Fallen Angels

By Walter Dean Myers

In this classic coming of age novel from a New York Times–bestselling author, an American teenager faces the gritty reality of the Vietnam War.
Winner of the Coretta Scott King Award in 1988
"Heartbreaking. . . . Other authors have gotten the details right, but Myers reaches into the minds of the soldiers. . . . Readers, including those born after the fall of Saigon . . . will reel from the human consequences of battle." —Publishers Weekly (boxed review)
It's 1967, and Harlem teenager Richie Perry is graduating from high school. He dreams of attending college and becoming a writer like James Baldwin. However, reality has other plans. After volunteering for the army, Perry doesn't expect to fight in the Vietnam War, but a paperwork mix-up sends him to the frontlines.
Perry and his platoon are soon face-to-face with relentless violence and brutality. One false move can mean the difference between survival and death, whether they are fighting the Vietcong or simply walking through the jungle. Overcome by the horrors, Perry begins questioning everything. What were his motives for joining the army? Why are black troops given the most dangerous missions? Why is the United States even there?
Perry and his fellow soldiers may have all come to Vietnam for different reasons, but now they share the same dream—to get home alive.
"Recalls Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage." —Horn Book (starred review)
"As thought-provoking as it is entertaining." —The New York Times
"This gut-twisting Vietnam War novel breaks uncharted ground. . . . Myers does an outstanding job of re-creating the war." —Booklist (starred review)
 "Myers masterfully re-creates the combat zone. . . . War-story fans will find enough action here, though it isn't glorified; thoughtful readers will be haunted by this tribute to a ravaged generation." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: May 6, 2025
• ISBN: 9798337202358

Walter Dean Myers

Walter Dean Myers was the New York Times bestselling author of Monster, the winner of the first Michael L. Printz Award; a National Ambassador for Young People's Literature; and an inaugural NYC Literary Honoree. Myers was recognized by every single major award in the field of children's literature. He was the author of two Newbery Honor Books and five Coretta Scott King Book Award winners. He was the recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults and a three-time National Book Award finalist as well as the first ever recipient of the Coretta Scott King–Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Somebody must have told them suckers I was coming.

Told who? I asked.

The Congs, man. Who you think I’m talking ’bout?

Why you think somebody told them you were coming?

’Cause I don’t see none of ’em around here. They don’t want their butts kicked.

Yeah, okay. I looked at the guy’s name tag. It read Gates. Hey, Gates, I’ll tell you as soon as I see some Congs.

I’m going on in the bathroom, he said. Make sure they ain’t none in there.

Right.

I watched him wade through a sea of GIs, stopping now and again to talk to one of them.

Does he really think we’re in Vietnam already? Specialist, Fifth Class Judy Duncan looked sharp in her dress uniform as she leaned against the Coke machine. Most of us were in fatigues, the army’s work clothes. I had been sitting next to Judy on the flight from Massachusetts. She had brought along an assortment of snacks to eat on the plane and was now digging into a bag of potato chips as we waited for the plane to refuel in Anchorage, Alaska, on our way to Vietnam.

He’s just a clown, I said. On the plane he asked a captain to wake him up when we reached Cong City.

Where you say you were from?

New York, I answered. You?

I tell most people I’m from Dallas, she said. But I’m really from Irving. That’s right outside of Dallas. I don’t think anybody is really from Dallas anymore.

You took advanced training at Fort Devens?

Unh-uh. Sam Houston, in Texas. I did basic there and then went right into medical school. I got assigned to the hospital in Devens, but it got boring.

Now you going to see the world?

Something like that, she said. She had a nice smile. I think somebody figures if I see Nam first, everything else is going to look good to me.

The plane had been half empty coming from Massachusetts to Anchorage. We picked up about fifty more guys in Anchorage, most of them infantry from Fort Lewis. There were a few nurses with the group, too, and Judy went and sat with them.

We were served dinner shortly after we were airborne, but I wasn’t hungry. I usually can’t eat when I’m nervous, and going to Nam made me nervous. The only reason I was going anyway was because of a paperwork mess up. At first my unit was scheduled to go to Nam, but a doctor at Fort Devens had said that my knee was too bad for combat duty. I was assigned to a supply company while I waited for new orders. But then my old company didn’t go to Nam, they went to Germany instead—which was cool because there wasn’t any fighting going on over there—and I got orders for Nam.

Look at it this way, Perry, the captain had said. The only reason you’re going to Nam is that it takes forever to process a medical profile. Once it catches up with you, you’ll be headed home. In the meantime you’ll get to Nam, they’ll put you behind a desk in some headquarters company, and the worst thing that’ll happen to you is that you catch a social disease in downtown Saigon that’ll rot your twinkie off.

