Casualties of War Quotes

Eriksson: Pardon me sir, what's your point, sir?

Hill: There ain't no point, Eriksson. I'm simply trying to illuminate the terrain in which we currently find ourselves deployed. You don't mind that, do you? And if you do, FUCK YOU! You on my frequency?

Eriksson: Yes SIR!

Eriksson: You sick son of a bitch!

Clark: I told you, cherry. What happen...

[Clark is hit in the face by Eriksson with a shovel]

Eriksson: Nobody cares, Meserve. I told everybody. I told them. You don't have to worry. You don't have to try to kill me, man. I told them, and THEY DON'T CARE!

Capt. Hill: You couldn't let it rest, could you? You had to push it?

Eriksson: Go to hell. SIR.

Eriksson: Who got hit Sarge?

Hawthorne: The cherry. Man, that boy was bagged and tagged the minute they cut his orders to this place. They should've just shot him at home.

Meserve: You probably like the army, don't you, Eriksson?

Eriksson: This ain't the army. This ain't the army, Sarge.

Prosecutor: So you don't feel responsible for the rape and murder?

Clark: No, sir. I don't.

Prosecutor: Is it your feeling, Corporal Clark that you are wrongly brought to trial by the U.S. Government?

Clark: I don't have anything against the government. But I just think soldiers like Tony Meserve and me... belong out in combat... not here. Throw us in the stockade and you're helping nobody but the Viet Cong.

[Cct to Private Hatcher]

Prosecutor: When Sergeant Meserve called you, did you go willingly into the hootch and rape the girl Tran Thi Oahn? Please answer the question.

PFC. Herbert Hatcher: Y-yes sir.

Prosecutor: Have you any idea why Eriksson stayed out of the hootch?

PFC. Herbert Hatcher: Well, he was brand-new, sir. I was there a lot longer than him. At least three weeks longer than him.

[cut to Private Diaz]

Prosecutor: You're saying, then you involved yourself in rape to avoid being ridiculed?

PFC. Antonio Diaz: When you go out on a patrol, sir you're not gonna be as good as you wanna be. These guys aren't helping you do anything. There's gonna be four people on that patrol, and an individual. And so I did what I did, and I got remorse about it. But I also got remorse about talking at this trial. I have a loyalty to the men I was out there with.

[cut to Sergeant Meserve]

Prosecutor: Is it standard for U.S. personnel to have sex with prisoners and kill them?

Meserve: The prisoner tried to give away the squad's position.

Prosecutor: She was ill and coughing from the abuse of you and your men. She shouldn't have been there to jeopardize your position! You dragged her out and raped her! And then you blame her for coughing, so you kill her! Does that about sum it up?

Meserve: Well, sir... I've seen a lot of killing... which it's our duty to do, because it's kill or be killed. Sometimes you hate the enemy so badly... About two ops back... Operation Turner... we saw a hootch that had been burned down. Some Vietnamese were carrying kids out of a bunker. They suffered from smoke inhalation. I gave one small child mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. That just shows you we ain't all combat over here.

Meserve: You're taking your turn in there.

Eriksson: No! I ain't raping nobody!

Meserve: You think you're sayin' no to ME?

[Ericson turns and walks away]

Clark: The army don't wanna surprise us.

Meserve: Leave it to the dinks for that, huh?

[the squad watches the storm after raping the girl]

Clark: When's the last time you had a real woman, Sarge?

Meserve: She was real. I think she was real.

Meserve: You're taking your turn.

Eriksson: No.

Meserve: Well maybe when I'm through with her, I'm gonna come after you. Maybe when I'm done humping her, I'm gonna come hump you!

Meserve: Brownie, look into my fuckin' eyes I'm gonna hypnotize you. YOU'RE FINE!

Cpl. Brown: I knew it man, I knew it!

[last lines]

Girl on Bus: You had a bad dream, didn't you?

Eriksson: Yes.

Girl on Bus: It's over now, I think. Chao ong.

Eriksson: Give me a minute on this thing we're doing. I mean, what we're doing. What are we doing, sarge?

Meserve: We have a VC suspect. Is that what you mean? She's a VC whore and we're gonna have fun with her.

Eriksson: She's just a farm girl.

Meserve: You're the cherry here, right? So lighten up.

Clark: -Let me carry the weight. -What's the problem, sarge?

Meserve: He don't think our VC whore is a VC whore.

Eriksson: You a chaplain, sir?

Chaplain Kirk: Are you religious, son? I'm a Methodist.

Eriksson: I'm a Lutheran.

Chaplain Kirk: Well, we can still talk, can't we?

Eriksson: We went on a long patrol, sir, and we kidnapped a girl from the village. The other four men raped her, and they murdered her, and I failed, sir...

[chokes up]

Eriksson: ... to stop them.

Eriksson: Can you imagine that? You escape Viet Nam and you die from an airline fatality.

Clark: Never happen, Cherry. You survive the Nam, you get to live forever, man.

Cherry: Look guys I got some boneless chicken, I can trade for some pound cake, if anyone wants chicken?

Rowan: Sorry Cherry kill to keep our pound cake.

Cherry: That's what everybody says.

Rowan: In fact

[pause]

Rowan: we have killed to keep our pound cake!

Cherry: I'll see you guys later.

Eriksson: Hey!

[manhandles Cherry]

Eriksson: I don't think you will see us later if you don't stop bopping around here like it's a god damned playground! Take it easy okay? Slow down.

Capt. Hill: There ain't no point, Eriksson. I'm simply trying to illuminate the terrain in which we currently find ourselves deployed. You don't mind that, do you? And if you do? Fuck you!

Eriksson: Yes, sir.

Capt. Hill: You on my frequency?

Eriksson: Yes, sir.

Capt. Hill: You fucking maggot! Who the hell do you think you are? You're in that report recommending Meserve for a Bronze Star! He pulled you out of a VC tunnel, boy! Now the shit with that girl, that was wrong. But he's a kid, Eriksson. He's twenty goddamn years old! And you're gonna ruin his life? He saved yours!