"I grabbed Deetroit's collar and dragged him as I fired on full auto, sweeping the jungle in front of me. We were a few feet from the foxhole when the incoming rounds started again, whizzing by and throwing mud all over us. I rolled him into the shallow open ditch, and muddy water shot straight up. I jumped in on top of him. It was barely big enough for one man to lie down in. I figured this hole would be our grave."
Vietnam, 1966-67. "Brothers, All" depicts the men of the Fourth Battalion, 173rd Airborne. James Fowlkes, called "Prof," and his brothers-in-arms mash through jungles doused with Agent Orange, trudge through monsoon downpours with heavy rucksacks, and oftentimes act like boys in their foolish hijinks. They fight the enemy, and sometimes they fight each other over canned peaches or the wrong kind of music. They learn to depend on each other, pull their buddies out of harm's way, and treat gently their fallen brothers. Their coming of age happens in the first firefight that splatters them with a brother's blood. They become men, changed and hardened. Those who make it back to the world bring with them their wounds, PTSD, exposure to chemicals, and the blood-stained images of war they hold silent for decades with the beast of Vietnam ever stalking them.