I hadn’t been too worried about going to Nam. From what I had heard, the fighting was almost over, anyway.

Our next stop was Osaka, Japan, and I slept most of the way. We landed at a commercial airport because of some kind of disturbance at the military facilities. There was supposed to be a change of planes, but they didn’t have another plane available until the next morning. A tall, square-shouldered first lieutenant gave out meal tickets, and we were told we could use them at the airport cafeteria. The people at the cafeteria were civilians, and they didn’t want any part of our meal tickets, even though a sergeant tried to explain to the head of the cafeteria that the U.S. Army would redeem them. Two corporals made some noise about taking the cafeteria over. What finally went down was that we all bought our own dinners. Typical army.

We spent the rest of the night sleeping on benches in the airport. A lot of Japanese civilians gave us the once-over. I bought a few souvenirs to send home, a little parasol for Mom and some Japanese comics for my brother Ken. By morning the cafeteria mess was straightened out, and we ate anything we wanted. I talked with Judy at breakfast, and she told me how she had wanted to be a garbageman when she was a kid.

The trucks were just the best things I had ever seen in my life, she said. She had an order of scrambled eggs and bacon, and a small mountain of toast that was disappearing quickly. When I found out I couldn’t be a garbageman, I settled for being a movie star, but it was definitely second-best.

She asked me what I had wanted to be when I was a kid, and I told her that most of the time I had wanted to work in a drugstore and wear a white coat with the buttons on the shoulder.

Yeah? she shook her head approvingly. That’s what I like about you, Perry, you know all the good stuff. And buttons on the shoulders are definitely the good stuff.

When the plane took off for the final hop to Vietnam, the conversations got quieter. Everybody who could was looking out of the windows.

Okay, listen up! A sergeant stood in the aisles with a clipboard. We’re scheduled to arrive at Tan Son Nhut, the ree-public of Vietnam, at 1400 hours. When you deplane, you will form four ranks in the area designated by Lieutenant Wilson. There will be no grab-ass, no excessive running off at the mouth, and no wandering around. Is that clear?

Yes, Sergeant! came the familiar chorus.

"You will have your gear ready to deplane the moment we touch down. Is that clear?"

Yes, Sergeant!

I had to go to the john. I thought about it for a while and looked back toward the plane’s johns. Too late. The line already stretched halfway down the aisle. It was 1320 hours, twenty minutes past one o’clock civilian time. We’d be in Nam in less than an hour. I thought of writing Mom and took out my paper. All I could think of was the date: September 15, 1967.

Hey, Perry. Judy was leaning over my shoulder.

How’s it going?

Okay. Look, I just found out the nurses are going right to Chu Lai. I just wanted to wish you luck.

Hey, thanks. I shook her hand. Where’s Chu Lai?

Who knows? she shrugged.

Hot. Muggy. Bright. Muggy. That was the airport at Tan Son Nhut. We deplaned, followed Lieutenant Wilson across the field into an area in front of some Quonset huts, and started forming ranks. It took a while. The sergeant with the clipboard came along and tried to encourage us as best he could.

You faggots can’t even line up straight, how you gonna fight? he shouted.

He kept on yelling and Lieutenant Wilson started yelling, and we finally got in order. Then a captain came out, and we were turned over to him. The sergeant’s clipboard was turned over to him, too.

Medical personnel assigned to the Sixty-seventh Group or the 312th or the Twenty-third Battalion fall out and get in those buses over there. Everybody else stand at ease.

When the medics fell out, Judy waved to me again, and some of the guys around me told me to go give her a kiss.

That’s what they do in the war movies, one guy said.

I didn’t really know Judy, and I probably wouldn’t have had the nerve to kiss her in front of everybody, even if I did. We watched the medics go toward the buses while the rest of us stood in the sun. I checked my watch, and it was 1430 hours.

The next time I checked my watch it was 1530 hours, and we were still standing in the sun. Once I had figured that of the seven months I had spent in the army, four of them had been standing around waiting for something to happen. Vietnam might have been a different place, but the army hadn’t changed.

Vietnam. There were mountains in the distance. A helicopter hovered over the far end of the field, tilted at a crazy angle, and then flew off. I watched it until it was almost out of sight.

Most of the guys around the landing field were in fatigues. No different than Fort Devens, except that half of them carried their rifles around with them. There were a lot of pistols, too. You didn’t see many pistols stateside.

There were Vietnamese soldiers around, too. They were smaller than I thought they would be. I tried not to stare at them. A rumbling noise off to my left sounded like distant thunder. We knew it was artillery. My stomach felt queasy. Guys started looking at the ground. This was Nam.

