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Summary
Chapters Twelve-Seventeen
Chapter Twelve
There are around 450,000 Americans serving in the Armed Forces in Vietnam, and US newspapers are not posting accurate details about the casualties. At the Seventy-First conditions get tougher and tougher, and Frankie often finds herself dead on her feet after working double shifts with Hap. At a makeshift tiki bar Barb and Frankie read newspaper headlines claiming the U.S. is winning the war, which disgusts them. In mid-November, Frankie comes across the body of a young Black soldier with a prom photo tucked in his helmet. She takes the photo with the intention of returning it to his family. Barb receives a letter from her mother saying her brother Will has joined the Black Panthers in Detroit. Coyote invites Barb and Frankie to a farewell party in Saigon. The nurses spend the day exploring the city. Saigon, to their astonishment, still has working restaurants and theaters despite the war. Coyote introduces Frankie to his C.O., who to Frankie’s surprise turns out to be her brother’s old friend Rye Walsh. Rye abruptly excuses himself, hurting Frankie’s feelings.
Chapter Thirteen
Coyote tells Frankie that she shouldn’t be offended that Rye walked away. Frankie takes a very drunk Barb back to their hotel, but gets a call from Rye in the middle of the night. She meets him at the same rooftop bar and they talk about Finley. He apologizes for his earlier behavior and Frankie rebuffs him, telling him she knows he’s married. Barb teases her about how handsome Rye is, and Frankie admits she felt a strong attraction. Slim and Coyote hold a small party for Frankie’s birthday, but Coyote is offended when Frankie turns him down again.
Chapter Fourteen
It’s Christmas Eve, but the nurses aren’t feeling festive even though there’s a Christmas cease-fire. They know that the US government is lying to civilians about casualties in Vietnam. Coyote and Rye arrive later that day in a helicopter to take Barb and Frankie to find a Christmas tree in the dangerous jungle. The group decorate Frankie and Barbs’ hooch. Rye tells Frankie he’s interested in her again, but despite herself, she turns him down. The day after Christmas Barb is gone without saying goodbye. She leaves a farewell note for Frankie with a picture of the three nurses together.
Chapter Fifteen
Frankie receives a letter from Barb about how unwelcome Vietnam vets are back in the US. On January 31, a rocket attack hits the Seventy-First Evac. Frankie’s new roommate Margie Sloan is terrified, but Frankie helps her get to the hospital. There’s also a new surgeon, Dr. Morse, who has to deal with a colossal number of casualties from the attack on his first day. It turns out to be a historically huge attack—later called the Tet Offensive—in which thousands of Vietnamese and hundreds of Americans were killed. Rye checks on Frankie after hearing about the incident. Frankie battles through surgery after surgery, promising to write to one dying soldier’s mother when he begs. Frankie feels she can’t go home when people need her. She tells her parents and Ethel she’s taking another tour. Before starting her next tour, Captain Miniver orders her to take a compulsory R & R (Rest and Relaxation) break in Hawaii.
Chapter Sixteen
Frankie is surprised to learn that Rye has also been sent to Kauai for R&R, but he reveals he was the one who arranged for her to go. He has ended his engagement. Frankie agrees to have dinner with him. After dinner, he surprises her with a picnic under the stars. They have sex, despite knowing they’ll be back in Vietnam in days. They spend the rest of the week together, mostly in bed. Rye brings up Frankie’s DEROS, but she informs him she has renewed her commitment. Rye reluctantly decides to re-enlist to stay with her.
Chapter Seventeen
Back at the Seventy-First, Frankie learns that Barb’s brother, Will, was murdered by the police. In April, news of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination devastates her, followed by Robert Kennedy’s assassination in June. A small group of escaped prisoners of war arrive at the hospital. Immediately after, Vietnamese villagers arrive with horrifying injuries from napalm attacks. Frankie is shaken and calls Rye, who sneaks out to see her. Later in November Frankie is promoted to Lieutenant, and she and Rye say “I love you” to one another at the party for her.
