explosion in the latrine sets of Major Darling, while Anderson suggests that it might not be VC but an American solider who planted the grenade. Taylor gets accused -- falsely -- of doing the dirty deed and now it is up to Anderson and Goldman to find a way to clear him. Ruiz begins to completely breakdown. Anderson's budding relationship with Seymour is short-circuited when he betrays her confidence by sharing information he gained from her in an effort to clear Taylor.

Alex risks her life by investigating a prostitute's murder in which Taylor is implicated.

Two sappers make their way into Firebase Ladybird without being detected, but Percell sees the third one, killing him. The other two manage to set off their explosives before they can be stopped. The next morning, Capt. Wallace orders Anderson and Goldman to have their men police up the dead bodies.. Anderson complains his men are beat, but Wallace isn't concerned. Percell is upset both over a friend's dying and having received a ""Dear John"" letter. Goldman, meantime, runs into an old friend: Lt. Nikki Raines, and promises to meet her later. Goldman, Anderson and the squad go out to destroy a bridge, which they blow up. Percell, in the midst of chasing a running VC, accidentally kills an 8-year-old. Percell is devistated over the incident.

Anderson, Johnson and Ruiz train four Vietnamese recruits whose inexperience poses problems.

All of the enlisted men of Team Viking end up with food poisioning. Goldman is forced, because of that, to take on an assignment himself that he had intended to assign to someone else, drafting Anderson to come along. They pick up a deserter who Anderson has known as the ""ideal"" soldier for years. As the two men spend time together they talk about their early meetings, etc. Zeke gets a letter from Johnson. The next day Digby (the deserter) escapes before Anderson and Goldman get there but is recaptured. They start off to Long Binh prison. Digby has been a soldier for 14 years but gave it up when some soldiers started to give him and his Vietnamese wife a hard time. Digby ends up saving their lives, a number of times, and he ends up ""accidentally"" escaping

Anderson, Goldman, and Captain Wallace are checking out a new weapon that has been added to the platoon's arsenal: a flamethrower. Zeke and Goldman are unhappy that the next mission will also include a beautiful female reporter -- Vicky Adams. Zeke fights against the woman's urges to ""get the good stuff"" and his own men's attempts to impress her -- at the risk of their own lives. A prisoner is caught and tells the unit that they are surrounded by an NVA regiment. Wallace refusees to go back to safety, though, and a bad situation continues to get worse and worse.

Goldman and Nikki have a great time on a brief R&R that they spend together on China Beach. Their reunion is marred by the fact that Nikki refuses to marry him, fearing he will be killed in combat. Goldman returns to Firebase Ladybird to find that his unit has been assigned to help take Hill 1000. They've taken it before and lost it before. And this battle promises to be the worst. Even after the bunker is finally taken, it is found empty. They go back down so that a plane can spray a defoliate. They must go back and take that hill yet again. Horn has, in the meantime, gotten in trouble with a young -- and new -- officer. Sitting at the bottom of the hill and awaiting the court-martial, he sees a wounded Taylor and he decides to go back with his buddies and fight. Horn is seriously wounded and sent home.

A USO band comprised of three female dancers, a sax players, and a singer, completes their performance at an outlying base, and are rushed to a helicopter to be flown to their next destination. None of them get a chance to even change their costumes. The helicopter is shot down and the entire crew is killed. Meanwhile, Bravo company is out on a recon, and Taylor who is on point, thinks he must be going crazy when he sees the girl in hot pants and leather boots. Bravo company takes the girls with them but can't call in for help because the radio's batteries are dead.The USO people make the transition to ""soldier"" with various degrees of success.

Team Viking takes off on another Fontaine mission, where they run into heavy contact. McKay arrives back at the LZ to rescue them, only to end up being fired on by missiles. He has no choice but to leave without Taylor, Ruiz and Private Woznaik. They attempt to make it back to their own lines on their own. The team goes back to check for their men -- McKay gets tricked by the VC and nearly killed -- only Taylor's self-sacrificing smoke grenade gets the chopper pilot back up in time. Wozniak ends up dead of a snake bite, leaving Ruiz and Taylor on their own. As the days pass, Taylor and Ruiz are replaced by two new soldiers, including 44-year-old PFC Thoams ""Pop"" Scarlett, a lifer with a unique perspective on the war.

