Programming Note: The fate of PWOG for season 4 is, at last account, up in the air. It seems certain that Barbara Niven's Kate character will not be returning, and it seems also that PWOG may not be returning ... however, rumors have surfaced that PWOG, while it will not be syndicated for season 4, may be picked up by a US cable network (TNT has been mentioned). More will be reported as it is known.
This Guide is for the television show "Pensacola: Wings of Gold".
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In a frame? Break Out!
Written By: Steve Mount
Source: Episode Viewing (see also: the Pensacola: Wings of Gold Website).
Episode order shown is aired order.
Season 1 - Season 2 - Season 3
Key terms and characters
Season 2 saw a lot of "nuggets" and IP's (students and teachers). Here is a list of some of them
Yesterday, Upon the Stair... (Part 1)
Dan Ballinger, the commander of an elite special operations group, is
injured in a training accident. Colonel Hodges calls Lt Colonel Kelly to be
Ballinger's replacement. Reluctantly, Kelly agrees. The unit consists of an
F-18 fighter and pilot, a Huey chopper and pilot, and an FAV (Fast-Attack
Vehicle), driver, and gunner. A DEA witness extraction operation goes wrong
in Columbia, and the team is called in to rescue the DEA team and their
aircraft. The unit is shocked, though, by Ballinger's death on the operating
table. Kelly and the FAV team find the downed aircraft - it is flyable, but
its pilot is injured. After destroying the FAV, the unit extracts itself and
the DEA team in the aircraft. Kelly contacts his daughter to try to patch
things up between them; Griffin is unaware that the waitress he is courting is
Kelly's daughter, Janine.
Yesterday, Upon the Stair... (Part 2)
Griffin twists his ankle playing volleyball, and when the squad visit him
in the hospital, they see Ramon Toledo, the man they helped extract from
Columbia - he will be giving up his cartel in exchange for a kidney transplant
and witness protection. The donor is the Columbian's brother, Miguel, who
lives in the US. Toledo gives up information about a couple of DEA agents
being held by another cartel, and the Sea Dragons are sent to rescue them -
they get the agents, but have to fight their way out of an ambush - Toledo is
not being so cooperative after all. He briefly holds Dr. West hostage, then
has Miguel's family kidnapped and demands his brother help him escape in
exchange for their safety. The Dragons locate Miguel's family and rescue
them, and eliminate Ramon Toledo with the help of a fighter-launched missile.
Kelly finds out where Janine is working, and Griffin finds out whose daughter
she is.
Freebird
An old flying buddy of Kelly's, Surfer, breaks formation and disappears
from radar. The Sea Dragons are sent out to find Surfer while Kelly tries to
figure out why his old buddy has gone AWOL. Unknown to Surfer, his plane
carried an experimental portable stealth unit, and the military wants it back.
Kelly finds militia materials in Surfer's locker. He learns that Surfer was
undergoing cancer treatment; his wife did not know. The Sea Dragons find
Surfer's wrecked aircraft - near militia territory. The Dragons find the
stealth unit, and go searching for Surfer. The militia also find the fighter,
steal the stealth unit, and install it in their Cobra. They then go after the
Dragons. Surfer's wife Sheila talks to him over an emergency radio and
convinces him to come home. He was not joining up with the militia, just
using their book as a manual to drop out of society before the Marines took
him out of the sky because of his cancer. Kelly asks him to destroy the
stealth unit via a remote control on his ejection seat; he does, and the
Dragons are able to subdue the militia. Janine asks Kelly if she can move
back into the house with him.
It's the Real Thing, Baby
The Cobras, a Navy strike team, are scheduled to run a security check
against a nuclear installation, and the Sea Dragons are sent in to run a
security check against the Cobras. Using MILES gear and rifles with lasers
instead of bullets, the Dragons engage the "enemy". But when the Cobras shoot
back with real ammo, something clearly is not right - the Cobras have been
infiltrated by an outside organization. They intend to use the installation's
computer to hack into the DOD system and grab the specs for systems for US
nuclear submarines. The Dragons are able to stop the team, and rescue their
hostages. Lindstrom starts to see someone, and is scared to tell him she's a
Marine. When he finds out, he bolts, to her chagrin.
