On shore leave in Honolulu, Hawaii, Bill drinks at a club on the waterfront. He’s joined by Kinney, a civilian crew member on Bill’s ship, the USNS Bonners Ferry, and an aimless-seeming man who appears to be high on a substance. The man reveals he was once a Marine in Vietnam, but was discharged because of a disability. He describes his exploits in the army to Bill and Kinney, using racist slurs against the Polynesian and Southeast Asian peoples. His worst story is that he, along with others, cut off a woman’s private parts in Vietnam. Bill is in disbelief, countering that the US Marines would never allow such a barbaric thing.

Bill, Kinney, and the man drink on the waterfront after the bartender throws them out. Kinney’s behavior grows increasingly erratic, and after a while, he takes Bill to the house of a man who owes him money, calls out the man, and shoots him dead at point-blank range (this is the incident which Bill describes for Jim in the 1967 flash-forward). They run from the spot, Bill deciding to steer clear of Kinney. Bill reports to Shore Patrol and requests a week’s recuperation. For his prolonged holiday, Bill is demoted to a seaman.

In Arizona, James is in his third year of high school. James returns home to find Burris, the youngest Houston brother, playing with a cap pistol. James asks Burris not to put his face too close to the pistol, as its shot contains gunpowder and can injure him. The phone rings from inside; it is Bill, calling from Honolulu. James and Bill have an awkward conversation, with James feeling he doesn’t really know Bill. James tells Bill that he plans to join the Marines. Bill finishes the call but rings back, repeating this a couple more times, till James hangs up on him.

James drives to the McDowell mountains with his date, Charlotte, his friend Rollo, and a girl named Stephanie (Stevie) Dale, chasing the rumor of a wild outdoor party. Unable to find the supposed party, the group parks on the highway, drinking beer in the back of the pickup truck. James dislikes the way Charlotte snorts beer out of her nose while laughing at Rollo’s vulgar jokes. He realizes he prefers Stevie, who seems more sophisticated and sexier. James dumps Charlotte the same evening and takes up with Stevie, flirting with her as he drives her around. However, when Stevie starts asking questions about James’s father, James feels she is getting too familiar and grows melancholy. James tells Stevie he plans to join the Army infantry, go to Vietnam, and “fuck up a whole lot of people” (128). Stevie chides him for his violent statement, reminding him not to feed his mean side, lest it keep growing. James apologizes, and they kiss.

When James gets back home, his mother, May, has returned from her exhausting job at the horse ranch. James informs May that he is going to try for the army. May is skeptical, but James manages to convince her on the promise that he will send money home every month, unlike Bill. Though James feels he cannot wait to get out of Arizona, he briefly forgets about the army because he now has a girlfriend. James and Stevie have sex regularly, but when Stevie talks about her own life and her plans for the cheerleading squad, James feels depressed. He thinks his problems are greater than Stevie’s, with his single mother working herself to the bone.

Since he is underage, for his application to the army, James changes the year of birth on his birth certificate from 1949 to 1948 by closing the loop of the “9.” He is accepted by the army and sent for training at Fort Jackson, North Carolina. The training is grueling, and James is gripped by the fear that he will have to kill or be killed when in the field. However, he takes to heart an officer’s advice that soldiers should volunteer for a recon outfit in the combat zone so they have “mobility options.” A moving target is harder to hit. James likes the official-sounding terms like “mobility options” and decides to adopt the purpose-driven language of the infantry.

Returning home for his furlough before he is deployed to Vietnam, James sees a lot of Stevie, but also thinks of her uncharitably. One day, he and Stevie drive down to the edge of the hills on Carefree Highway, and spot a car wreck in which a man is burned alive to death. James tells Stevie he hopes that the man who died in the car fainted before he caught fire. He changes the topic by asking Stevie if she was sexually inexperienced when they first had sex. Catching James’s judgmental tone, Stevie responds that she was, and begins to cry. James consoles her but feels trapped, as if his only two options are to die a fiery death like the man in the crash or live a mundane life with Stevie. By December, James stops hanging out with his friends and Stevie, feeling alienated from everyone.

After Damulog, Skip went to the US for a year to be trained in ops and learn Vietnamese. He now returns to the Philippines on his way to Vietnam, expecting to confront Eddie about his mysterious dealings with the colonel and the German, but Eddie seems to have vanished. As Skip drives in the staff car to his quarters, he goes through his mail. There is a letter from his mother, Beatrice, and one from Kathy, who is now in Vietnam.

Kathy has written regularly to Skip in the last year. At first, Skip devoured her letters, but lately her letters seem to be growing disjointed, so he decides to tackle first the rare letter from his reticent mother. Beatrice thanks Skip for the money he sent home and writes that she is happy that Skip is serving his country, but cannot shake off the feeling that the US government is sending their boys to die and kill without a reasonable explanation. As he reads the letter, Skip feels guilty that he didn’t visit his mother despite being in the US for 14 months. His mother signs off, saying that she plans to start attending church regularly.

Skip finally takes up Kathy’s letter, in which she describes the situation in Vietnam. Kathy says that while the Americans chose to wage war in the country, the Vietnamese have no choice but to be stuck in the war. The circumstances in Vietnam have Kathy questioning her faith. She wonders why there is so much evil on earth.

Later that evening, Skip is visited by Voss, an officer he met during ciphers training at Quantico. They drink beer together and discuss the colonel. Voss tells Skip that the colonel’s latest submission to the CIA’s in-house magazine, Studies in Intelligence, has been raising eyebrows, as if the colonel has either written satire or floated the idea of treason. The submission has been held back. The revelation makes Skip feel panicked, strengthening his growing fear that the colonel’s mission in Vietnam is too shadowy.

At night, Skip strolls through the town, where he visits a carnival with a mermaid show. The mermaid show is a woman in a suspended glass tank, periodically dunking underwater. Since Skip is the only patron, she waves for him to go away. Skip strolls through the town, reflecting that he loves Southeast Asia so much that he doesn’t care if he ever returns home.