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.

Anderson, Baker, and Johnson are shot down while catching a ride in a helicopter, which explodes just after it hits the ground. They are unhurt but the pilot is dead, and VC soldiers are firing at their position. Zeke manages to kill all of the VC but one, who escapes. With the fighting over for the present, they begin the long trek back to base, all the while being hunted by the VC. The enemy group is led by Trang, a man who wants to kill the Americans for revenge. The three Americans stumble upon a village of Montagnards who have been wiped out, all but a pregnant woman who is dying... and does just as the child is born. Anderson is adamant about leaving the baby behind, but Johnson and Baker consider that move barbaric. Anderson ends up taking care of the baby and forming the strongest bond. Meanwhile, Goldman is out looking for Zeke and the others. Back in the jungle, Anderson risks his life to get milk for the baby and keeps the child from being killed. In a heated exchange of gun

Baker insists his fellow squad members follow him to an incoming helicopter. The incoming ""VIP"" turns out to be Baker's twin brother, who brings along a skate board that the whole squad uses for fun. Carl Baker turns out to be nothing like his brother: he is hard-drinking, womanizing, party-goer. The two brothers end up in a fight, nearly destroying the base in the process. Carl celebrates their birthdays by bringing in a truck-load full of Vietnamese hookers. They all party down and, in the end, Baker ends up doubly-mad as his brother ""steals"" his girl. Carl leaves the next morning with neither brother on speaking terms and everyone in trouble. Carl's helicopter goes down and Baker goes in after him, managing to get caught by the same VC who have his brother. They are both tortured by the VC and Anderson and Goldman must go in to rescue the two.

Anderson, Goldman, and Captain Wallace are checking out a new weapon that has been added to the platoon's arsenal: a flamethrower. Zeke and Goldman are unhappy that the next mission will also include a beautiful female reporter -- Vicky Adams. Zeke fights against the woman's urges to ""get the good stuff"" and his own men's attempts to impress her -- at the risk of their own lives. A prisoner is caught and tells the unit that they are surrounded by an NVA regiment. Wallace refusees to go back to safety, though, and a bad situation continues to get worse and worse.

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.

In a small South Vietnamese hamlet, an NVA officer arrives to brief his men that they will soon begin infiltrating towns and villages through-out the country in preparation for the Tet Offensive. Meanwhile, Bravo is in the bush, while Baker is losing a battle with his dysentery. As he ""answers the call of nature"" he sights VC closing on the unit and then, pulling his pants up, gets a frog down them, and starts screaming. As the American's come running, a fire fight starts, ending with the capture of an NVA Colonel Trang. Goldman catches a bullet in the helmet and in his jacket as they try to retreat. Though saved by his clothing, he still does need to go to the hospital along with Anderson, who is hit with shrapnel. While Goldman and Anderson recover, Trang dies under mysterious circumstances during interrogation.

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.

Anderson, Johnson and Ruiz train four Vietnamese recruits whose inexperience poses problems.