We had a roll call. I listened for the sergeant to call my last name. When he did, I responded with my first name: Richard. Two marines—they had obviously been in Nam awhile—came over and stood near the sergeant and looked at us. They were unshaven. Their uniforms looked worn, darker than ours. One of them was wearing a necklace of some kind. The other one had a peace symbol painted on his helmet. They were old-looking guys, older than any of the guys just coming in.

We went back to waiting in the sun. We waited until 1600 hours. Then the trucks came.

I was assigned to the Twenty-second Replacement Company. That’s where I met Gates again, the guy who had been looking for Congs in Anchorage. We bunked next to each other.

Gates was brown-skinned, but he had reddish hair and freckles. I thought I was going to like him.

You see any Vietcong? I asked.

Yeah, you see that girl come in here a moment ago?

The one cleaning the barracks?

Yeah, she’s a Cong, man.

There were three or four Vietnamese civilians around our barracks. Two were painting the decorative rocks around headquarters, the kind of thing that we all did stateside, and the other two were cleaning inside.

They’re not Vietcong.

Who told you that?

It figures, I said. "We’re fighting the Vietcong. You don’t fight somebody, then hire them to clean up.

I remember back home this boy come into a poolroom—

Where’s back home?

Chicago. Gates was lying on his back on his bunk. Anyway, this dude come into the poolroom, and he knowed he was a good pool shot, see? So he hustled this other dude into a pool game for twenty dollars and beat him.

Yeah, go on.

Well, he figured he was supposed to get his money, Gates said. But the boy he beat didn’t want to pay him so he shot him in the stomach.

Gates stopped talking and started taking his boots off.

So what’s the end of the story? I asked.

That the end. The dude that did the figuring done figured wrong. That’s why you shouldn’t be figuring that chickie that be doing the cleaning ain’t no Cong.

Right.

I started writing home. The Vietnamese cleaning lady came in again. She started dusting around the bunks. I looked over at Gates, and he was looking at me. He smiled.

Hey, Gates, I said, I know you’re wrong.

Don’t be calling me no Gates, he said. You call me Peewee.

Okay, Peewee, I said. You’re still wrong.

I can prove it to you, Peewee said. Watch this.

Hey, you! he sat up and called to the Vietnamese woman. Mama Cong!

The woman looked at him, shrugged, and then turned away.

Mama Cong! he repeated, louder.

She probably doesn’t even understand English, I said. A couple of other guys had turned to see what Peewee was doing.

Watch if she don’t split, Peewee said.

The woman turned again and looked at Peewee. Then she left.

See! There was a big smile on his face. She’s a Cong, that’s why she left. She know Peewee got her number.

If you talked crazy at me, a heavy, red-faced guy called over to Peewee, I’d leave, too.

That’s cause you probably a Cong, Peewee said. And you a ugly-ass Cong, too.

The guy stood up. He seemed twice as big standing as he did sitting. He came over to Peewee’s bunk and put his foot on Peewee’s bed.

Boy, he said, I just finished seven months of ranger training, learning how to kill little people like you. So why don’t you just shut up?

Yo, you, what’s your name? Peewee called over to me.

Perry.

Perry, did this peckerwood just call me ‘boy’?

I think you’d better leave him alone, I said.

Yeah, but did he just call me ‘boy’?

I can answer for myself, the ranger said. Yes, I did call you ‘boy,’ Boy!

Peewee turned and looked as if he were going to put his feet on the floor. Instead he shot both legs into the ranger’s crotch. The big man doubled over, and Peewee punched him on the side of the head. Then he laid back, put his hand under his pillow, and pulled out a knife, which clicked open with a flick of the wrist.

Now you can get up and start beating on me if you want, Peewee said. But if you do, I’m going to cut your damn throat soon’s you go to sleep.

The ranger got up, looked at Peewee, and started sputtering something about if Peewee didn’t have the knife what he would do. I put Peewee in the letter to Mama.

Chapter 2

A sergeant came in and put the lights out. Then he made a bunch of stupid remarks about what we should and shouldn’t do in the dark.

Hey, Perry! It was Peewee.

What?

What did you do back in the World?

Just got out of school, I said.

You didn’t finish, either?

I finished high school.

No lie?

No lie.

Then why you come in the army?

Seemed like a good idea at the time, I said.

I finished high school, but I hadn’t gone to the graduation exercises. It just hadn’t made sense anymore.

You can go to City College, the guidance counselor had said. Your grades are good enough.

I told her I’d think about it. What I was thinking about was that I had to get up every morning and dry the clothes I had washed the night before by putting them on the oven door, to have something to wear to high school. How was I going to get the clothes for college? How was I going to get clothes for Kenny so he would stay in school? Mama had said that she’d see to it that Kenny stayed in school if I sent the money for clothes for him. I wasn’t saving any money, the way I figured I would when I first got into the army, but I figured that might come later if I made sergeant.

