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Chapter 17
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Fallen Angels, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
War, Trauma, and Dehumanization
Perseverance and Heroism
Race, Identity, and Belonging
Reality and Fiction
Faith and Hope
Summary
Analysis
Peewee refuses to eat or talk for hours; eventually Johnson asks him if he really cares about the kids “over here.” Peewee and Johnson decide that there are no kids, just “Congs and mosquitos.” Perry tries to tell Peewee it’s okay to feel bad about what’s going on, but Peewee retorts that he never feels bad.
It's evident that the horror which just unfolded does affect Peewee deeply, that he does care about the kids, and that watching a child being used as an improvised explosive device has deeply traumatized him. He is clearly lying when he says he never feels bad. Although it’s difficult to watch him dehumanize Vietnamese people, he and Johnson clearly do so as a defense mechanism to try to shield themselves from as much of the horror as possible.
Themes
A sniper hidden in the jungle shoots a private in the rear end early the next morning, while he gets a drink of water from the can. Everyone jokes about it, even though the difference of a few inches might have meant permanent disability or death. Johnson joins Perry at breakfast bearing gossip about a fight between Captain Stewart and the ARVN colonel. Johnson has an air of experience about him, and Perry values his insights. He asks Johnson about Dongan, and Johnson says that when the new sergeant arrived, he immediately shared beers with Walowick and Brunner, but he avoided Lobel, considering him “a faggot.” Johnson doesn’t care one way or the other about Lobel’s sexuality; what a man does in bed makes no difference when he’s fighting alongside you in Nam.
Combined with the woman-and-children attack, the sniper shooting the private points to how vulnerable the soldiers are and why they’re always on high alert. To make matters worse, the fight between the commanders shows yet again that the men in command take more interest in burnishing their own reputations than in making the decisions that are best for their soldiers. So the soldiers lose the sense of security good leadership might provide them. To make matters worse, Dongan’s overt racism threatens to destroy the fragile sense of cohesion among the squad members, the only thing they have left to rely on. Johnson sagely implies that the life-or-death seriousness of Vietnam shows how unimportant the distinctions of race or sexual orientation are—or, at least, should be—in the context of people’s shared humanity.
Themes
The sniper hits the wounded private again as he’s climbing into a jeep. A squad scrambles to find the shooter, pinning him with machine guns and calling in mortar shells. Perry estimates it must have cost $10,000 to kill the sniper. Peewee joins Perry and Johnson and shares the news that Stewart lost the argument about whose forces would lead the approach on the day’s mission: his forces will go first. Lieutenant Gearhart expresses displeasure over the outcome; he’s heard that the ARVN colonel got “a whole battalion wasted” elsewhere. But orders are orders. Only Peewee sems eager to go.
The American soldiers ultimately get the sniper but at a great and wasteful cost of man- and firepower. The book not too subtly suggests that this typifies American efforts in Vietnam more broadly: they’re costly and ineffective despite the Americans’ superior firepower. After all, it took several squads, machine guns, and heavy artillery to take out one enemy soldier effectively hidden in the jungle. And their concerns about the ARVN colonel’s potential ineptitude remind readers yet again of how little trust the soldiers have that the people making the decisions care about them. They can only trust and rely on one another.
Themes
There’s too much fire to use the first landing zone, so the choppers drop the soldiers in a secondary, makeshift landing zone. Perry can hear enemy mortar fire, but the shells whistle overhead without detonating. He guesses that the Vietcong have faulty equipment or lack the expertise to use it properly. He soon realizes why the ARVN colonel didn’t want his men going first, since the soldiers must cross hundreds of yards of exposed rice paddies before gaining the foot of the hill. He feels relieved when they reach the tree line and hunker down for a breather. But Peewee doesn’t like the situation; he crawls over and tells Perry where he can find an old, valuable coin hidden in his room in Chicago. If Peewee doesn’t make it, he wants Perry to have it. Peewee crawls away. Perry tries to stay alert, tries not to think.
The situation on the ground confirms soldiers’ concerns about leading the charge: it seems abundantly clear that they are walking into a trap. Yet somehow, miraculously, the American troops make it all the way to the tree line without incident. This doesn’t suggest that there are no adversaries hidden in the trees. But it does point to how patient and disciplined the Vietcong are as fighting force. They won’t betray their positions until they’re ready to attack on the Americans—which might be long after they’ve cut off all the escape routes. Their invisibility contributes to the sense of terror that affects all the soldiers, even Peewee, who seemed so eager to go just a short time before.
Themes
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After a while, Gearhart signals the men to move, and he leads them into the open, to draw out enemy fire. The soldiers proceed warily, afraid of mines hidden under the rice paddy dikes. Wading through the rice paddies, Perry thinks that if he dies, he wants it to be quick and painless. Like Carroll. The company shoots a few rounds, Dongan indicates a spot and Johnson obligingly opens fire there with his machine gun. But they receive no answering shots.
As little as he likes the mission, which asks the soldiers explicitly to draw fire so that they can figure out where the Vietcong are hiding, Gearhart follows through on it faithfully. And his soldiers follow him, not because they’re eager to face this danger, but because he’s earned their trust and respect. As they move, Perry reflects on death. Although he still thinks about it a lot, and he still doesn’t want to die, the panicked terror he used to feel has faded at least a little bit through exposure. And despite his fears, he finds ways to keep himself going forward.