Analysis
Rye Walsh’s re-entry into Frankie’s life is a signal of her total immersion in life in wartime Vietnam. Her love life immediately becomes intense and risky, just like her workdays as a field nurse. Indeed, by falling in love with a married Naval officer in the middle of a war, Frankie gives up on any hope of internal peace. Life in Vietnam is certainly challenging, but Frankie continues to make it even more difficult for herself through her romantic attachments. She spends a lot of this section of the novel attempting to protect herself by being aggressive, which mirrors the strategy the US Army implied it was using in Vietnam.
At the Seventy-First it’s a constant battle for Frankie and the other nurses to stay alive, and to help the people they’re trying to save. Frankie endures long shift after long shift, sometimes under blackout conditions and always with the threat of incoming rocket attacks. She works until she is utterly fluent in all the surgical procedures she must do and can perform them unthinkingly, which has the added benefit of dehumanizing the destroyed bodies she’s trying to repair. There are moments when this composure breaks, such as when she discovers the young Black soldier’s helmet contains a prom photo that reads “Come home, Beez. We love you.” The photo reminds Frankie of how young he and others similarly deployed are. Rather than living their comparatively safe (and presumably longer) lives back in the States, when they come to Vietnam there’s no way for them to control what happens to them. Seeing the prom photo is also a reminder of all of the families waiting for loved ones who may never return. It brings up Frankie’s memories of the terrible day when she and her mother were informed that her brother Finley had died.
When Frankie treats villagers suffering from napalm injuries, witnessing firsthand the indiscriminate destruction that the US military campaign in Vietnam is wreaking on its people. Frankie repeatedly thinks to herself that she’s reached a stage where nothing can shock her, but the gruesome, deep burns that napalm causes on human bodies are able to shake even her resilient stomach. Her horror at these injuries becomes enmeshed with her growing anger with misinformation about Vietnam spreading in the US. Frankie and Barb read stories in the newspaper about there being no casualties in Vietnam on days when hundreds of soldiers are rushed into their care. They know that the US government is suppressing information, but there’s almost nothing they can do about it. Frankie feels torn between loyalty to her country and the cause she’s fighting for, and a deep sense of unease and resentment about her own presence in Vietnam. When she joined the Army she thought she was doing the right thing, but she’s now constantly concerned that they are doing more harm than good.
Frankie’s relationship with Rye Walsh brings this sense of emotional precariousness and divided loyalty into her most private moments. Frankie knows that Rye is engaged, and—especially after her heartbreak with Jamie—is very unwilling to risk disrupting another family or being romantically vulnerable. However, despite the fact that she’s well aware he’s spoken for, Frankie can’t stop herself from growing attached to him. Rye is very handsome, but he’s also a reminder of home in the chaos of the Vietnam war. Frankie has known him for her whole life, and she feels closer to Finley when she’s with him. It doesn’t help that she has only ever heard Rye talk about his fiancée but has never seen her in person. It’s hard for her to continue to resist his advances when the woman he’s attached to seems like an imaginary, unrealistic figure. She does resist, however, until Rye tells her that he’s ended his engagement. The time they spend together in Kauai allows Frankie to believe in the possibility of a future with him, one where she’s able to live a life with someone who understands what Vietnam was like.
Rye’s rapid decision to re-enlist to remain near her only deepens her investment in the relationship. His snap decisions and big romantic gestures reveal a pattern of impulsivity and what starts to look like a lack of accountability, but Frankie chooses to overlook these flaws. She’s desperate to confide in someone and she wants to be happy. She intentionally blinds herself to the red flags Rye repeatedly waves because she finds comfort in his presence. Frankie chooses to re-enlist for another tour because she believes she’s found her calling in Vietnam, believing that the wounded soldiers need her and that by staying she can be close to Rye. Even though it’s dangerous and often terrifying, she still believes that her place is with the Army.
