The Short-Timers
Corporal/Sergeant/Private James T. 'Joker' Davis : The protagonist and narrator of the book, Joker receives a meritorious promotion to Private First Class upon completing recruit training. While working as a combat correspondent during a tour of duty in Vietnam, he is dispatched to join the Lusthog Squad in Hue along with his photographer, Lance Corporal Compton ("Rafter Man"). Promoted from Corporal to Sergeant before starting this assignment, Joker survives an encounter with a female sniper in the Citadel and mercy-kills her before returning with his report. Not long afterward, he incurs the wrath of a colonel for wearing an unauthorized peace sign button on his uniform; as a result, Joker is assigned to the squad as a fireteam leader and transferred to Khe Sanh. While the squad is on patrol in the surrounding jungle, a sniper shoots and wounds three of its members. Cowboy promotes Joker to squad leader before running into the ambush to kill the men. He is shot through the hand before he can kill himself, so Joker shoots him through the eye and leads the team away. By the start of The Phantom Blooper, he has been demoted to Private for failing to recover Cowboy's body.
Lance Corporal "Rafter Man" Compton: A "New Guy" photographer who works with Joker, Rafter Man is constantly shocked by the horrors of war as he witnesses the start of the Tet Offensive and accompanies Joker to Hue. His nickname comes from an incident at an enlisted men's club in which he climbed up into the rafters for a better view of the stage, then fell onto the table of a visiting general. He mortally wounds the female sniper in the Citadel, counting her as his first confirmed kill even though Joker finishes her off. This first taste of combat greatly excites Rafter Man, but he is greatly disturbed upon seeing his own expression reflected in a broken window afterward. While returning to Phu Bai with Joker, the still-shocked Rafter Man runs into the path of a tank and is fatally crushed by its treads.
Sergeant John "Cowboy" Rucker: Cowboy is Joker's oldest and best friend. The two meet during recruit training at Parris Island, where Cowboy laughs at Joker's jokes. Later on in 1968, when the two cross paths in Da Nang, Cowboy holds the rank of Sergeant and is serving as the assistant squad leader. He takes command when the leader, Crazy Earl, is killed in a suicidal attack on an enemy position. After being wounded at the Citadel by the female sniper, he leaves Animal Mother temporarily in command. In the jungle, Cowboy sacrifices himself by shooting all his wounded men so that nobody else will run into the trap to save them. Before he can kill himself, though, the sniper shoots him through the hand and wounds him repeatedly. Joker then kills him, having been given command of the squad. His last words are an ambiguous rant: "I NEVER LIKED YOU, JOKER. I NEVER THOUGHT YOU WERE FUNNY--". Joker takes Cowboy's pearl-grey Stetson hat as a souvenir, wearing it and carrying it with him throughout The Phantom Blooper. Cowboy presents himself as being from Dallas, but Joker learns in this second book that he had actually lived in Kansas.
Animal Mother: A former platoon sergeant, Animal Mother was demoted to Private after he gave the finger to a colonel. Described as monstrous and giant, he carries an M60 machine gun at all times and wears an ammunition belt across his chest "like a big Mexican bandit." He is a rapist and shows no mercy to anyone. Nonetheless, he remains loyal to all Marines and is willing to sacrifice himself for them. Animal Mother joined the Marines after he was arrested on an auto theft charge and offered the choice of enlistment or a prison sentence. In the jungle encounter with the sniper, Animal Mother nearly shoots Joker, with whom he shares bitter friction, but then obeys him after Cowboy gives him command of the squad. In The Phantom Blooper, Joker learns that Animal Mother was captured by the Viet Cong, but escaped from a POW camp and is back on active duty at Camp Pendleton.
Alice: Also nicknamed "Midnight Buccaneer", "Ace of Spades" and "Jungle Bunny" by Cowboy, Animal Mother and Joker, respectively. As the "point man" of the squad, he walks in front of all others and is keen on sensing danger and noticing booby-traps. He believes in voodoo and cuts off his kills' feet with his machete, carrying them in a blue shopping bag. The "Alice" nickname stems from the fact that his favorite record album is Alice's Restaurant by Arlo Guthrie. He is the first to step into the jungle ambush, due to Cowboy's insistence that the squad keep moving, and is mercy-killed by Cowboy after being wounded multiple times.
