Ca Lu, half a click that way, two-nine-zero.
- I say we go right up the middle. - Negative.
One round flank up the hill, the other one right through the swamp.
Heads, you get the hill. Tails, you get the swamp.
Flip the motherfucker.
- See you in Ca Lu. - All right.
Delta Two, what's your SITREP? Over.
What do you got, Gibson?
Nothing, sir. Delta One, Delta Two, SITREP. Over.
Two-one, contact! Contact way out!
Cease fire! Cease fire!
Go, go, go. Let's get 'em!
Come outta there!
Put your hands on your head! Get on your knees now!
Come on! Down, down.
Come on out of there! Now!
How many you slopes are out here? Huh? What's your unit? What's in it?
Tuan, get over here! Talk to these motherfuckers!
Find out how many of them are here!
Where are they? What's in it? Talk to me, goddamn it!
Aah!
Two, this is One Actual. Where are you?
Uuh!
Other side of the tree line. I'm in the water unable to withdraw.
Unable to withdraw! I'm calling in a fire mission on this position!
- Hurry up and drop that arty! - They're all over!
Go left! Get out there!
Tell this man to get on that radio and pull his men off Hodges.
Tell him to break contact and move his men north of Ca Lu!
Tell him I ain't playin'! Pull his men off Hodges now!
I ain't bullshittin' with you.
Either you call your men off Hodges,
or this motherfucker's dead and you're next.
Last warnin'!
Uuh!
Call your men off Hodges now!
If he does, he can go. He's got my word on that.
If you don't, I'll kill you where you stand.
Two, this is One Actual. You still with me?
Crank off a pop-up if you're still alive.
You got a reprieve, you hear me? You don't get to die today.
"You got your "Hail Mary".
Hey! It's the colonel with his cover on!
All right! Make way, make way!
- I guess the drinks are on me. - All right!
At ease! Listen up.
Ladies and gentlemen,
the reason we're all here, Colonel Hayes Hodges.
He's calling it a career after 32 years of distinguished service.
All right, all right.
Colonel, we got you a gift and a surprise,
so don't act like you're not coming up here.
Speech! Speech! Speech!
Hey, my man!
Good to see you.
You damn well better be. I came halfway 'round the world for this.
Hey, get up here.
Speech!
The sword, Colonel. You know the story, Hayes.
Marine Lieutenant Presley O'Banion defeated the Barbary pirates...
on the shores of Tripoli in 1805.
Out of gratitude, the pasha gave him the Mameluke sword.
Marine officers have carried one ever since.
It's the symbol of a warrior,
and you are a warrior.
The best I ever served with.
This man's been riding a desk for the past 28 years,
but not because he wanted to.
He knows how to fight. It's in his blood. Ah-ooh!
What are you gonna do now, Colonel?
Well, uh... Well.
Heh! No more wars to fight, no more trials to lose.
So I expect I'll do some teaching at V.M.I.
I will recon the local restaurants in a concerted effort...
to find out what civilians eat.
Of course, I intend to continue serving my country...
by honorably depleting the trout streams...
of the Southern United States with my fly rod!
That's about it.
Let's get outta here.
- I missed you. - Yeah, I missed you too.
How's the kid, the smart Hodges?
You know, he studies more than any two people. I never see him.
- You gotta fix that. - Yeah.
- Got my orders. - Oh, yeah? What?
Got command of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
- Special Operations capable. - Congrats. Huh! Congrats.
- Yeah. - Outstanding.
All I gotta do is lash 'em together, take 'em to sea.
That's, uh... outstanding.
You ain't missin' nothin', Hodge. It's a whole new ball game.
No friends, no enemies, no front, no rear.
No victories, no defeats, no Mama, no Papa.
- Yeah. - We're orphans out there.
It's funny, you know?
One guy walks out through a swamp, he gets to come home to a desk.
Another guy drives up a hill and he gets to still be doin' it,
all over the flip of a goddamn coin.
You know, that's...
It's funny.
You gave good service to the corps, Hodge.
To think otherwise would be just plain crazy.
- You'd have gotten your command. - Oh, yeah, sure.
What's up, John?
Terry, we've been ordered to the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden.
This comes straight down Second Division through General Perry.
The American Embassy in Yemen is surrounded...
by a crowd of demonstrators.
The crowd isn't hostile, but it's large enough...
to spook their government into pulling their security forces.
Twenty-fourth Marine Expeditionary Unit's gonna provide extra security.
We're gonna baby-sit, Colonel. Just show our presence.
Remember, though, if it turns hot, we're looking at an evac.
We got an ambassador and his family there. Let me run you through this.
