Newbie replacements arrive, including a young man that gains Anderson's attention as he and Team Viking return from the field, as the boy proves to be 15 years old. FNGs are moving in all over Team Viking. Goldman (suffering from the same shortage of room) finds himself bunked up with McKay. Team Viking gets assigned a recon mission based on Fontaine's information. Anderson and Goldman spend as much time as possible breaking in the new guys. Zeke and Myron head out with 18 FNG's. Anderson's unit stops to dig in a defensive position to work from, but before completing the bunkers they are attacked by the enemy, and due to outstanding bravery and courage, a few actually survive.

lor is expecting to be promoted at any moment, and opens his mail to find a letter from Johnson talking about how great things are back in the World. Anderson is forced to tell Taylor that he has been passed over for promotion. Taylor starts to deal with the black/white issue -- badly. Percell goes to a black ""bar"" to get Taylor when it becomes obvious that Taylor isn't coming home unless someone goes to get him. Goldman is told that Team Viking is going to go on a mission being dictated by a local Vietnamese Province Chief. The man is going to trade permission to use his village as a base for artillery (which will save many American lives) for the team's going to get his wife). Only after the team agrees do they discover that the woman is pregnant (with another man's child), sick and running from her husband.

Christmas finds Team Viking the bush trying to capture prisoners in Cambodia. Doc tries to show compassion to one of the captured men... who turns out to be able to speak English. Anderson and Goldman exchange Christmas gifts, back at camp. Ruiz takes flowers to Susanna. Taylor finds that he misses Johnson. Team Viking prepares for a Christmas party at the orphanage. Meanwhile, Sgt. Marvin Johnson returns home and finds out that bigotry is alive and well there.

McKay decides he is personally going to get the sniper who has been taking out helicopters... but with Anderson and Goldman on the ground and him in the air, HE ends up the next target, crashing and killing his co-pilot. Johnson, with only 72 hours left, gets a bad case of ""short timer's nerves"". Meanwhile a crazy CIA operative -- Duke Fontaine -- takes several VC suspects up in a helicopter and starts throwing them out until one of them will talk. Anderson and the team are going to go out after a VC-recruiter and get permission for Johnson not to go but because Johnson has decided that he ""must stick to the routine"" he ends up going. Taylor and Johnson are captured by the VC and tortured by a sadistic Vietnamese man.

Team Viking goes out to capture a Soviet chopper but ends up surrounded and captured. Luckily the mission was just practice. Myron discovers that his father -- Gernal Goldman -- is back on the base. His father has 2-3 months left to live because of cancer. While Myron and his father fight, Johnson attempts to decide if he should re-up or go back to the World. A Mexican/American WAC takes up with Ruiz. Johnson finally decides to go back to the States. Percell wonders if he is yet ready to return to the field. Anderson and McKay butt heads when McKay tries to take over the leadership of a mission.

The men of Team Viking are receiving medals in a ceremony in recognition of their heroism. In the midst of the ceremony, General Higgins arrives and reads out Brewster. Higgins thinks Brewster should have kept his mouth closed about Phu An. Higgins leaves with the threat that he will destroy Brewster if the colonel keeps ""forcing the issue"". Anderson talks with Percell who is off drugs, finally, and is now spending time at the Psych Ward. Doc calls home and finds out that his girl friend is sleeping with someone else. Brewster takes the story of Phu An to the press and is relieved of duty.

Taylor, Ruiz and Johnson go in search of Purcell after he goes AWOL. They look for 3 days, finally being taken to a heroin parlor by three drug dealers. Danny refuses to leave and the 3 thugs won't let the soldiers force Danny out. Later, Anderson and Team Viking are trying to find a road that is part of the Ho Chi Minh trail. When they find the road they return to the base where everyone knows about Danny. Brewster tells Goldman to solve the problem and Goldman insists upon talking about the massacre. Brewster puts his own career in jeopardy as he tries to get the army to deal with Phu An massacre. Anderson (under pressure from Goldman) organizes a commando raid and goes into Cholon to spring Purcell -- who then is forced to go through cold-turkey withdrawal. Brewster is ordered to shut up about the Phu An massacre.

McKay has a date with a ""killer"" blonde but on the way to take her shopping he ends up hitting a child with his jeep and comes in contact, for the first time, with a makeshift orphanage where he decides to get involved with the orphans. Doc finds Purcell high on grass and drugs. Purcell leave in a huff, seeking more drugs, and ends up arrested and assigned to a ""shit burner"" detail. Goldman goes to Brewster to report the massacre. Later, Goldman and Anderson are briefed on a mission into Cambodia to kidnap a defecting NVA officer. Percell tries to desert.

Utter havoc reigns in the jungle after a newby makes a mistake and two other soldiers are killed going to his resuce. The men are led by Lt. Beller, and his unit has seen far too much action and too much death. Beller is an old friend of Goldman's, together they are sent back out to search for an NVA regiment. Beller tells command that his men need rest or they are going to snap but Brewster insists they must go out. Meanwhile everyone is happy to see Anderson return, except for the ever-depressed Percell. Goldman spends some time with Beller. Percell is going over the edge fast and no one knows that he has started to use drugs. Anderson discovers that Brewster is married to a Vietnamese girl and they have a child. The next day, on their mission, Percell (drugged up) starts to panic. Beller's unit creates a My Lai-type of massacre in the field and that sends Percell off the deep end and straight into the waiting arms of heroin dealers.

While Zeke is back in the States, Brewster sends the men out to locate a missing SOG team. Once in the bush, Team Viking locates the missing soldiers, who all appear to be dead. It is an NVA trap; the enemy opens up just as the American reach the bodies but retreat quickly when Johnson leads a counter-strike against them. Johnson faces a crisis of confidence because men under his command were killed. Ruiz is struggling with Doc Hock's pacifist attitudes, Johnson is getting worse and Taylor is losing faith in everyone. Anderson arrives back in Texas and spends time with Dr. Seymour. They spend the weekend together and discuss the days ahead, Zeke has trouble seeing any future that involves him returning to the World.

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.

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

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