Themes
The men dig in at their new position. Perry catches Lobel staring with expressionless eyes into the distance. Lobel smiles—without losing the blankness of his expression—when Perry calls to him. After another half hour, Gearhart signals the soldiers to fall back. They return to the landing zone to find a pissed-off Captain Stewart; since the Americans drew no fire on their initial approach, the ARVN colonel now wants his men to take the hill so he can get credit for the body. The Americans will follow them to provide cover.
Whether he’s lost in a movie fantasy or not—readers don’t get a peek inside his head at this moment—Lobel’s empty eyes suggest the ongoing, pervasive trauma of the war: none of the soldiers are all right anymore. They’ve all seen and experienced too much horror. Still, despite their fears, they reach the landing zone unharmed. There, they find that the ARVN colonel has changed his mind. Now that the Americans have done the most dangerous part, approaching the hill blind, he wants his men to get the glory for achieving the mission’s objective. The soldiers’ safety takes a back seat to his—and Stewart’s—egos yet again.
Themes
Perry and the others watch the company of Vietnamese soldiers approach the hill bunched too close together and moving too fast. Charlie Company goes next and Alpha Company brings up the rear. This time, the shooting starts almost immediately. Dongan speculates that enlisted Northern Vietnamese soldiers, rather than Vietcong guerrillas, defend the hill. The mortar shells fall closer and closer to the advancing soldiers. Each one makes Perry jump.
When they arrived, Perry speculated that the Vietcong soldiers didn’t know how to use their equipment—he, like many others in the historical Vietnam War, remains wedded to the idea that the Vietcong were disorganized and chaotic in their efforts. But in reality, they were often a highly disciplined and extremely deadly fighting force, as they prove to be here. The consistent underestimation of the other side’s capacity—and a commitment to inflict maximum destruction—contributed to the excessive death tolls of the Vietnam War.
Themes
As soon as the front line of ARVN soldiers clears the rice paddies, the hill explodes with gunfire. The ARVN forces quickly fall into disarray as Gearhart screams for Alpha Company to retreat. Jets scream overhead, dropping napalm on the hill. “Congs” surround them, cutting off all avenues of retreat. Johnson lays down cover with his machine gun and an American jet provides overhead support as the soldiers fight for the closest tree line. They push through on their bellies until they find a clearing. For a moment, the shooting stops and silence reigns, then the gunfire resumes all around them. Peewee and Monaco have acquired another machine gun, which they shoot into the trees.
The lack of discipline among the ARVN soldiers contrasts sharply with the restraint showed by their adversaries, who patiently allowed the American soldiers to approach and fully retreat, waiting to inflict damage on their real targets—the Southern Vietnamese forces. Mistaken assumptions about the abilities and power of the Northern Vietnamese and affiliated groups like the Vietcong contribute to the chaos and destruction of this war. And it is pure, unmitigated chaos: as soon as their adversaries open fire, the Americans and the ARVN soldiers default to survival mode, since their battle plans are insufficient to face their enemies.
Themes
The only place the soldiers can hope to obtain a halfway decent landing zone is in the nearest village, although they’ll have to clear it of Vietcong forces first. Stewart and Gearhart order them to march. Perry knows they’ve reached the perimeter of the village when they start taking fire again. By this time, some of the disorganized ARVN troops have caught up to the Americans. Under their colonel’s orders, they lead the charge on the village, suffering heavy casualties.
Sometimes, the only way to survive a bad situation is to keep going through it; perseverance is the book’s definition of heroism. The ARVN forces finally catch up and heroically do their part alongside their American allies to ensure that as many people survive as possible.
Themes
Perry feels exhausted, but he knows his only options—the only options for any of them—are to fight or die. He throws a grenade into a nearby house realizing too late that he forgot to arm it. Someone inside tosses it back out and it bounces at his feet but doesn’t explode; they didn’t arm it either. He pulls the pin and sends it flying back into the window. This time, it explodes. He fires at everything and nothing until he and the rest have cleared the village of Vietcong forces. Near the end, he stares a young VC soldier, who looks just as young and scared as himself, in the eye, then shoots him dead.
Perry reflects on his survival instinct and draws on the reserves of courage and perseverance he’s developed both from the struggles of his earlier life and throughout his time in Vietnam. The incident with the grenade exchange illustrates the chaos of this battle; no one seems fully prepared. Perry experiences this firefight as a further insult to his own sense of human dignity; he now dispatches enemy soldiers without feeling upset about it.
Themes
The American and ARVN soldiers set up a perimeter and wait for the helicopters to arrive. Perry feels cold and exhausted. He looks at his watch and realizes that less than half an hour has passed since the ARVN forces started their approach on the hill. Perry hears that Dongan got hit; he and Peewee go to the medical tent where they find Dongan’s legless, mutilated corpse. The medic asks if either soldier still has his poncho, then takes Perry’s to cover up Dongan’s body. Ten minutes later—less than an hour after the shooting began—Perry hears choppers approaching.
Perry exhibits the symptoms of shock, including exhaustion and chills. The traumas he experiences are cumulative, each adding to the rest. Dongan’s corpse highlights and reinforces the dehumanization of war. Perry and Peewee barely recognize Dongan’s legless, mutilated body as human. And, notably, neither of them seems shocked by looking death in the face anymore.
Themes