I thought of writing a letter to Kenny. He would dig getting a letter from Nam. I remembered once he was involved with a pen-pal program and got a letter from some kid in Logan, West Virginia. He had looked at me with his wide, bright eyes and smiled like he couldn’t believe the great thing that had happened to him. The night before I left for the army we had sat and talked about what we were going to do in the future. No matter what I said, I knew he was sorry that I was leaving.

Richie, he had said before he went to sleep, when you get to Vietnam, I hope you guys win.

The Monarchs, the neighborhood team I played for, had just lost a tournament the week before. It had bothered me a lot. I had done well, and Kenny had said that it wasn’t my fault. I had given him a big speech about basketball being a team sport, and that my doing well didn’t matter.

Either the team wins or the team loses, I had said.

I had wanted to win badly. I knew I was going into the army, but for me that was a kind of defeat. My plans, maybe just my dreams really, had been to go to college, and to write like James Baldwin. All the other guys in the neighborhood thought I was going to college. I wasn’t, and the army was the place I was going to get away from all the questions. I wanted to win the tournament, to walk away from the streets I had been raised in with my head high, a winner.

That night I kissed Kenny good-night. It was the first time I had kissed him since we were both small.

Peewee and I had breakfast together. I asked him if he liked the army, and he said it was okay.

You got all this chickenshit to go through, he said. And I don’t like that. But this is the first place I ever been in my life where I got what everybody else got.

What does that mean?

Back home when everybody got new sneakers, I didn’t get none, Peewee said. Either Moms didn’t have the money, or she had the money, and we had to get some other stupid thing, like food. When everybody got a bike I didn’t get one ’cause there was no way we could get the money for a bike. But anything anybody got in the army, I got. You got a gun, I got a gun. You got boots, I got boots. You eat this lousy-ass chip beef on toast, guess what I eat?

Lousy-ass chip beef on toast, I said.

Peewee’s grin just about filled the mess tent.

Most of the day was spent sitting around. Some of the guys were talking about how hard they had had it in basic training. They all had the same stories no matter where they had taken basic. I thought the stories were probably part of the training.

There were a lot of black guys. I didn’t think there would be so many. Some of them stayed off to themselves, but one guy was making the rounds of all the other blacks.

The way I figure it, we got to stick together over here. He had three rings on the hand he waved in the air. I can’t trust no whitey to watch my back when the deal go down.

So what do you want to do? I asked.

We got to make an oath or something, Rings said. You know, mingle some blood. That’s symbolic of what we going to be about over here in this strange land.

The dude was serious. I watched him take out a pocket knife and cut his wrist. Then he handed the knife to Peewee.

You got to be out your mind! Peewee said. You sitting there cutting your own damn self, you don’t need nobody watching your back!

You don’t understand, Rings said. This is symbolic of our common African blood.

Yeah, all that is cool, but I want my common African blood in my common African veins, Peewee said.

You ignorant! Rings pointed at Peewee.

Maybe I am, but I ain’t bleeding.

Rings shook his head and slid the knife across the table to me.

I got hemophilia, I said. If I cut myself, I won’t stop bleeding.

You a Uncle Tom, what you is, Rings said. If you had some damn hemophilia, they wouldn’t have you in no army!

He grabbed his knife, got up, and walked away. I watched him go.

That fool is crazy! Peewee said.

I don’t know, he might have something, I said.

Well, whatever he got, he can sure keep it. Set up the checkers.

We played checkers until it was time for chow, the same way we had the day before. Then we ate chow and played checkers in the afternoon.

Another black guy, a specialist, fourth class, came over and joined me and Peewee. He asked where we were from, and we told him.

I’m from Monroe, Louisiana. You ever hear of it?

No, Peewee said.

Ain’t much to it, he said. How long y’all been in country?

"You mean this country?"

You don’t have to say nothing, he said. You just told me.

How long you been here? Peewee asked.

I been here nine months. I got sick, and they sent me to the hospital over in the Philippines. You ever been in that hospital?

We just got here, Peewee said. How we gonna get in the hospital?

You just getting here don’t mean nothing, the spec four said. I seen a guy drop dead getting off the plane from Hawaii. The plane come down and landed just as pretty as you damn please. He come out, took him a good look around, and dropped stone dead.

What kind of outfit were you in? Peewee asked.

I was with the Twenty-fourth Transportation Battalion, but I put in for a transfer ’cause I had a run-in with my commanding officer.

What kind of run-in?

I was high on guard duty, the spec four said. My pal brought some smoke from Saigon, and we all got stoned.

So what you doing now?

They give me a choice, transfer or court-martial, he said. So you know I got to transfer, because I can’t stand no jail time.

You been in any fighting? Peewee asked.