Donlon: The radioman of the Lusthog Squad, he is portrayed as somewhat sensitive (crying over the dead). Donlon can be something of a nuisance, since he insists on doing his job as a radioman during even the most dangerous situations. He is nearly killed by the sniper in the jungle; the bullet smashes his radio before he is pulled away by Joker. In The Phantom Blooper, Joker finds him living in California, studying political science at UCLA and protesting the war. The two attend an antiwar demonstration that is forcefully broken up by the police, resulting in Donlon losing an eye. His first name is given as "Tom" in The Short-Timers, and as "Bob" in The Phantom Blooper.
Doc Jay: The corpsman of the team, Doc Jay claims to have "magic hands" and, if it were up to him, would stay in Vietnam forever to help out even the dead. He is approaching the end of his second year in Vietnam and, according to Joker, was greatly traumatized after his unsuccessful effort to save the life of an officer who had fallen victim to an explosive booby trap. He runs into the jungle ambush to give first aid to Alice and is repeatedly shot by the sniper as well. He then performs a tracheotomy on the fallen New Guy, and is subsequently mercy-killed by Cowboy. Referred to as "Doc J-for-Joint" in The Phantom Blooper.
Crazy Earl: The squad leader before Cowboy, he is a frail, sick man who, during Joker's blackout at the Citadel, goes crazy and starts shooting at the enemy with a BB gun. He is killed during this frenzy, and Cowboy takes charge of the squad afterward.
T.H.E. Rock: Rock is nicknamed thus due to a small quartz rock he wears around his neck, allegedly for identifying him in case he should die in battle. He does die at the Citadel, shot in the head by the female sniper. The squad then takes on a personal vendetta on the sniper and kills her.
Lt. Robert M. "Mr. Shortround" Bayer III: Commander of the platoon that includes this squad, Bayer came by his nickname due to his small stature. He welcomes Joker and Rafter Man into the squad and is killed by a friendly grenade (Animal Mother's) during the Citadel attack, while trying to rescue a fallen Marine.
Lance Corporal Stutten: Stutten is a fireteam leader and sides with Animal Mother during the jungle ambush, disregarding Joker's orders. By the time that Joker returns to the United States in The Phantom Blooper, he has been discharged and is living in New Jersey, raising a child with a harelip.
Private Henry "New Guy" Parker: The newest member of the squad when the jungle ambush occurs, he charges into the killing zone in an effort to rescue Doc Jay and Alice. He sustains a bullet wound to the neck, receives an emergency tracheotomy from Doc Jay, and is then mercy-killed by Cowboy.
Out of the above members of the original Lusthog Squad, the only ones to survive the novel are Joker, having been promoted to sergeant and squad leader, along with Animal Mother (who takes the point), Donlon the radioman, and Lance Corporal Stutten. Several other members are mentioned only in passing; some of these recur in The Phantom Blooper.
Full Metal Jacket is a 1987 war drama film directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Herr and Gustav Hasford. The film is based on Hasford's 1979 novel The Short-Timers and stars Matthew Modine, Lee Ermey, Vincent D'Onofrio and Adam Baldwin.
Sniper is a 1993 American action film directed by Luis Llosa. The film stars Tom Berenger and Billy Zane as snipers on an assassination mission in Panama. The first installment in the Sniper film series and was followed by seven direct-to-video sequels: Sniper 2, Sniper 3, Sniper: Reloaded, Sniper: Legacy, Sniper: Ghost Shooter, Sniper: Ultimate Kill and Sniper: Assassin's End. It was shot in Queensland, Australia, and debuted at number two in the United States.
Meir Har-Zion was an Israeli military commando.
Deathwatch is a 2002 British-German horror war film written and directed by M. J. Bassett and starring Jamie Bell, Laurence Fox, Kris Marshall, Matthew Rhys, and Andy Serkis. A lost squad of British soldiers in World War I take shelter in an abandoned enemy trench, but it proves to be no refuge as the men find themselves hunted by unseen evils.
