The men find themselves assigned to a 'hot shot' sergeant with a mission to destroy an enemy bridge. Tempers reach a breaking point when Anderson finds a living Vietnamese child and the sergeant wants the child Killed.

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.

The squad is in heavy contact with a group of enemy soldiers, and after taking several casualties manage to be retrieved by two helicopters. Danny hears that his father is hospitalized after a near-fatal heart-attack and is given emergency medical leave. Danny finds that his father and mother have separated and his father has taken up with a younger woman who is loyal to him. Danny feels left out and alienated from a man who he already wasn't close to. While waiting for his father to get better, Danny meets Rudy Morales, a vet handicapped by wounds -- a bitter, broken man. Danny is seriously upset by this and further upset by an argument with his father. Meanwhile, Taylor and Ruiz decide that they need to be by Danny's side, so they talk Anderson into pulling some strings and getting their R&R in Bangkok changed to Honolulu. Once in Hawaii they are exposed to the ""real"" world of mini-skirts and negative attitudes about the war.

Having received some warning of the upcoming Tet Offensive (In Angel of Mercy), Bravo Co. is still unprepared for what happens to them after they are transferred to Tan Son Nhut Base outside of Saigon. Zeke and Goldman catch up with one of their men in an opium parlor and have a run-in with some Vietnamese thugs. The situation is basically under control until a female wire service correspondent -- Alex Devlin -- butts in. Alex explains that she was following up on a story lead. Lt. McKay is introduced as a chopper pilot who will be shuttling Bravo Co. As they prepare to leave on a mission, Zeke opens a letter from his ex-wife who claims she will soon arrive in Saigon to see him. The company is landed in a hot-LZ and only gets saved from sure disaster when Lt. McKay uses his helicopter to fire machine guns at the hostile position. Alex meets up with Jake Bridger who tells a story about VC infiltrating the cities as peasants. McKay and Goldman start to ""argue"" over both their increasing

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.

Alex and a French correspondent investigate illegal incursions of Cambodia by U.S. troops.

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.

Goldman searches for McKay after the Army gives up; Percell faces charges for killing a social worker's attacker.

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