Fallout
A load of weapons grade plutonium is stolen from a clandestine transport,
and a tracking device shows that it is now in the embassy of Dahrooma, a new,
small African nation, intent on joining the family of nations near the top of
the heap. The Dragons are sent a Gulf War veteran, Captain Reeder, a woman
who made a strategy called Black Hole work in Iraq. But she is haunted by
ghosts of the past, a soldier who died under her command. During the mission
to retrieve the plutonium, Reeder tries to abort the mission when she sees the
soldier several times. Griffin relieves her of command and takes over the
mission. But Odeku, the Dahrooman ambassador, gets away with the plutonium.
Reeder comes up with a plan to track Odeku, and they are able to intercept him
before the plutonium leaves the country. Janine and Griffin are almost caught
making out by Kelly in his house. Kelly tells Janine that Griffin is not to
be in the house, and she tells him that she doesn't like him anyway. Kelly
asks Valerie to talk to Janine, but Janine is not up for talking. Janine and
Griffin finally meet up in his room at the BOQ.
Birds of Prey
Kelly, McCray, and Griffin meet up with a civilian contractor to discuss a
new terrain following radar. Griffin is quite taken by the contractor's
representative, a beautiful redhead. Kelly tells Griffin that if he's going
to go out with Janine, she needs to know she can count on him. After Kelly
tells Conaway that he needs to work on his attitude toward Lindstrom, he and
Lindstrom go on a Huey ferry mission. The technicians they take along with
them hijack the chopper. In a struggle, Conaway is lost at sea, and the
copilot is shot. Lindstrom puts down so the hijackers can work on their
broken radio, and Lindstrom can attend to the wounded copilot. Conaway makes
his way ashore, and sees a smoke grenade Lindstrom is able to set off; he
makes his way to the chopper. Meanwhile, a cut-off SOS is traced and the rest
of the Sea Dragons go to rescue their colleagues. Conaway is able to distract
the hijackers, now joined by the smugglers they are working for. The squad
puts them down and recover the missile guidance chips that they were
transporting. McCray gets to see his son Christopher, after expecting that he
would be missing yet another birthday.
Road Warriors
The Sea Dragons are put in charge of transporting Terenko and Zulenova,
two sides in the Cheserny civil war, to a negotiation at Camp Meridian.
Lindstrom and Conaway take decoys, McCray and Griffin take the real deal. The
decoy truck is attacked by a heavily armed drone vehicle, confirming that some
one is trying to disrupt the talks by killing the participants. The truck
carrying Terenko and Zulenova is rigged with a bomb, and it blows up, nearly
taking McCray with it. The four set out on foot, but soon realize that they
are being tracked. They find a device hidden in a binder given Terenko by the
US envoy. The envoy says that it was his responsibility to keep track of
their whereabouts. Lindstrom and Conaway set out to find the group.
Meanwhile, the assassins track them down again, but they are disabled. At the
Camp, Terenko finds his pen has been bugged; the pen was given to him by his
sister, who admits that she planted the bug. The peace talks appear to go
well afterwards. Lindstrom and Conaway start eyeing each other romantically,
in spite of themselves.
Grey Ghost
The Dragons are called in to find a rogue lab working on Grey Ghost, a
biological weapon once developed by the military. The lab's owner, Corbin, is
developing an antidote, so that he can sell Grey Ghost as a weapon to the
Sudanese. The lab is empty, though - they track a truck carrying the lab's
contents to Texas, and when sheep turn up dead, they track down Corbin and a
new scientist experimenting with new antidotes. In pursuit, McCray is hit
with a dart filled with the virus. Griffin flies him back to Pensacola while
Lindstrom and Conaway track down the new lab. Koenig, the team's biological
specialist, is taken hostage and forced to come up with an antidote or be
killed. When the team rushes the lab, they find Koenig dying - he found the
antidote, and Corbin gave him the virus. Before he dies, Koenig tells them
where Corbin is headed. They catch up to him, but Corbin is killed by his
buyer. The team is able to procure the antidote from the buyer and rushes it
to Wendell's side. Cured, McCray gets to spend some with Christopher. Janine
makes Griffin more than a bit jealous when she introduces him to Zack, whom
Griffin presumes is an old boyfriend.