Here's your potential L.Z.S.
Marines at the embassy advise we can gain entrance through the back way.
Here's some stairs where you can deploy your men to the roof.
These are your over-watch positions.
I'll take them in myself quietly.
One platoon, TRAP team, put everyone else on Ready Five.
My thoughts exactly, Colonel.
What's wrong, Mommy?
The people are upset about some things, darling.
- Are they mad at Daddy? - No, they're not mad at your daddy.
Why are they yelling?
They're trying to get attention so that people will listen to them.
Sir, state security analysts are asking for an assessment.
Assessment? We're getting the hell out of here. That's the assessment.
The Sixth Fleet marines are in the air, sir.
If they think I'm gonna tough this one out, they're crazy.
Tell Mrs. Mourain to start packing. We're going home.
Shall I indicate we're ready to evacuate?
Ask them where the hell are those helicopters!
The ambassador wants to know where the choppers are.
You heard me. Where the hell are the choppers?
Lock and load! Lock and load!
We're gonna take a better look before we go in.
Wagon Wheel, this is Red Man. I'm over the embassy.
This ain't no baby-sit. It's ugly down there.
Red Man, Wagon Wheel.
Roger that. Let's go for the evac.
Put it on deck. We're going in the north side.
There! Go!
- Captain Lee! - Yes, sir!
Nobody comes over those walls or through those gates. Nobody!
One Alpha, secure all entries. Tango and Bravo, on the walls!
- Move, move, move! - Last man! Last man!
Pull back! Pull back!
Take cover!
You speak English? - Yes!
Where's the ambassador? He's topside! Go topside!
Take that corner! Take that side! Move!
Aah!
Move, move, move! Go, go!
Bravo Two, left! Move, move, move!
Incoming sniper fire! Stay down! Stay down!
Two blue, clear!
- Who's Mrs. Mourain? - I'm Mrs. Mourain.
- Where's the ambassador? - He's in there. Are we leaving?
The helos are outside, ma'am, but that's up to the ambassador.
Stay away from the windows, please.
Duck! Ow!
Aah! Colonel! Please!
My God! Are the helicopters here? What kept you people so long?
We're ready to evacuate, unless you want to stay and run the embassy.
I want to go right... now! We called hours ago!
All right, sir, come to me. Stay calm and come to me.
- Stay calm. Come to me. Stay low. - We're like targets!
- We're sitting targets! - Follow Sergeant Mac. Go!
Come on! Down there! Down there! Right there!
Right there! Down there! Down there!
Go ahead, ma'am!
Go ahead! Go ahead, ma'am, go ahead!
Come on, son. Come on!
- What's your name, son? Justin? - Justin.
Come on, Justin! Come on!
- Justin, what's that you got there? - A flashlight.
We're gonna ride in a helicopter. Wanna bring that with you?
- Huh? Come on. Come on! - Mommy!
Let's go, ma'am, go! Go, go, go!
All TRAP Unit six, stay low, stay low!
We got crap coming over the walls and sniper fire at 100 meters. Over.
Stay low! Sit tight, sit tight, sit tight!
Colonel, we got three marines hit! One is K.I.A.
One Alpha says they're gonna try to breach the front gate!
- Tell them to wait out! - Roger that!
Put the missus on board first. Get in there, Mr. Ambassador.
I'll personally recommend you... Where's the belt?
- I'll personally recommend... - Hold it!
Where are you going? What? Colonel! Colonel, we can't wait here!
Come on! Let's get out! Come on!
Let's go! Christ!
We're leaving in just a few seconds.
Let's go! Why are we sitting here? Why are we sitting here?
- Sir, please! Look at me. Stay calm. - Let's go!
She's free, sir! Go!
Hope you know how to fold this, sir.
Thank you, Colonel. I'll never forget this.
Sir.
Go!
Krasevitch is hit!
Corpsman! Corpsman! Shit!
Goddamn it!
Fuck!
Six, Red Man.
Engage hostile targets as they appear.
Deadly force is authorized. How copy? Over.
Red Man, Trans Six Actual. Negative, negative!
Be advised, I have women and children in my line of fire.
I got snipers in the buildings at 400 meters. How copy? Over.
What is it about this order you don't understand, Captain Lee?
Sir, are you ordering me to fire into the crowd? Over.
Yes, goddamn it! Waste the motherfuckers!
Six out. Engage! Engage!
Open fire!
Cease fire!
Stay down! There may still be snipers out there.
Cease fire!
- Cease fire, goddamn it! - Everybody stay down!
There may still be snipers out there. Stay down!
Get down!
