Some months later, Fort Bragg, 1968.
The radio was hanging from the mess ceiling and its volume was excessively loud. Men were running in front of the radio from all over the base, in order to listen to the news
The faces were tense.
Rambo was in the courtyard when he saw the first guys starting to run toward the mess room.
Understanding that something was wrong, he followed them.
Under the radio everyone was still and listening.
The Vietcong – the so called 'partisans' of the Vietcong – had just attacked the imperial city of Hu-He, the former capital of the old Vietnamese empire, a city that was one of the most important symbols of South Vietnam.
They had then attacked Nha Thrang, Ban Me Thuot, Kom Tum, Hoi Ha, Pleiku and even Saigon itself. A steady stream of coordinated attacks and realized with a force of men larger than anyone ever thought the Vietcong could have at their disposal.
The US embassy in Saigon was under siege and the images of the civilian employees of the US government crying for help from the windows of the building horrified the whole world.
All of the most important South Vietnamese cities were under siege.
The first rumours coming from Saigon talked about a first sapper, kamikaze-like attack against the US embassy, which was now under siege.
Rambo looked around the mess, but Trautman was gone.
He then continued listening, but staying focused was difficult.
It sounded like the end of the world.
No one had ever thought that the Vietcong could get so far for real.
Never ever: what was happening was well beyond any of Trautman's worst expectations, and Trautman was no optimist for sure.
That was a head-on fight, a proper all-out-war attack, but the colonel had always said that the Vietcong would never go so far because such an attack could be no good at all for the Vietcong.
Their real strength lies in guerrilla warfare – Trautman used to repeat again and again.
What the hell was happening then?
Could Trautman be wrong?
And if he was wrong about that, what else, then?
A deep sense of anxiety overcame him, as if he had just made a mistake himself.
Rambo then looked around, but saw other frightened faces just like his own.
It felt like being inside a science fiction movie.
The imperial citadel and the university district had already fallen at the hands of the Vietcong, and it seemed that a blue and red North Vietnamese flag was already waving over the top of one of the ancient buildings.
The US embassy was under siege and there was no information about the ambassador himself, and no one knew if was alive or dead.
This was changing everything.
From now on, the Vietcong would never have any limit.
They made it then... They could now face the Americans at the same level.
That was becoming a clash of armies, an all-out war... And all of that despite the fact that Trautman had always said that something like that would never have happened.
One at a time all of Rambo's team mates came into the mess room, and he read the worry on their faces too, just like all of the others.
At this point, their being sent to Vietnam was a cert.
And this time it was going to be far more difficult than the first time, during his first tour of duty.
Rambo then looked at his hand, and wondered where Morris was, his officer that lost one hand in '66, during the hill defence.
He asked himself if where Morris was, he was listening to that news too.
Rambo asked himself what someone like him, who knew the 'moves', might be thinking.
He then asked himself if Trautman really knew the moves as well as he was always saying.
And he hoped that Trautman knew his job for real, because that evening, after the Tet offensive, he wasn't so sure about it anymore.