Past Sins
The trailer of George Novak, an old friend of Kelly's, is fire bombed,
badly burning the man inside. On the scene, Kelly recognizes the smell of
napalm. Kelly speaks with some old Marine buddies whom he served with in
Vietnam. Their unit was involved in the destruction of a Vietnamese village.
One of them, Joe Damian, was blamed for the mistake, though he claimed to be a
scapegoat for the unit. Damian tells Kelly that he'd been contacted by some
young Vietnamese nationals inquiring about the village. Kelly sends Lindstrom
and Conaway to speak to the Vietnamese, but they conclude that they are only
after monetary damages, and not revenge. Another of Kelly's old buddies is
killed in a car bomb, and Kelly is confined to base when he is threatened.
Kelly assigns Griffin to watch Janine, but she sneaks off, determined to go to
a concert. She is driving Kelly's truck, which has been wired to explode.
The Sea Dragons stop her and get her out just before the bomb blows.
Surveillance photos of a man stealing napalm from a munitions dump points to
Damian. Kelly and the Dragons pick him up as he heads for a deposition in the
Vietnamese lawsuit, wired to the gills with explosives.
Bogey Man
The Sea Dragons are sent overseas to Korea to aid in the patrol of the DMZ
after an American fighter plane is shot down by North Korea. Griffin and
Kelly take to the air to aid in border patrols while the rest of the team make
an amphibious landing to pick up information from a North Korean official -
but he waves them off for two days. In the meantime, McCray meets a Korean
translator and has serious thoughts about leaving the team to stay in Korea
with her and her son. She, however, is not ready to ask Wendell to make such
a sacrifice, and pushes him away. Kelly is asked by an old Navy seaman to
help him find his daughter - she is working in a Korean club; the owners are
using her an as escort. When Kelly and the Dragons arrive at the club, they
don't find the daughter - they suspect someone's tipped them off. Griffin
discovers that the Australian pilot Fingers is doing business with the club.
The Dragons assault a warehouse the club owns, and find the daughter in a
cell; they release her. Fingers is taken under arrest. The information that
the Dragons are to collect is the person of the North Korean official himself,
and it goes without a hitch.
Acceptable Casualties
Former Sea Dragon Addison Reiger, who left the team after Dan Ballinger's
death, and left the service soon after that, is being investigated by Jackie
Monroe, a Tennessee sheriff, about the deaths of four people. Monroe
interviews the members of the team about Reiger. Worried, they all take leave
for a few days. In Tennessee, they go to Lamb's Canyon to find Reiger; when
they do, he outruns them and the team retreats when they're fired upon.
Lindstrom does some poking into the recent crimes, and finds that materials
that could be used in a truck bomb have been stolen. Griffin gets info from
Kelly that Reiger's father was a tunnel rat, and McCray and Conaway find a
tunnel - and find the senior and junior Reigers at the end of it. They plan
on blowing a dam that is scheduled to flood their land. Griffin and Lindstrom
figure it out, too, and are able to foil the plan by repelling down the dam
and attacking the Reigers. Kelly learns that Janine plans on getting a tatoo,
and tries to talk her out of it; until he learns that it is to be a rose, to
commemorate the sixth anniversary of his wife Diane's death.
