Season 1: Episode 5: Sitting Ducks
From Bravo 3/44th
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Contents |
Overview
- Directed by
- Aaron Lipstadt
- Written by
- Steve Bello
- Guest Stars
- Mako ... Tran
- Tamlyn Tomita ... VC peasant woman
- James Hong ... Quang
- Also Starring
- George O'Hanlon ... Platoon Sergeant
- Russell Coyne ... Keller
- Matthew Crane ... Sentry
- Original Air Date
- 29 October 1987
- Title Card
- From 1963 to 1967, more than 20 Buddhist monks committed ritual suicide to protest political oppression in South Vietnam.
Episode Summary
This story deals with the various snags and obstacles in America's effort to overcome Communism for the South Vietnamese people. As we see in several episodes of Tour of Duty, there is an issue of enemy definition for America. If we were to look for the enemy, we would find ourselves looking in several different directions. There was the NVA and VC (the obvious enemies); the locals of both city and rural; the Laotians; the Cambodians and sometimes these same factions are also loyal allies. Oddly enough, before America became involved in Southeast Asia the French were there trying to help. Interestingly, the French managed a lot of confusion among the ranks of the South Vietnamese people for some reason and this alienation tended to make our efforts more difficult. Then as in this story, we find religion playing a part. Then there are the booby traps and ambushes!
Tour of Duty also takes issues and deals with them in an insightful manner. There was a lot of dissention and even open rebellion among the ranks of the American military. This episode gives us an interesting insight to the skills of Goldman and Anderson in their leadership of the platoon. We see the the beginnings of a group of men becoming a close knit outfit. It becomes obvious why many veterans of Vietnam become friends for life. (By Ernie)
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Transcript (see transcript listing)
Excerpt from scene [1:38] A Cush Gig
HORN: So, Lieutenant, now can you tell us where we're headed?
PERCELL: Yeah, what's all the secrecy?
GOLDMAN: Well, should I tell 'em?
ANDERSON: You better tell 'em, otherwise the suspense is gonna kill 'em.
GOLDMAN: All right, gentlemen, there's a ville just south of here called Binh Thuy.
PERCELL: Ben what, sir?
GOLDMAN: Binh Thuy. And there's a team of rural construction workers workin' there. They're building an irrigation project.
HORN: Irrigation?
GOLDMAN: That's right. Now our job, is gonna be to guard those workers.
PERCELL: That's all? Just guard the workers?
GOLDMAN: That's right, you heard me. See, the big secret is, gentlemen, we finally got ourselves a cush gig.
SOLDIER: Yee-haw!
SOLDIER: Woo-hoo!
TAYLOR: Right on, right on!
SOLDIER: Yeah!
SOLDIER: Yeah!
THE GUYS: Louie, Louie, Whoa, yeah, we gotta go. Uh-huh. Ai-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi. Louie, Louie, oh, ho, we gotta go. Ai-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Louie, Louie, oh, ho, we gotta go...
Song Listing (see full series listing)
- Louie, Louie (R. Berry). Performed by The Kingsmen. The Kingsmen in Person. Sundazed, 1963.
Scene: The guys celebrate a cush gig.
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- A Whiter Shade of Pale (G. Brooker/K. Reid). Performed by Procol Harum. Procol Harum. Deram, 1967.
Scene: On the first patrol, the men have a brush with death, eyes wide open and the truth not plain to see.
Buy Song / Listen via iTunes
Trivia
- Goldman, Myron
- father was a colonel, and a tough but likable son of a...
- Horn, Roger
- became interested in Buddhism recently
- not religious
- can read numbers in Vietnamese
- likes crackers
- Johnson, Marvin
- has a little cousin named Rodney
- does not have a wife and kids
- Ruiz, Alberto
- gets snarfy when around ragweed
- graduated from high school
- Taylor, Marcus
- does not have a wife and kids
Favorite Quotes
TRAN: Friendly warning. GI safe as long as stay inside wire. Charlie aim very poor.
GOLDMAN: Damn it. That sucker won't die.
Screenshots (see Screenshots page)
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