They didn’t have no fighting around Cam Ranh Bay, was the answer. They had more fighting in a juke joint outside of Fort Eustis than I seen all the time I been over here.

It sounded good. Peewee and the spec four played checkers for a while and then he played with an Italian from Connecticut. We told him what the spec four had said about not seeing any fighting.

I heard it was over anyway, the guy said. They’re supposed to be signing a truce or something in Paris."

That’s ’cause they heard I was here, Peewee said with this real serious look on his face.

The Italian guy looked at me and looked at Peewee and shrugged. I was getting to like Peewee.

They showed a movie in the day room and passed out some beer. Three

Reviews for Fallen Angels

[kslade-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good young adult novel about a tour of duty in Vietnam. May be too graphic for younger readers.

[jothebookgirl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"There's only two kinds of people in Vietnam. People who are alert twenty-fours a day, and people who are dead."

Richie Perry was seventeen and in trouble. There was no way he could afford college, and the streets were just too tempting. The war in Vietnam seems to be winding down. it would give him something to do and three meals a day. He would probably not see combat. He thinks, this is the perfect way to cool out till he gets himself together.

Basic training wasn't so hard. But there were things they didn't tell him in basic.

They didn't tell him about Nam Rot, or napalm that sucked the air out of your lungs from a hundred yards away, or the body bags that lay in neat piles, ready for the next soldier to die.

They didn't tell him how it felt to shoot at Vietnamese soldiers no older than you were, and just as afraid.

This is the powerful story of a seventeen year old's tour of duty. Walter Dean Meyers has written a testament to the thousands of young adults who fought and died in the Vietnam War.

This is considered a young adult novel of Historical Fiction. It is graphic and for a more mature reader.

"You ain't killed nobody yet," Peewee said. They gots to be people before you kill them. You think these Congs is people?"
"Yeah sure they are."
"What are their names?"
"How the hell would I know their names?"
"What they like to eat?"
"I don't know."
"See, they ain't people to you yet. You figure out all that shit, what they names is, what they like to eat, who do the dishes and shit like that, then they people. Then you shoot them you killing somebody."

[susan.macura · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a story about the Vietnam War told through the eyes of a teenager sent there to fight. It is a story about how this experience changed him in so many ways as well as an accurate description of what our service people endured. Very compelling book.

[phyllis.shepherd · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A young soldier goes to Vietnam during the war, full of idealism. As reality sets in, he develops close friendships which help support him during a nightmarish time. Realistically portrayed, with language (sometimes rough) appropriate to the situation.

[radioactivebookworm · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Goodreads Synopsis: An exciting, eye-catching repackage of acclaimed author Walter Dean Myers' bestselling paperbacks, to coincide with the publication of SUNRISE OVER FALLUJA in hardcover.

A coming-of-age tale for young adults set in the trenches of the Vietnam War in the late 1960s, this is the story of Perry, a Harlem teenager who volunteers for the service when his dream of attending college falls through. Sent to the front lines, Perry and his platoon come face-to-face with the Vietcong and the real horror of warfare. But violence and death aren't the only hardships. As Perry struggles to find virtue in himself and his comrades, he questions why black troops are given the most dangerous assignments, and why the U.S. is there at all.

My Review: First of all, I read this book for one of my modules in my English class. Honestly I probably wouldn't have picked it out in the bookstore for any other reason than the cover is kind of cool. However, I'm glad I got the chance to read it. It's a really great book, and I think more people should know about it, because then I wouldn't have had to read it only for a project. Whatever. Anways. Although this book is kind of old, It's an amazing story about a young man, Richie or better known as Perry, who graduates high school and finds himself with no where to go. So he joins the army. The book starts and him an a group of newbies are at the airport, getting loaded onto an airplane that will take them straight into a war. They go through training, and eventually are sent out into the field. It's a war, so obviously there's some fighting going on, but Perry and his group are determined to get through it. Some are injured, some are killed, but some end up getting to go home after it all. One of the parts that really stuck out in my mind, was when Perry shows up and everyone's trying to get out of there alive. There are dead bodies everywhere, and to protect them, the end up stripping them and putting them into a pile, and burning them, trying to take the dog tags of the dead with them as they're going. Crazy, right? I love how I was able to see the characters grow from nervous teenagers to hardened young men, through the fight. They really changed, and not always in a good way. Definitely check this book out if you get the change, it's an awesome read.

Thanks for reading.
(Radioactivebookreviews.wordpress.com)

[br13nifo · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The dense and hot jungles of Vietnam now a war zone! Fallen Angels puts the hectic combat of the Vietnam War into the eyes of a young soldier. Rick Perry just graduated High School and knows he cannot afford college. He decides to join the Army and he very well knows he is heading to Vietnam. The only thing is he is unsure what to expect there. In Vietnam He meets his squad who becomes like brothers to each other. They want to get out alive, so they all help and care for each other. There are problems in the Vietnam War. Disease, fear, death, the fog of war (uncertainty) all these things take their place as Pvt. (Private) Rick Perry endures the chaos combat of the Vietnam War!