Company Town
The Sea Dragons are sent to Boulder Springs, Utah, to find out who or what
caused the loss of control of a VR-guided anti-ballistic missile. Boulder
Springs is a "company town" for computer technology in the same way the
Manhattan Project was for the nuclear bomb, and security is tight - the
Dragons go in under cover as EPA researchers. McCray tracks the source of the
break-in to the computers of the project's chief scientist. His young
daughter, Jesse, admits that she had been hacking in; another break-in occurs,
but Jesse says it is not her. Jesse figures out that Donna, someone she'd
been helping out on computers, used her to get the main system passwords.
They are now using the passwords to access the system and steal encryption and
other computer technologies. Jesse goes to confront Donna, but Donna takes
her prisoner. The team is able to retrieve Jesse, but Donna tells them that a
missile has been launched at a remote, but populated, island off the Pacific
coast. Jesse is able to quickly hack into the system and Griffin guides a
chaser missile up the ICBM's exhaust pipe. Lindstrom convinces Conaway to call
his family to try to patch a rift that has existed ever since he joined the
Marines instead of the Army. Janine and Bobby reaffirm that they are going
steady.
Trials and Tribulations
The Sea Dragons are backup to some Green Berets during a hostage rescue
mission in the Xang Kai province. Lindstrom is accused of killing Jack
Zabroiski in a friendly fire incident. Zabroiski says that she shot him just
before he died. Lindstrom is forced to surrender her sword and appear before
an inquiry. During the hearing, McCray and Conaway testify to the nature of
the mission and the heavy fire they came under. Most of the rebels in the
village were killed. Things look grim for Annalisa, until the rest of the
team does some digging into why Zabroiski was there in the first place. The
leader of the mission, Lt. Col. Seever, was on another mission 11 years
earlier, when he says five of his team were lost, though other accounts say
only two were killed. When intel told US forces that three Americans were
being held, the rescue mission was sent in. Kelly and McCray find a woman
from that village, now living in the US. She says that her mother was killed
by Seever, and the that he abandoned the others when the village militia
attacked them. Seever denies it, but Kelly catches a heat-of-the-moment
confession for the court - he shot Zabroiski to avoid career repercussions.
Conaway confronts Griffin for not being at the hearing to support Lindstrom
even though he was not called to testify, saying he is afraid to get too
close. Bobby talks this out with a woman he met on the beach, and eventually
goes to be at Lindstrom's side. Bobby later finds out the woman is Lt.
Commander Keaton of the Navy.
Soldiers of Misfortune
In the Caribbean state of Santiano, the President, the US Ambassador, and
the rest of the guests at a birthday party are taken hostage. The leader of
the force, Lacombe, is one of President Simone's guards, and wants the $30
million in bearer bonds that is kept in the presidential estate. But there is
no money, foiling their plans. In Florida, the Sea Dragons are called upon to
help rescue the hostages - one of them is Ashley MacCready, daughter of a
billionaire friend to the President of the US. Her identity is initially
unknown to the mutineers, but when they learn of it, they demand money from
her father. As the Sea Dragons descend upon the compound, MacCready also
sends in a mercenary team, which is quickly dispatched. McCray goes in under
cover, and helps direct the rest of the team into the compound - they take the
mutineers and rescue all of the Americans and help the other guests escape.
Lacombe admits that the $30 million never existed; what there was, he
spent.
Power Play
Griffin is chosen to test the Milex system, a new system for missile
launchers, and a pet project of Col. Hodges. The company test pilot,
Allenson, had some trouble with the system and tells Griffin to be careful.
Though Griffin tests the system successfully, he is curious about Allenson. He
goes to visit him, but finds him dead, the victim of a hit and run. Checking
his computer, the Sea Dragons find that Allenson had been investigating some
of the circuit boards in the Milex. Kelly finds out that the boards being
used in the system are counterfeit, but not until after Griffin has taken off
for a second set of tests. The Milex malfunctions, but the team is able to
find a work around, and Griffin returns safely to the ground. Belfontaine,
the man responsible for using the bogus parts, is taken into custody. Janine
is uncomfortable seeing Kelly with Valerie West; though her parents had
divorced before her death, Janine wonders why Kelly did not treat her this way
when they were married.