- Sergeant Mac. - Sir?
Contact all stations. Mission complete.
Launch medevacs. Dead and wounded out first.
Aye, Colonel.
All stations, this is Red Man. Mission complete.
Move all medevacs to L.Z. How copy? Over.
The FBI. investigation shows...
that all the bullet holes in the embassy wall...
came from directly across the way, from the snipers.
Any weapons or ammo found among the dead or wounded?
No, sir. Nothing. However, intelligence suggests...
this could have been a terrorist operation.
Any proof?
This is a tape from the embassy security system.
- Want me to thread it up? - No. I don't want to watch videos.
I don't want to hear about ammo casings in some building,
'cause here I got 83 dead people...
unarmed... women, children, old men.
Another hundred or so critically wounded.
Here I got an international crisis of mega fucking proportions!
Bill, you know there have been regular reports...
of a terrorist plot against this embassy.
This was a regularly scheduled protest. It was every week.
It was the usual bullshit about American presence in the gulf.
Have you looked at these? I mean, I'm just assuming you have,
since they're on the front page of every newspaper in the world.
It's not that the rest of the world wants to hold us responsible,
we are responsible!
We can't even have the appearance of a cover-up.
That does not excuse us from our duty, Mr. Sokal.
We sent Colonel Childers in there, and the mission went to shit.
We can't go after the man who carried out his orders...
and ignore the people who issued those orders.
Childers ordered the slaughter...
of innocent women and children. Get that straight right now.
I'll tell you what we ought to get straight.
We lost three United States Marines.
They lost 83!
Now, are we gonna go to war with Yemen over it?
We're covering our ass all over the Middle East right now, General.
Because of your man's hot headed miscalculation,
we are in danger of losing embassies in Saudi, Jordan and Egypt.
We're in danger of losing our presence...
with every moderate in the region.
Now they're gonna scream "cover up".
The screaming will get so loud we'll be sending Marines back over there,
and the body count of American dead is gonna be higher than three.
I see where you're going with this, Mr. Sokal.
Will you be needing me anymore today?
No.
No, that's fine, General. Thank you.
Good day to you, sir.
Where do you think you're going with that?
- You don't want to look at it. - Nobody's lookin' at it.
Why should the United States be held responsible...
for the actions of one man?
What if the crowd had weapons?
What if this shows they did fire first?
He could have fired over their heads, this moron!
Didn't he know where he was? The Middle East!
He could have isolated on the snipers.
He could have avoided confrontation.
He could have done 50 fuckin' things!
Instead, he destroyed a fragile trust, put his own men in danger...
Fuck this guy! Forget this tape.
I don't want to watch it. I don't want to testify about it.
I don't want it to exist.
Good morning, sir.
Aye, aye, sir.
As soon as it's time.
General, Colonel Childers reporting as ordered, sir.
- Give us a minute, Skip. - Yes, sir.
Colonel, it's my duty to inform you that you've been charged with...
You know the drill.
This is the Article 32 investigation.
You're facing a general court-martial...
and charged with violation of at least three articles...
everything from "breach of peace" to "conduct unbecoming".
But the bottom line... 83 counts, violation of Article 118, murder.
You issued an illegal order to have your marines...
fire into a group of innocent civilians.
Murder, sir?
I'm the convening authority, so I've gotta get this B.S. out of the way.
Sign here, initial here.
You're not a flight risk, so there won't be any pretrial confinement.
This court-martial convenes in eight days...
by direct order of the national command authority.
Do you want me to call Bob Bennett or one of those guys,
or do you want to go with base legal?
Terry, goddamn it, we've been friends for20years.
You want to tell me exactly what the hell happened out there?
I lost marines. The crowd was hostile. They fired on us.
They fired first, sir.
I want you to know I did everything in the world...
to keep this from happening.
It's just out of my hands now.
Thanks a lot.
When's the last time you actually caught something here?
Two years.
- I really need your help. - I'll help. Anything you need.
You want me to take the stand? I'll be a character witness.
No, you don't understand what I'm asking.
I want you to be my lawyer.
I'm a good enough lawyer to know you need a better lawyer than me.
'Sides that, I'm short.
Two-nine plus one wake-up, and I'm gone.
You need one of those Washington cats.
I don't want some Starbucks drinker who's never seen combat.
- I need somebody who's been shot at. - Yeah, I've been shot at.
That's what I am... a shot-up marine.
As a matter of fact, that's all the hell I am.
No, wait a minute. I'm also a weak lawyer.
I'm a very weak lawyer...
and the government is gonna come at you with everything they've got.
Major, Bill Sokal. It's a pleasure to meet you. Come on in.