[br13wylar · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

 Wyatt LaRose
9/14/12
Mr. Bronson
Book Review
Final Draft

Fallen Angels

Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers is a book that will drag you in and make you feel like you were at the Vietnam War. This book is about a man who leaves for the Vietnam War and leaves his mama and his brother Kenny behind. He learns to survive and push through the worst times. He learns what the value of life is and also death. Many of the men he is with become his friends. Some of them become very close and talk about back home while others are gone before he even knows them.
This fast paced book does have scenes that should not have been included simply because there was no reason for them. The scene would start then end and not affecting anything else. The main character, Perry goes through a lot of changes in this book. He goes in not knowing what he is doing. While he is in the war he gets a total new point of view. This book is mainly a story about a man who learns what its like to live in a war. This was a great book and everyone should make some time to read it sometime soon.

[br13brsi · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fallen Angels is a fantastic book. I have read this for summer reading and I thought it would be boring but I was surprised it was awesome! The book is about a man named Richie Perry and he's going to the Vietnam war. The book is action packed, a little drama, and sometimes, there was funny moments. The writing is exquisite would totally recommend this book to people ages 12 and up due to some gory scenes. Good job Walter Dean Myers!

[skyler2sims · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Younge Richie Perry joins the army to stay of the dangerous streets of Harlem. He left behind his poor mom and brother just to fight a war he dosent understand. He arrives in Vietnam and makes many friends but will become brothers-at-arms. They will endure a year of a frightful war and must do something to suvive. Perry will learn the true meaning of war. Rumers of the ending of the war float around and it wont. But Perry will get injured and sent back home. He will join his familly back home and enjoy his life.

This was a gut twister and it shows the real war. It shows what its like to be a teen in war. I prefered this book and recammend it to you. War is not good and it takes lots of guts to go throught it. But with his friends to help he will survive a heart breakin war. The author did a good job showing the true horrors. I like the book and the action involved. It is an action packed thrill ride.

[ctmsjoha · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

As far as war novels go, I've never been a fan.I've always felt as if the author softens up the war zone for the public, but Fallen Angels felt real. I always figured in a war scenario there would be a little swearing.And be warned, there is indeed swearing.But in all seriousness, in not picking up this book you will be really be missing out on a great book.
The book starts with 17 year old Richie Perry,fresh out of high school,shipping himself off to Vietnam. On one of the many planes he goes on to get there, he meets Peewee,a somewhat eccentric guy who seems to desperately want to eliminate the opposing forces.
When they finally get to Vietnam, Richie attempts to alert his superiors of his of his medically unfit knee he is told,"If we get a medical report we'll let ya know". So, Richie and Peewee are assigned to their squad. From here on, I feel it best for the reader to experience it for themselves. The patrols, lookouts, and firefights unveil things about the characters,why they came ,what they did back home and who they are are all are best to find out in the book, not in a book review. So please, just read it.
This is among the best books I've ever read. The author does a great job of capturing the emotional side of the war without removing action, maintains the seriousness of the situation, but throwing in some humorous moments, like when one of the people in Richies squad throw an empty grenade in their tent and every one dives to the floor,only to realize that it's empty".Moments like these keep the book from being too sad that you just want to stop reading.
I had trouble reading some of the times in this book, because it was just so, evil.The fact that people had to go into battle with people they didn't know were coming out with them is a horrible thought. This book gave me new respect for anyone that is or has been in battle. Any book that can describe in such great depth such a complicated subject so well deserves 5 stars in my mind. It is a fantastic piece of writing, that will grip your attention in a vise-like grip, and won't let it go until the end.It flows nicely, the characters feel real, and as much as this can be a not-so-good thing, it makes you feel like you are in the war zone with Richie fighting in the Vietnam war. It is a fantastic book that cannot be missed.

[ctmsjamo · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers is about a man named Richard Perry who recruits for the army during the Vietnam War. On the flight there, he meets a man named Pee Wee. He becomes Perry's go-to guy. they go into many patrols together. Seeing the destruction that the North Vietnamese Army was doing to the south. they experience death and touture with their own eyes.  
Fallen Angels was a good book. it had some good action parts. but other than that it was kind of boring. it didnt have as much action as i thought it would of had. it had a lot of swearing in it too. I recommend this book to people who like historical fiction about wars.

by: Jake

[missboyer3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Richie Perry, Lobel, Johnson, Brunner, and Peewee are all in Vietnam. They came there for different reasons, but now they share a single dream -- getting out alive.