Game, Set and Match
AJ helps Rita Garcia thwart a purse snatching. She asks him out to dinner
to thank him. AJ goes to the bank to get money to buy flowers and finds he has
an unexpected $30,000 in his accounts. He asks the bank to trace the
deposits. He also finds that his paychecks are being sent to a drop in
Guatemala, where he'd spent some time on assignment recently. He takes Rita
out to dinner, but cannot seem to contact her after that. Naval
Investigations asks Kelly to turn over AJ's files; he is suspected of
espionage. A man in following AJ, seen at the bank and the Tailwind. AJ is
unable to catch up to him. The investigation turns up AJ's extra money, his
dinner in a restaurant that is a front for Cuban sympathizers, and a package
from the Cuban Interests group in Washington. He insists he is being framed.
Lindstrom and McCray track down Rita, but she denies ever having met AJ.
Suspicion falls on Gus Reynolds, a civilian working for intel. Kelly and AJ
track him and find him meeting with Rita. They both flee and Kelly and AJ try
to follow them - they are stopped by the FBI, who is watching Gus; they know
AJ is innocent, and would have come forward eventually. The Dragons help the
FBI track down Gus and Rita, and they catch them before the meet with their
contact. Griffin is offered a job training in Yuma, a job a superior officer
wants. Griffin gives it up to help out AJ with the FBI team-up.
Lost Shipment
The INS asks to have the Sea Dragons to help them find Javier Nunez,
trying to get into the US to buy weapons. Nunez is being assisted by an
American. The Dragons find Nunez and his accomplice in a van on the way to
Miami. Nunez escapes, but the man is captured. He reveals that he is Griffin's
father. He is hospitalized and is interrogated by Bobby about Nunez. Nunez,
meanwhile, makes contact with a Russian arms merchant. The Dragons catch up to
him, but he is able to escape with his guns. Griffin tells Kelly that he is
completely disoriented by his father's appearance. The elder Griffin tells
Bobby that he was in prison while he was a child. They find Nunez's hideout
and learn he is planning to help Griffin escape to help transport the guns.
They arrive too late to stop him, but Griffin left behind a clue where to find
them. Nunez shoots Griffin as the Dragons arrive, but he survives. The
Griffins share a moment before Bobby's father is taken to by US
Marshalls.
We Are Not Alone
A young boy, Casey, finds a weapon in some wreckage he saw fall from the
sky. It fell from an Air Force transport; they ask the Dragons to find the
cargo. They find the wreckage with the gun missing. Casey uses the gun as a
toy and kills a bird with a beam of some kind. He melts some soup cans which
Griffin and McCray find - they ask Casey if he'd seen anything but he says he
has not. A mysterious black helicopter appears out of nowhere and shoots down
Lindstrom's chopper. Kelly demands to speak with the Air Force general in
charge, to tell them exactly what they are dealing with, and learns it is an
acoustic weapon. The men in black track down Casey. Kelly learns that they are
muscle for the manufacturer, trying to get its prototype back; the government
did not buy the design, since it was too dangerous to the user, but other
governments might be willing to buy. Griffin is able to knock down the
attackers as they chase Casey down, and Casey shoots them with his gun, which
the Dragons take into custody. Griffin tries to help Janine find an apartment.
Annalisa moves in as her new roommate.
Stranger, Lover, Friend
Griffin's fighter collides with a bird at low altitude and he has to land
gear up. In the hospital, he can't hold a glass steady, but he tells Dr. West
he's fine. He promises to schedule an MRI. He forgets a date with Janine and
wonders what else he is forgetting. The Dragons host Captain Steiner, a German
fighter pilot, observing the team in action. He suggests their current
exercise is a rehearsal. Valerie thanks Kelly for giving Griffin time off for
the MRI - Kelly says he never asked. Griffin goes off the deep end. He later
reports to Kelly that he is unfit for duty. As Bobby is laid up, Steiner takes
his place on the team. Steiner excels, but pushes himself beyond. As a German,
more is expected of him. Over the Gulf, unfamiliar terrain, he goes down and
is lost. Bobby's MRI comes back clean and he is treated with drugs. The team
is called into action - some Guatemalan rebels are making trouble for some
American archaeologists. The Dragons make short work of the rebels. Janine and
Valerie talk about the Doctor's relationship with Kelly - Valerie is not
exactly sure where she stands. Janine breaks it off with Bobby before the
mission - she can't handle a father and a boyfriend risking their lives every
day.