Conflict: Vietnam is a tactical shooter video game developed by Pivotal Games and 8bit Games and published by Global Star Software and SCi Games for PlayStation 2, Xbox, Microsoft Windows, and mobile phones and N-Gage. the N-Gage version was ported to DS as Operation Vietnam. Released in 2004, it is the third installment in the Conflict series.
The Short-Timers is a 1979 semi-autobiographical novel by U.S. Marine Corps veteran Gustav Hasford, about his experience in the Vietnam War. Hasford served as a combat correspondent with the 1st Marine Division during the Tet Offensive of 1968. As a military journalist, he wrote stories for Leatherneck Magazine, Pacific Stars and Stripes, and Sea Tiger. The novel was adapted into the film Full Metal Jacket (1987) by Hasford, Michael Herr, and Stanley Kubrick.
Flags of Our Fathers is a 2006 American war film directed, co-produced, and scored by Clint Eastwood and written by William Broyles Jr. and Paul Haggis. It is based on the 2000 book of the same name written by James Bradley and Ron Powers about the 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima, the five Marines and one Navy corpsman who were involved in raising the flag on Iwo Jima, and the after effects of that event on their lives.
Alfredo Cantu "Freddy" Gonzalez was a United States Marine Corps sergeant who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for service in the Battle of Huế during the Vietnam War.
S.S. Doomtrooper is a 2006 television science fiction film starring Corin Nemec, in which a mutated Nazi supersoldier, who can generate electrical charges as a weapon, and has greatly enhanced strength, fights against Allied troops during World War II. It was aired from Sci Fi Channel on April 1, 2006.
The Phantom Blooper: A Novel of Vietnam is a 1990 novel written by Gustav Hasford and the sequel to The Short-Timers (1979). It continues to follow James T. "Joker" Davis through his Vietnam odyssey. The book was supposed to be the second of a "Vietnam Trilogy", but Hasford died before writing the third installment.
Halls of Montezuma is a 1951 American World War II war film directed by Academy Award-winner Lewis Milestone and starring Richard Widmark. It also stars Robert Wagner in his first credited screen role and features Richard Boone in his feature-film debut. The story is about U.S. Marines fighting on a Japanese-held island, and the title is a reference to the opening line from the Marines' Hymn.
The Siege of Firebase Gloria is a 1989 war film directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith, starring Wings Hauser and R. Lee Ermey. It was filmed in the Philippines.
Ambush Bay is a 1966 American war film directed by Ron Winston and starring Hugh O'Brian, Mickey Rooney and James Mitchum. It was filmed on location in the Philippines.
The Battle of Khas Oruzgan occurred when a combined Australian, American, and Afghan patrol was ambushed by up to 200 Taliban fighters near the village of Khaz Oruzgan. The infamous battle was one of the most intense for Australian forces since the Vietnam war at the time.
Saints and Soldiers: Airborne Creed is a 2012 war drama film directed by Ryan Little and produced by Little and Adam Abel. It is based on events that took place during the invasion of Southern France in World War II. The film stars Corbin Allred, David Nibley, and Jasen Wade. The film's story has no relation to the events or characters portrayed in the 2003 war film Saints and Soldiers. The film was shot in Utah, on a tight budget, saving money by using volunteer World War II reenactors as some of the actors and extras. The film received mixed reviews; many critics found the film mediocre yet still praised the performances and cinematography. This film precedes the third film in the series, Saints and Soldiers: The Void, which was released in 2014.
El Alamein - The Line of Fire is a 2002 Italian war-drama film written and directed by Enzo Monteleone. The film won three David di Donatello awards, a Nastro d'Argento for best sound and a Globo d'oro for best new actor. The film is set during the Second battle of El Alamein, which is seen from the Italian perspective.
Battle of Semur River was an armed encounter which took place on 25 March 1950 between the Malay Regiment and the gunmens of Malayan Communist Party during the Malayan Emergency. Seventeen soldiers of the Malay Regiment, from 12th Platoon of Delta Company were killed by the rebels, and eight wounded. Twenty-nine communist insurgents were also killed by the Malayan soldiers.
Operation Griffin was a military operation launched by the Rhodesian Security Forces, on 16 July 1968, in response to an incursion into Rhodesia by communist insurgents belonging to the ZIPRA based in Zambia.