[kikotomo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Tells about the Vietnam War without too much graphic detail. This book touches on themes that are still very much alive today - especially the importance of friendship. Wonderful read.

[claytonroos · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

good exciting book

[schmerguls · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a gritty novel about a kid from Harlem enlisting in the army and going to Vietnam. It is called juvenile fiction but the language is just like Vietnam adult fiction. But the hero is not immoral and prays so I guess that is why it is deemed fit for juveiles tor read--altho our library had it on the adult fiction shelves. There is some poignancy in the story but I did not find the story overly compelling, though it is pretty realistic and certainly not likely to inspire a guy to wish he had been able to fight in Vietnam

[mjspear_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Terrific first-hand account of one soldier, Rchie Perry's experience of the Vietnam War... landing in the country, going on patrols, engaging in hand-to-hand combat, "pacifying" villages, standing guard, and more. Violence is graphic but not gratuitous: includes descriptions of corpses, booby-trapped baby, land-mines. Perry is African-American and race issues are ever-present but not the central focus of the book. 1960s period details are spot-on and not overbearing. The book also hints at the problems of re-entry into civilan life. Perry and fellow soldiers, esp. PeeWee (Chicago jivester) Johnson (quiet country boy) and Lobel (Jewish boy trying to earn his father's respect) are drawn just shy of being stereotypes.... in any case, the reader grows to care for them making the inevitable death & injuries all the more poignant.

[bookshelfmonstrosity · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"...For all the angel warriors who fall."

Richie Perry is the face of so many young men who fought in the Vietnam War. Raised in Harlem, Richie joins the army in 1967, hoping for a better future. With no money saved for college, Richie finds foreign jungles more palatable than the streets of Harlem.

Richie and his fellow soldier friends are extremely unprepared for the harsh realities of war. They find that the definition of 'enemy' is not as cut and dried as they once pictured and chaos ensues during much of Richie's stay in Vietnam.

In one of the more terrifying scenes of ambush, so many American soldiers are killed that the remaining boys are forced to burn the bodies rather than body bag and carry them back to the pick-up point. Richie sees the dead boys being burned: "They were me. We wore the same uniform, were the same height, had the same face. They were me, and they were dead." Although this book obviously doesn't glorify war, it doesn't make the judgment call of condemning it, either. Myers presents facts and raw emotion in this narrative, and the language isn't for the faint of heart. Although this book was marketed for young adults, I think I appreciated it even more as an adult.

[edgoldberg · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have to say I was not overwhelmed by this book. I realize Fallen Angels was a break through book...one of the first YA war books. And from that perspective it is good.

However, I had problems with it. I could not visualize the battle grounds at all. I couldn't visualize the army bases. I could barely visualize the characters.

I did get, loud and clear, some of the atrocities inflicted during the Vietnam War. I did get some of the fear that the soldiers felt. But, overall, I did not think Fallen Angels was a powerful book. I know...I'm one of the few.

I'd suggest Purple Heart by Patricia McCormick for a powerful war book.

[sharp3_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Synopsis:After his high school graduation 17 year-old Richie Perry joins the army simply because he couldn’t think of anything else to do; college was too expensive, jobs were scarce, and his family had limited prospects in the projects of Harlem. Initially recruited to play basketball for the army’s professional team, Perry finds himself sidelined and shipped overseas after a knee-injury stops his sports career. Upon arrival in Vietnam Perry finds that his medical profile hasn’t made it to base; he is promptly assigned to a squad and summarily shipped out to the field for combat duty. In the field Perry is forced to become more than “just an observer in life” (p.35) and shake the malaise and passivity that has hallmarked his young adult life. Through his narration Myers’ addresses the racism to which Perry and his squad-mates are subjected to as they are assigned to increasingly dangerous missions. Moreover, through Perry Myers starts the reader on a journey to identify the meaning behind the war or rather the lack of meaning, which is a pivotal theme behind the 1960's and 1970's. Review: I first read this book while I was in middle school, at the time I had never read any of Myers’ fiction, nor had I read any fiction about Vietnam. Upon revisiting the novel for this project I found myself just as entranced with the simple narration and evocative detail of Myers prose as I was when I first read it. The honesty and clarity of Perry’s narration and thoughts makes him an extremely sympathetic and insightful narrator capable of provoking reflection amongst even the most uninterested reader.The material may be disturbing to some young readers, however the narrative and character should appeal to both the young and adult reader. Moreover, the book makes an excellent addition to social studies curriculum and boy-oriented book clubs.