Let me introduce you.
Gentlemen, this is Major Mark Biggs.
He'll be prosecuting the Childers court-martial.
The marines put the major through Stanford Law,
and he owes them a couple of years before he takes over the world.
You know General Lowry.
I'd like you to meet the general of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
General West, and the secretary of Defense, Mr. Wyatt.
Have a seat. Make yourself comfortable.
What I gather from our esteemed NSC advisor and secretary of state...
is that we've got a trial in two weeks.
- Seems awfully damned fast. - Everyone in this room will agree...
it's in the national interest that this trial be moved along quickly.
The Article 32 investigation was complete and comprehensive.
It all seems to point in one direction.
Has he got a lawyer yet?
He's requested a military attorney, Colonel Hayes Hodges.
Second Marine Division, Lejeune.
Any relation to General H. Lawrence Hodges?
His son.
Larry Hodges was one of this country's most distinguished officers.
What do we know about Colonel Hayes Hodges?
He's a guy who got blown apart in Vietnam,
then went to Georgetown Law and became a cynic.
Is that about right, Major?
He was 67th in his class at Georgetown, sir.
He doesn't take too many cases, doesn't win too many.
He apparently went through an ugly divorce, had a drinking problem,
retiring in two weeks. - Can we guarantee we get this guy?
Sir, if I may say something?
I am not a hired gun.
I accepted this assignment...
'cause I believe in the merits of the government's case.
I am not gonna stack the deck against this guy.
I will try this case on good evidence only.
I'm glad to hear it.
Hold your fire.
Set that weapon down over here.
We need a couple of canteens up here.
Party incoming! - You can go.
You can go, goddamn it! Go on! Dee dee!
Get the fuck out of here before I change my mind!
Looks like you're going back to the world, baby.
- Doc! - Twenty meters out. Left!
- Right there. - Anybody else?
I got you now!
- Hey, buddy! - Hi, Mom.
He looks fabulous.
- Happy anniversary, Mom. - Oh, thank you. So good to see you.
I wasn't sure you'd make it.
- You look wonderful. - Thank you.
- How's it feel to be retired? - Um, crazy.
Good. Oh, you look great.
- Thank you. - Well, come see Dad...
- There he is. ...and all the family.
Hello, sir.
- Glad you could make it. - Yes, sir.
Good to see you, Hayes. - How are you doing?
Hey, kid. Hey, you. Remember me?
- The old guy who looks like you. - Do I know you?
- Yeah. - Your voice sounds really familiar.
Here's a clue. I was married to your mom for about five minutes.
- Really? You sure? 'Cause I don't... - Yeah.
- Well, is he guilty? - Sir?
Your friend Colonel Childers.
- Guilty of what, sir? - Come on, Hayes.
You served with him. Is he the rabid dog we've all been hearing about?
I don't think I should comment, sir.
Come on, Dad. This is family. You can lighten up a little.
You know what we said at the naval academy.
Even if you thought you weren't responsible,
it went wrong and you were there.
Since when have you not had a comment?
Since Childers asked me to defend him.
No. Oh, Hayes.
- What? - Excuse me.
- Are you kidding me? - No.
Why would you do that? Huh!
- Because he asked me, and I owe him. - That's great.
That represents everything that's wrong with the military.
Wisdom from the one person in this family...
who has not elected to serve his country.
Childers must have snapped. It happens in combat.
I've seen it. I'm sure you have too.
Thank you for reminding me...
why we have the presumption of innocence in America.
What are you, Abraham Lincoln? You can't hide behind that.
The guy murdered innocent women and children.
- You hear that on television? - And newspapers.
- It's all over the place. - It's Mom and Dad's anniversary.
Don't take this case, son.
This man has trashed the reputation of the Corps.
He's put us back 20 years.
Is this how you want to be remembered?
I don't see how I can turn him down. He saved my life.
Well, I understand that as well as anyone.
But you don't repay him by falling senselessly on a grenade.
The way I see it, this man should find himself...
the best laywer in the country. - Somebody better than me?
The guy's a real marine, Dad.
I mean, if they can do this to him...
just hang him out to dry... they can do it to anybody.
Forget that he's my friend. They can do it to anybody.
That means your medals and your citations...
won't mean jack shit when they come after you.
At least two of his own guys are gonna testify...
that he didn't have to open fire, sir.
Nobody reports seeing any weapons among the demonstrators.
- His psych eval was a disaster. - What about embassy footage?
Cameras, film, videotape, home movies, shit like that?
No, I've subpoenaed everything. The embassy got hit pretty good.
Most of it was destroyed.
