Tour of Duty

- Season 2

(1989)

Pilot Lt. McKay says rock 'n roll is here to stay and blasts it from his chopper. He flies back to where Bravo Company is pinned down by VC and joins the fight from the air, playing rock 'n roll the whole time. Alex Devlin, a reporter, is working a drug story but learns from Jake Bridger, the owner of a hotel in Saigon, that there has been a big increase in VC activity all around with the Tet coming. Taylor and Johnson want to invest in a hotel chain with Bridger, even though Anderson warns them that Bridger is a hustler. Anderson meets with his ex-wife in Saigon.

Carol Anderson informs Zeke that she is marrying a nice guy; he wants her to be happy. Stacy Bridger travels to Saigon to meet her father, Sgt. Jake Bridger. He was killed by VC a week before. Except Bridger is in hiding and getting information about the VC to pass on to Command. McKay sends Goldman on a wild goose chase down the Fu Loc Highway so that he could be alone with Alex; McKay didn't know VC were all over the area. He flew to the rescue. That night, the VC launch a coordinated attack in Saigon, on Tan Son Nhut (the American base), and in cities throughout ...

Soldiers need someone to talk to regarding the horrors they experience. Tan Son Nhut has a priest who is there to listen. The Army also has a contract with a psychologist, Dr. Jennifer Seymour. A fragger kills the priest, making the base paranoid. Anderson listens to tapes of Dr. Seymour's notes about her patients and figures out who the fragger is, saving lives by doing so. Yet Dr. Seymour is angry that he violated her patients' privacy.

Battle fatigue can be totally enervating. McKay verbally abuses a soldier in the field who could not let go of a tree and get into the helicopter; they manage to get him into the chopper and back to base where Dr. Seymour deals with him. The policy is to get men without casualties back in to the field as soon as possible, but Anderson requests that Dr. Seymour find a way not to send Martsen back to the field. The major in the psych ward orders Martsen back to active duty, and he is shot in the next skirmish. Ruiz finally goes to see Dr. Seymour about his view that he ...

Bravo Company gets a new lieutenant, as Lt. Goldman is the new press officer for Major Darling. Lt. Escobar is shot and brought back by Ruiz. Lt. Escobar comes from a family with connections, and his father arranges for an early out for Escobar - and Ruiz. Ruiz turns him down. McKay and Bravo Company pick up two additional injured soldiers who had items for Major Darling apparently looted from a temple. Major Darling grounds McKay for doing this. Devlin picks up the story about the artifacts and offers a deal to Darling: he is to quit looting and he is to put Goldman ...

When Block starts to put his hand with pressure on Alex Devlin's neck and she says, "You are hurting me", he backs off and then she asks him for a one-on-one interview. No journalist would ask that after an assault like that.

The United States does not go into Cambodia.

The U.S. Army is training South Vietnamese soldiers. They prove resourceful and reliable. Dr. Seymour shoots a VC and has trouble with her feelings. Alex chases a story about orphans and survives a VC attack on their compound.

Dr. Seymour is offered a direct commission as a major and a posting at Fort Sam Houston to teach her methodologies. PFC Thayer admits to Dr. Seymour that he is a homosexual. The Army doesn't allow homosexuals and it doesn't allow officers to fraternize with non-officers. To take the men's attention away from Thayer's attempted suicide, they set up a boxing match. Taylor promotes Woods to box. Woods, though, is hesitant because he will lose his amateur status, as the fight is not sanctioned. Taylor's conscience bothers him, but Woods proceeds with the match. When Woods...

In a VC village, Purcell shoots a VC and Bravo Company rescues a Quaker woman who is providing care for children in the village. She takes a little girl back to Saigon to find her mother. There, Purcell interrupts two Vietnamese trying to rape the Quaker woman. In his struggle with one of the men, the Vietnamese man is killed with his own gun, but the Quaker woman will not testify that Purcell was acting in self defense. The little girl's mother witnessed the fight, however, and Anderson, with the help of the widow of his friend who was killed in action, persuades the...

Anderson has to bring the body of a (black) soldier to the U.S. and meet with his family. And it all coincides with the recent assassination of Martin Luther King. At the same time several of the black soldiers are reeling from it and the Lieutenant in charge of these men who is black, tries to get them to go on. When they disobey his orders, he considers action but Goldman tries to talk him out of it.

The platoon must find a leak in a top secret operation. The only lead, Sgt Jackson, turns up dead. A Vietnamese boy is shot by VC while leading the team to Jackson and later accused of being the informant for the VC. Anderson and Goldman must find the true leak.

Zeke has to do some soul-searching after he kills a female sniper in self-defense. Someone is killing Saigon prostitutes and Alex is determined to get to the bottom of the story, contrary to Goldman's feelings.

Zeke is being recruited for private mercenary work. Alex investigates Pentagon waste. She's desperate for Myron to take a desk job but he's scheduled to lead his men on a joint operation with the SEALs.

The platoon is on patrol when they encounter CIA operative Jim Doyle in the Free Fire Zone. He conscripts them to carry back a new Russian rifle. Lt. Goldman suspects that he's in business for himself after two men are killed by an ambush.

Zeke struggles to get through the military bureaucracy. SPC Sweet volunteers to help him in exchange for a place in his platoon to go out into the field.