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Peewee (Harold Gates)
Johnson is a huge, strong Black soldier from Savannah, Georgia, who joins Perry, Peewee, and Jenkins at Chu Lai on route to Alpha Company. He serves on Sergeant Simpson’s squad. Because of his size and strength, Simpson assigns him to carry the squad’s machine gun. Johnson doesn’t say much but he keeps an eye on what’s going on around him, and he always appears as if by magic to support the other Black soldiers when they’re in trouble. At one point, he and Walowick get into a racially charged argument so intense that it takes Lieutenant Carroll and five men to break them up. Johnson also shows personal disdain for Brunner, another white soldier who expresses racist sentiments. Yet, he respects Brunner for his work as a soldier and his loyalty as a comrade. Perry likes Johnson for his battle-wise attitude, and he trusts the man’s instincts, whether these express themselves in warnings about Dongan’s inherent racism or pointing out how little it matters if Lobel is truly gay or not as long as he watches out for his squad mates’ backs.
Johnson Quotes in Fallen Angels
The Fallen Angels quotes below are all either spoken by Johnson or refer to Johnson. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 7
Quotes
“[Walowick] called [Johnson] a cootie, sir,” [I said.]
“A what?” [Captain Stewart asked.]
“That’s what he called me,” Johnson said.
“What the fuck’s a cootie?”
“It’s a bug,” Walowick said.
“That’s like calling me a nigger,” Johnson said.
“Is that a racial thing?” Captain Stewart looked at Walowick.
“A cootie’s a cootie,” Walowick shrugged. “He shouldn’t have called me no farm boy. If he calls me a farm boy, I’m gonna call him a cootie again.”
That’s when Johnson hit Walowick again, and the fight started again. This time Lieutenant Carroll got out of the way. When the fight was over, Captain Stewart told them both to stop talking to each other. That was that.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12
Quotes
“You trying to figure out who the good guys, huh?” Johnson spoke slowly. “So what you come up with?”
“I guess somebody back home knows what they’re doing,” I said. “What it means and everything. You talk about Communists—stuff like that—and it doesn’t mean much when you’re in school. Then when you get over here the only thing they’re talking about is keeping your ass in one piece.”
“Vietnam don’t mean nothing, man,” Johnson said. “We could do the same thing someplace else. We just over here killing people to let everybody know we gonna do it if it got to be done.”
“That might be a good reason to be over here,” I said.
“That’s for people like you to mess with,” Johnson said.
“I don’t know about that.”
“Then why you messin’ with it?”
Chapter 15
Quotes
Lobel damned near dragged Jamal into our hooch.
“Go ahead, tell him what you heard,” Lobel said to Jamal.
“Sergeant Simpson and Captain Stewart got into a fight,” Jamal said. “Captain Stewart told Sergeant Simpson that if he didn’t shut up and get out he was going to bust him down to private.”
[…]
“What they fighting about?” Johnson asked.
[…]
“He found out that Captain Stewart is volunteering Alpha Company all over the place. He asked him what he’s doing that for, and Captain Stewart said that if he didn’t want to fight, he shouldn’t have extended.”
What Jamal said went down hard. We didn’t mind doing our part because it had to be done, even though we didn’t have answers to why we were doing it.
But nobody wanted to go out and risk their lives so that Stewart could make major.
Chapter 18
Quotes
Peewee skipped his meals the rest of the day. Monaco tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t answer. It was Johnson who finally got him to talk.
“Hey, Peewee?”
“What?”
“You care anything about these damn kids over here, man?”
“They got kids over here?” Peewee asked.
“Naw, man, all they got is Congs,” Johnson said. “Congs and mosquitos.”
“And rats,” Walowick added.
“Yeah.”
“Hey, Peewee,” I said. “It’s okay to feel bad about what’s going on over here, man. It’s really okay.”
“Me? Feel bad?” Peewee turned over in his bunk and pulled his sheet up around his shoulders. “Never happen.”
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Johnson Quotes in Fallen Angels
The Fallen Angels quotes below are all either spoken by Johnson or refer to Johnson. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 7
Quotes
“[Walowick] called [Johnson] a cootie, sir,” [I said.]
“A what?” [Captain Stewart asked.]
“That’s what he called me,” Johnson said.
“What the fuck’s a cootie?”
“It’s a bug,” Walowick said.
“That’s like calling me a nigger,” Johnson said.
“Is that a racial thing?” Captain Stewart looked at Walowick.
“A cootie’s a cootie,” Walowick shrugged. “He shouldn’t have called me no farm boy. If he calls me a farm boy, I’m gonna call him a cootie again.”
That’s when Johnson hit Walowick again, and the fight started again. This time Lieutenant Carroll got out of the way. When the fight was over, Captain Stewart told them both to stop talking to each other. That was that.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12
Quotes
“You trying to figure out who the good guys, huh?” Johnson spoke slowly. “So what you come up with?”
“I guess somebody back home knows what they’re doing,” I said. “What it means and everything. You talk about Communists—stuff like that—and it doesn’t mean much when you’re in school. Then when you get over here the only thing they’re talking about is keeping your ass in one piece.”
“Vietnam don’t mean nothing, man,” Johnson said. “We could do the same thing someplace else. We just over here killing people to let everybody know we gonna do it if it got to be done.”
“That might be a good reason to be over here,” I said.
“That’s for people like you to mess with,” Johnson said.
“I don’t know about that.”
“Then why you messin’ with it?”
Chapter 15
Quotes
Lobel damned near dragged Jamal into our hooch.
“Go ahead, tell him what you heard,” Lobel said to Jamal.
“Sergeant Simpson and Captain Stewart got into a fight,” Jamal said. “Captain Stewart told Sergeant Simpson that if he didn’t shut up and get out he was going to bust him down to private.”
[…]
“What they fighting about?” Johnson asked.
[…]
“He found out that Captain Stewart is volunteering Alpha Company all over the place. He asked him what he’s doing that for, and Captain Stewart said that if he didn’t want to fight, he shouldn’t have extended.”
What Jamal said went down hard. We didn’t mind doing our part because it had to be done, even though we didn’t have answers to why we were doing it.
But nobody wanted to go out and risk their lives so that Stewart could make major.
Chapter 18
Quotes
Peewee skipped his meals the rest of the day. Monaco tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t answer. It was Johnson who finally got him to talk.
“Hey, Peewee?”
“What?”
“You care anything about these damn kids over here, man?”
“They got kids over here?” Peewee asked.
“Naw, man, all they got is Congs,” Johnson said. “Congs and mosquitos.”
“And rats,” Walowick added.
“Yeah.”
“Hey, Peewee,” I said. “It’s okay to feel bad about what’s going on over here, man. It’s really okay.”
“Me? Feel bad?” Peewee turned over in his bunk and pulled his sheet up around his shoulders. “Never happen.”
