Fallen Angels #2

Amazing. That is the one word I will forever associate with the book Fallen Angels. While the beginning seemed to be going at a very slow and snail-like pace as I last left it. The book quickly went ‘around a corner and headed for home’ almost directly after, all while not losing its emotional appeal which, come to think of it, has a pretty large amount of symbolism behind it suggesting that’s how a new soldier usually feels when he’s simply thrown into a war. So, after Perry and Peewee get off their transport plane, they are then shown their quarters and are introduced to their squad, consisting of Lobel, Monaco, and Corporal Brunner (who are basic soldiers) and Sergeant Simpson (the leader of Perry’s squad who just wants to make it out alive). Perry’s platoon leader is first Lieutenant Carroll, a kind and compassionate leader who the men under his command love and adore, and his company commander is Captain Stewart, a man so hell-bent on getting militarily recognised that he constantly puts the men under him at risk and sends Perry’s squad on the most dangerous missions just to get his medal. After a few days without activity, Perry’s platoon is then sent in by airdrop to take a strategic point from the Viet Cong. All seems well when his platoon gets there, but Carroll soon realises it’s a trap and they are ambushed. As Carroll calls for a medevac (Medical Evacuation) he is shot and killed. Perry and his squad all make it out alive (*cough *cough plot armor *cough *cough) and make it back to base in relatively one piece (they have bullet wounds but nothing serious). They are then introduced to their new platoon commander: Lieutenant Gearhart. Gearhart’s inexperience from this point on puts the whole platoon in danger on every mission they go on and leads to mounting casualties on the platoon. Sergeant Simpson is then replaced, after protesting about Gearhart’s inexperience to Captain Stewart, by Sergeant Dongan, an extreme racist who puts anyone who isn’t a white caucasian in the most dangerous and risky situations. Perry’s squad all-around resents the new chain of command, but they eventually default and deal with it. On one mission, Perry’s squad is sent to check out a village supposedly passive. They are then ambushed in a rice paddie, with their entire squad in shock and under fire. Peewee and Perry then are ordered to try and surround the Viet Cong and attack them from the flank. In the process, they get separated and Perry is shot in the leg. From then on he narrates his first battle wound until he meets up with Peewee, who is also wounded and doesn’t have any of the semi-psychotic tendencies he showed in the beginning of the book, as if he had his own brush with mortality. They are both in a cave when suddenly, the gunfire stops and they both pass out from exhaustion. Later, Perry wakes up on a medical frigate and is told he’s going home, he then sees Peewee who confirms that they are both out of Vietnam and heading back to the states. Overall, this book is probably the best I have ever read. It really takes in the whole concept of the ‘soldier experience’ and puts it down not just in words, but in its writing style and demographic. Best of all, it decided to blend the emotional and action-based concepts without having a clear bias to one or the other. Fallen Angels is truly one of the most fantastic books I have ever read.