Great Expectations
The Dragons are in San Diego for some seminars and a convention. While
there, Conaway recognizes an old instructor of his - but Max Eagan does not
recognize AJ. He has revenge on his mind; revenge on Alexander Comstock, a
civilian expert whose military advice helped cause the deaths of some of his
men years ago. The Dragons witness the demonstration of the Spectl, a new
tactical laser. Eagan's hired goons kill the Spectl's security and steal the
laser. Suspicious of the security guards, Conaway and Lindstrom follow and see
Eagan and his goons hijack a truck. The local police ask the Dragons to help
with the case. Griffin finds Eagan's wife who says she can tell "who he
blames." Comstock is airborne for an exercise and Eagan sets up his laser to
shoot him down. Eagan has second thoughts but his cohorts don't; with a proper
demonstration of the Spectl's abilities, it will sell well on the black market.
Eagan is shot while trying to stop them from destroying a civilian
airliner.
Broken Wings
The Sea Dragons go to the Persian Gulf for training and evaluation. While
there, Kelly and Griffin are offered the opportunity to patrol the Iraqi
theater. Airborne, they are shot down by a newly belligerent Iraq. On the
ground, Bobby is fine, but Kelly's foot is broken. They start the journey to
the Kuwaiti border. The rest of the Dragons cool their heels, denied access
to a chopper to help in any rescue. Home, Janine and Valerie await word that
they are alive or dead. While they travel, Kelly and Griffin talk about their
relationship - is it a father/son thing? Kelly and Bobby signal for help once
night falls, but their first rescue attempt is waved off, to prevent an ambush.
While evading the Iraqis, Bobby gets a snakebite, lending new urgency to a
rescue. The Dragons are able to fly in when the primary chopper has engine
trouble. They pick up the downed airmen while the Marines fight off an Iraqi
patrol. Back aboard the Tarawa, Janine calls to make sure everyone is
OK.
Not In My Back Yard
Airport inspectors find vials of VX gas in the possession of Seaton Palmer.
The Sea Dragons are called on to transport the gas to a secure facility. Kelly
looks into Palmer's back ground - he is an Irish terrorist. Only six of seven
vials make it to the facility, though it was under the constant watch of
Conaway, Lindstrom, and Griffin. McCray is back at the base, investigating
Palmer's past. One of Palmer's allies, Allyn Fain, sends a message that if
Palmer is not released, he will release the deadly gas in Pensacola. The
Dragons are able to flush Fain out of hiding, and learn he has planted a bomb
near a day-care center. They locate the bomb, but are unable to defuse it in
time. Kelly loads the bomb onto a parachute and has Lindstrom take it up high
in the sky - Griffin uses an air-to-air missile to destroy it, the VX gas
being rendered harmless by the heat of the blast. Lindstrom and Conaway
decide to give a relationship another chance. Griffin learns he is up for a
nice instructors job. McCray learns that son may be moving in with him.
Kelly learns that budget cuts are going to mean the loss of one of his
soldiers. Though the VX gas mission is a success based on the whole team
working as a team, the cuts go through. Kelly looks through the team's files
to decide who has to go.