Terry, you know Tom Chandler. He's gonna help us prepare your case.
Colonel Childers, good to see you again, sir. Um, all right.
First, we've subpoenaed all the Article 32 investigator's notes,
the State Department's notes on Yemen.
Major Biggs has already had your head checked by their doctor.
I've got you an appointment with ours.
- No. - What?
No more multiple choice questions about self-esteem.
We got the combat fitness reports. He can forget the psych eval here.
That's a mistake, Colonel.
Listen, when I turned 18 I joined the Marine Corps.
I asked to be in the infantry.
- I asked to go to Vietnam. - Terry.
I live for the privilege of commanding troops.
I think it's the greatest honor an American can have.
You know how many birthdays and Christmases I missed,
spent rotting in jungles or in the desert,
just so you could play war at ROTC?
Childers! You gotta keep your shit together here, man.
Your court-martial board is gonna be made up of people...
who might've spent one day in Grenada, maybe two days in Kuwait.
They're gonna be beach boys who've never been anywhere near combat.
They're gonna be people like Tom Chandler...
sitting right here in front of you.
That's who you're making your case to.
We don't have anybody to back up your case.
That's because all my witnesses are dead.
- Okay. So what happened? - He lost it. He snapped.
That's good. We can snap him on the stand.
This doesn't happen in a vacuum.
Let's get a complete history of Colonel Childers.
Talk to every marine he ever served with.
My guess is this has happened before.
We have to be careful here.
This guy is the warrior's warrior.
A Navy Cross, two Silver Stars for composure in battle.
He has no wife, no kids, just the Corps.
He was our best. That's why he was sent.
He's not on trial for the good service he gave the country,
but for what he did on the wall in Yemen, period.
Major, nobody wants to say it,
but it occurs to me we're trying to set an example here.
So let's set it and show the world we mean business.
The first charge supports the death penalty, and I say we go for it.
No more death.
I'll see that he never gets another command and I'll put him in jail,
but I will not seek death for a man who served his country honorably.
I don't want it brought up again.
We gotta show Childers' state of mind.
We gotta prove he went out with intent to kill,
and that is not going to be easy.
Whether a man is charged with murder or hailed as a hero...
is sometimes a very thin line.
Our case is this. Childers receives orders that a regularly scheduled,
I awful protest outside our embassy in Yemen is unruly.
He is to secure or evacuate the premises.
There has been no violence prior to his arrival.
Once there, Ambassador Mourain...
does not feel the situation warrants evacuation.
- Childers ignores him. - There was sniper fire.
They draw fire from snipers across the street.
Childers retaliates into an unarmed crowd in front of the embassy.
A crowd of women and children. He shot the wrong people.
All right, here's what this means.
Murder... Obviously, he could get up to the death penalty.
Conduct unbecoming an officer.
Max is dismissal with a dishonorable discharge,
for feature of all pay and allowances and confinement for one year.
What about breach of peace? What is that?
Breaching the peace is minor.
That means participating in an act of violent or turbulent nature...
that deprives the community of the peace and tranquility it deserves.
It's sort of the military equivalent of the civilian misdemeanor.
No big deal.
There he is! You goddamn baby killer!
Baby killer!
You're disgusting!
I'm not answering any questions, all right? Get out of here. Go away.
You fucking baby killer!
Fuck you!
Who the fuck are you to spit on this uniform? Huh?
You ever play blackjack, Colonel?
Not really.
There are no intangibles. It's all odds, sir.
You know them, you'll beat the guy next to you.
You know what cards have been played, you'll beat the house.
Sometimes you just can't win no matter what you do.
I saw your man on television knockin' some zit-faced kid around.
You have to understand the kind of pressure Childers has been under.
A man with that kind of service... No, no thanks.
This was a rescue mission that went bad. Nothing more.
You're aware, Colonel, we could ask for the death penalty.
You're not serious.
Oh, I'm very serious. In fact, it's been suggested.
What do you think would happen if a Yemeni killed 83 Americans?
He'd have a trial that would last for one day,
and they'd take off his head.
Have a seat, Colonel.
Please.
So here it is. You plead him out. Guilty.
He throws himself at the mercy.
- We'll help him out at sentencing. - How much help?
I'm not about to promise you anything, but I'd say...
in the neighborhood of ten to fifteen, out in seven.
Major,
do you know what the life expectancy was for a second lieutenant...
dropped into a combat zone in Vietnam in 1968?
I don't have time for 20 questions, sir.
Then what's all this shit about the odds of winning at blackjack?
You got time. Take a guess.
My guess is your man's going down 'cause he deserves to go down.