Gone to Graveyards

The closer 2Lt. Sean Sullivan gets to his first command the more he comes to believe what every enlisted man already knows—that there is nothing more dangerous than a green second lieutenant at the head of a rifle platoon. To make matters worse, the platoon he is taking over is flush with battle-tested grunts in the rugged highlands of South Vietnam. Early mistakes by Sean further alienate him from his new charges and he gets little help from his alcoholic platoon sergeant or the men in the racially charged army of the 1960s. His struggle to gain acceptance among his men is a rocky one. His first time under fire he panics. Paralyzed with fear, he gets a vision in which he finds himself at the Battle of First Bull Run. The Union troops are also new to combat and in a panic. It is an old sergeant who shows Sean that he must hide his fear to instill confidence in his men. Later circumstances present different problems and he again receives advice from soldiers long since dead. Fearing he is going crazy, Sean seeks the advice of the division psychologist but the visions continue. During the course of his tour he develops an on-again off-again relationship with a nurse at the division base camp and, while on a mission, he witnesses a war crime which he fails to report, a lapse in judgment that will come back to haunt him as the end of his tour nears. Sean’s date of departure coincides with the enemy’s Tet Offensive, a nationwide series of attacks by North Vietnamese regulars and Viet Cong guerrillas on American and South Vietnamese installations that catches the defenders completely by surprise. In the midst of this turmoil Sean’s replacement arrives, a Second Lieutenant as unprepared for what lies ahead as Sean was when he took over the platoon. Sean faces the biggest decision of his life, a decision that pits his conscience against his common sense and his desire to go home and get on with his life.