Anderson risks court-martial to delay the return of battle-weary men to combat.

Anderson & Pop are having a good time at a local bar when a young trooper turns up and gets insulting to Pop -- it turns out to be Robby (Pop's son). The Phu An Board of Inquiry starts. As the situation develops and Beller realizes what his men did -- he had blocked it out -- he kills himself. Zeke and Team Viking go out with Robby on another SOG mission. They end up getting sprayed with Agent Blue. Before the end of the day, Robby ends up killed, leaving Pop to bring his son home in a body bag.

Anderson meets with his wife and sees her off after her announcement that she is remarrying. Goldman begins a relationship with Devlin which almost ends as they are both nearly blown up by a VC bomb. Percell is fed up with the senselessness of the war and Ruiz becomes convinced that he is going to be the next to die. Johnson and Taylor go to check on Bridger only to be told that he is dead (he is faking it), while Stacy Bridger has arrived to find her father. Goldman is ordered to have Alex pull her story about the soldier who died in the opium parlor and Zeke runs into Stacy Bridger -- rescuing her from some Vietnamese punks. He takes her back to the hotel where Zeke ends up trying to save a suicidal marine deserter. The deserter has sold information to the VC and ends up killing himself. Meanwhile McKay sends Goldman on a ""snipe"" hunt so that he can be alone with Alex, and inadvertently exposes Goldman to serious danger.

Retired Major General Goldman arrives by helicopter at Firebase Ladybird on a fact finding mission for Washington brass. Seeing another helicopter landing, he goes to greet and question Anderson and his soldiers about the mission they have just returned from. They later learn that the general is Goldman's father but it is clear when they meet that the two don't have a good relationship. They were estranged when Myron's mother died five years before and haven't spoken since. The Major general finds that his son's leadership methods appall him. Ruiz befriends a new man who joins the team, mainly because he is also a hispanic. But the man manages to get himself killed due to his careless attitude. Dalby orders Goldman's men into an impossible attack which Myron refuses to go on. Zeke and Goldman realize that the new man was on dope and set out to cure the problem themselves.

One of a GI's big events is the arrival of his mail. When Zeke opens his mail to find that his ex-wife, it is to find that she is complaining that he is not writing letters home often enough to their 3-year-old daughter. Zeke already has enough responsibilities... this one isn't wanted. However he has little time to worry about it before he finds himself out on patrol. Goldman orders the squad forward when Anderson warns that they are walking into trouble, Anderson scouts out ahead and ends up in a near-lethal mortar barrage. Anderson is nearing his limit when he finds out that the squad's next destination is a valley where Zeke's last outfit was nearly wiped out. Anderson fights going tooth-and-nail and it is obvious to everyone that Zeke is falling apart. There is little time to help him, though, as the men have to consider their mission first. The squad ends up going after a downed flyer... and while Zeke continues to deteroriate.

Anderson goes into the jungle to find a disturbed friend who refused a transfer home.

A new man -- Woods -- walking point accidentally steps on a pressure-activated mine. While they are trying to get him off it, they are told a squad of VC are heading straight at them. McKay finally arrives to lift them out of the hot LZ. Zeke plans an R&R in Tokyo with Jennifer but the plans go awry when Major Darling offers Seymour a teaching post and position back in the States -- and she only has 48 hours to make her decision. Meanwhile a homosexual GI tries to commit suicide when he is being blackmailed. Jennifer tries to help him -- at the cost of her own career. Meanwhile Woods ends up in a fight, and Taylor realizes the man has career-potential abilities.

The company provides security for an irrigation project, but after several successful ambushes on them, the men of B Company suspect their Vietnamese scout of spying.