Second Landing: Bunker

There it is! Over there!
An earthen bunker. No! wait!
A rabbit hole?
Children hiding. Little children hiding . . .
almost caught.
Wait! Wait! My God!
Jesus Christ, what do I do?
What would you do?

My Lord, what a morning.
My Lord, what a morning.
My Lord, what a mor...

I'm going to try to stop this!
I'm going to land her there,
right there, between those children and our troops.

We're going to stop this madness.
Larry! Man your gun.
Take aim. Take aim!
Aim at our soldiers.

If those bastards . . .
If those bastards open fire
on the children in the bunker,
blow them away,
blow those bastards away.
Ah, blow those bastards away.

My gunners nod,
Larry and Glenn.
They look at me and nod . . .
Incredulous
Angelic
Mortified.

We're caught in this.
How has this happened?

The ocean glistened.
The fields shone.
Here the world is changed,
forever changed.

Hold your fire, Captain!
Captain, hold your fire!
What's that?
Orders? Orders?
I don't give a fuck about your orders!
For God's sake, hold your fire.

Ah!
I am caught in this.
Ah, I am caught in this.
It will never be over.
I will always be in it,
shouting at the captain.
I'm still shouting.

HUGH:
I'm not playing this game anymore.

EMCEE:
What do you say we give Officer Thompson here a round of applause for getting this far?

All right, then! We're in the final round of the game now. Time for our Quiz! Two correct answers--just two!--and you're home free.

HUGH:
I'm not answering any more questions. I already told you.
I told everybody everything.

EMCEE:
First question:
Confronting American soldiers on the ground,
what did you order your crew to do?
You have 30 seconds.

HUGH:
I observed three or four villagers running. Non-combatants, obviously--two were little children. They were under fire. Our soldiers--Charlie Company . . . chasing them and--

EMCEE:
Time's up. So sorry, Officer. What did you order your crew to do?
""Blow them away. Blow those bastards away"" was the correct answer.

HUGH:
No, Sir! Our troops . . . they were NOT soldiers. That is NOT what soldiers do.

EMCEE:
Well, Officer Thompson, you didn't get that one, but you still have one more chance.
You're still standing. He's still standing, folks!

HUGH:
They weren't soldiers. That was murder. They were animals.
No--Animals wouldn't do that!

EMCEE:
Last question--and this is for all the marbles.
Are you ready, Officer?
Are you ready, folks, Congressman Rivers, members of the House Armed Services Committee, President Nixon?

HUGH:
This is a joke.

EMCEE:
Are you ready for the last question?

HUGH:
This is a fucking circus. I'm not playing! I'm out of this!

EMCEE:
He's out of line here, folks. A loose cannon--he's jumping the gun.
Can you blame the boy, though? Can you, folks?
Can we blame him for jumping the gun?

HUGH (simultaneous with EMCEE):
You're not going to prosecute a goddamned
one of 'em--Calley . . . Medina . . . or any of the bastards that ordered this. You're not gonna do a goddamn thing! (What do you say, Mr. President, Committee members: Can we blame him? Can we, Congressman Rivers? Can we finally find a way to blame him?)