Tour of Duty

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.

The VC are mauling the American soldiers through their use of the underground tunnels. On their latest trip into the bush, Anderson and the men provide a blocking force, only the Gooks being driven toward them disappear down into the tunnels... and Goldman and Anderson end up firing on Americans -- thinking they are VC coming toward them. The team ends up in a village but again gets attacked as the VC pop up out the tunnels and then back into them after the attack. Taylor is captured during this fighting -- having been wounded. Taylor ends up being befriended by a VC Doc who has no interest in fighting -- only in returning home alive. On the surface, Anderson and Goldman go into the tunnels, only to end up entombed by a cave-in.

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.

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.

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.

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

Goldman reveals to Zeke that it may be time for him to move to a desk job. Alex is glad to see Myron back but tells him that she is going to take the Paris job. Elsewhere, Taylor, Percell and Ruiz tease a new recruit who is a pacificist. Taylor knocks the new medic, Hockenberry on his butt. Zeke is just as horrified as the rest when he is told by Doc Hock that he won't carry a weapon. Afterwards, Anderson meets Goldman's replace, a no-nonsense but wet-behind-the-ears new LT who thinks he already knows everything there is to know. Zeke also learns that he has received a promotion. Alex arranges a final going-away party for her and Myron. Alex ends up missing her plane to Paris but not because of the party but because she has a chance to do an exclusive and dangerous interview with a VC officer. After getting out of the interview, Alex meets Myron in Saigon, for there last dinner, before going to Paris. As Alex waits for Myron in front of the restaurant, a bomb explodes, killing her with

Col. Carl Brewster enters the local Vietnamese town to make the ""boom-boom"" parlor off-limits because of men catching the clap. Goldman and McKay attended the funeral for Alex who was killed in the bomb explosion. Anderson and the squad have been transferred to MACV-SOG, under the command of Col. Brewster. Brewster lets Hockenberry ""volunteer"" for a special assignment ,cleaning up the whore houses. Goldman has trouble dealing with his feelings about Alex's death. Anderson is thinking about using some of his leave to go visit his daughter, but he is concerned about Goldman. Goldman returns to the unit, both he and Anderson meets up with Brewster for the first time. Goldman breaks up a party when the unit meets up with Baker again -- by telling Johnson that he is in charge of the squad while Anderson goes home for some leave. Zeke visits his ex-wife, Carol, and their daughter, Katie. Johnson finds he has a hard time filling Zeke's shoes and dealing with Percell who is on a dangerous downward spiral.