[gwen6ashworth · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers is a historical fiction novel set in Vietnam. It is told from first person point of view by the character Richie Perry, a seventeen year old just out of high school. Perry is from New York City, and he is smart but couldn’t afford college. We view the story from Perry’s eyes as he tries to figure out what he is doing in the middle of a war. Perry is an intellectual and tries to maintain his moral perspective throughout the novel, but understands the difficulty in recognizing the enemy. Perry is a likable and dynamic character, but it is his friend Peewee who steals the story. Myers use of humor through the character of Peewee makes this harsh story easier to read. In the beginning of the novel, the characters are naïve and excited about the prospect of war until they are actually faced with the horrors of it. The novel is about friendship and coming of age during the Vietnam War. It deals with a harsh reality---war. The book gets its title from a prayer that Lieutenant Carroll prays after the death of any of his men. “Lord, let us feel pity for our comrade, and sorrow for ourselves, and all the angel warriors that fall. Let us fear death, but let it not live within us. Protect us, O Lord and be merciful unto us. Amen”

[cacv78 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was amazing. Walter Dean Myers made me understand how difficult it really is to understand the experiences that soldiers face as they are in combat. Richie was just a boy in an unexplainable war and his deep and troubled feelings are made so real by Myers.

[mtkeba · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a young adult book, but I would not use it or recommend it until high school because of language and violence. I did enjoy it though and with the right reader it would be a good share.

[ffox_16 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'm always weary of war novels for kids. The idea of war is often oversimplified and unrealistically fantasized. Myers does a nice job with this story of the Vietnam War; I think most readers will get it's clear war=bad message. A few may require a bit of discussion to fully realize what is said.

[rpultusk · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the first-person narrative of a young recruit, Richard Perry, who joins the Army upon his high school graduation and goes to Vietnam to fight. The author served in the armed force, lending credibility to Perry's voice as he expresses confusion, anger, and most profoundly, fear.

Some of Perry's stories are terrifyingly violent and may upset younger or more sensitive readers. The n-word is used occasionally, which may also upset readers.

The novel is as apolitical as a war novel could possibly be, but works to capture the humanness of the soldiers and their experiences (which is often lost in news reports about the armed forces).

Cultural markers include Army vocabulary and idioms, all of which are contextually obvious to a reader without an Army background. The setting of the novel is various bases, battlefields, and villages in Vietnam during the war. There are very few main characters but numerous peripheral characters and it was often difficult to tell them apart/remember their identifying characteristics. The plot has many highs and lows, leaving this reader constantly hopeful and fearful for the narrator and his best friend.

Highly recommended for a high school library

[hooray_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the first Walter Dean Myers book I have read although I have been aware of him as a YA author, especially in the realm of "books boys would like" and "award winning authors". I was blown away by the reality of a willing but not eager soldier in a war that came down to "kill or be killed". I appreciate Myers voice as a person first, rather than a "black man", which will always narrow the audience for a novel. The story is realistic, the portrayals of the friendships and interactions between the men touching and frank, and the language and combat scenes descriptive but not overly graphic.

[rampeygirl · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Myers does a sensational job describing the intensity of emotions that occur in America and in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. He takes the time to let the reader become involved with the characters and be a part of the story, and share in victories and their losses. Bravo to Myers for doing the extensive amount of research in creating this story and bringing the characters to life. However, readers should beware that this book is graphic in language and setting. Parents should read this book first, before they let there 13 year old read it, with the UNDERSTANDING of why Myers wrote this story and what he is conveying to the reader about this particular time period in history.

[kpickett_11 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Perry joins the army to help his family back in Harlem. He doesn't know what to expect when he is shipped to Vietnam. He quickly forms bonds with the other guys in his platoon as they experience some truly horrific things. A very good book but not an easy sell to anyone.

[mblaze_6 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Richard Perry is a 17 year old boy from Harlem, who decided to join the army and fight in the Vietnam War. This book details his perspective of the war and his struggle to keep his mind and body alive. Walter Dean Myers does an excellent job of making the reader feel as though they are enduring the war with Perry. Each page is full of suspense and many ethical questions about war are raised. "Fallen Angels" would be very useful for a high school history class, because it would allow students to feel what it was like to be a young soldier in the time the war, and also it would allow students to debate the ethics of war.

[evilgir · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I read this book in my 8th grade Honors English class and I thought it was a fair historical fiction. I have read better. Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry for instance. But that one is about racism etc this one is about the Vietnam War. The feelings that's shown in this book seems somewhat illogical. Fair litterature

[mattsya · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Walter Dean Myers's Vietnam War story is as raw and believable as any novel about the war. The story is told with no cliches and with incredible characters. Pee-wee, in particular, is one of the funniest, most sympathetic characters I've read in young adult fiction. Myers uses a simple and clean writing style that makes this book suitable for even the most reluctant readers. This would be one of my first recommendations for a reluctant boy reader with an interest in the military.