Nuggets
"Badger" Wilson, CO of the 107th Training Squadron, goes down during a routine
refresher flight, and the search for a new CO for the squad is on. Col. Kelly
is tapped for the position. He is steamed that the Sea Dragons were broken up
due to budget cuts, and though his initial reaction to working with new pilots
is not a favorable one, he decides to accept the position. At the same time,
however, he is being recruited by weapons firm to be an Executive Director, in
the private sector, an offer he takes seriously. Major MacArthur Lewis
(Hammer), the XO of the 107, tells his new pilots that they are members of the
Sharpshooters, class of 9-98. The pilots include Alexandra Jenson (Ice), Tucker
Henry (Spoon), Butch Barnes (Burner), and Alison Willis (Breaker). Breaker
almost immediately reports to Kelly that she is concerned that Hammer has it out
for she and Ice. Kelly tells her he'll keep an eye out. Ice tells Breaker that
she wants nothing to do with it. Spoon and Burner go house-hunting and find the
perfect place - but Ice would be their roommate. Though they have apprehensions
about rooming with a woman, the prime beach-side location wins them over.
Hammer tells Kelly that he thinks Ice will do fine, but that Spoon is good at
the books but not on the simulator and Burner is great in the sim, but no good
in book work. He also complains about Breaker going over his head to talk to
Kelly. Kelly looks into Burner's background after he burns out on some sim
flights; he tells Burner he has a chip on his shoulder because he grew up in
foster homes and youth work camps. Burner asks Kelly to help him get through
the training and focus better on his book work. Kelly agrees to try. Kelly
also turns down the private sector job.
Burn Out
The nuggets are ready to try their first flight in their Hornets, but
Burner is scratched by Hammer; Burner dumped a can of trash in the car of
Benson Phelps, son of a local politician. Hammer agrees to let Burner fly,
but he has to go through all of the training again. Kelly confronts Hammer
about how he is treating Burner - Hammer agrees to give him a chance if Kelly
will fly with him. But in the end, Burner asks Hammer to fly with him, so he
can show Hammer he can do the job. Spoon's father and new girlfriend (Teri,
who is younger than Spoon) come for a visit - his father says he intends to
marry her, but she seems to have her eye on Spoon. Meanwhile, Spoon's
father pushes him to quit the Marines and come work for him. Ice takes her
Hornet up and has a perfect flight, but blows the canopy on landing, earning
her an unsatisfactory from Kelly, and one of three possible strikes. She
redoubles her efforts in studying - Breaker confronts her, asking if a man
would have gotten a strike for her mistake. Ice tells Breaker she wants no
part of her crusade. The instructors give Ice a new nickname - Pop
Top.
Solo Flight
In her first solo flight, Ice does fine, until it is time to land. One of
her engines catches fire - but Kelly is able to talk her down to the tarmac.
Kelly has a few words with Cpl. Ed Williams, who prepped Ice's plane.
Williams feels responsible for Ice's near-accident, but Kelly advises him to
take the rest of the day off. Williams heads for The Bucket to play some
pool, but when he loses, he throws a few chairs and is arrested. Kelly goes
to talk to Williams' wife, who says it has been Ed's dream to become an
officer and fly Hornets. He goes to bail him out of jail, and tells him he
should pursue his dream. Burner is hurt jet skiing, and Kate has her
masseuse, Dorta, help with his sore muscles. After a painful session, Burner
is ready to fly, and turns in an impressive performance. Ice is wary after her
flight; Kate talks to her and tells her to take it easy, have fun. Spoon's
father invites him to lunch with Teri and he, but when he can't make it, Teri
and Spoon take a romantic walk on the beach together. (Thanks to Viper for
the details on this episode.)
S.O.D.
Breaker has trouble flying too low in the simulated carrier deck landing,
and Paddles gives her an unsatisfactory, but not a SOD (Signal of Difficulty).
Hammer tells Paddles not to be afraid to give her an SOD if she deserves one.
A reporter wants to do a story on Ice and Breaker, but Ice says no; under
pressure from Ice, Breaker declines, too. Burner calls Breaker a bad pilot to
her face, expressing out loud what a lot of the other nuggets are thinking.
Kelly flies with Breaker and works with her to figure out why she's flying too
low. Burner meets Dana Mason, and spends a lot of time with her - but learns
she is the reporter doing the story on Ice and Breaker. He feels betrayed
when she quotes him in her story -- a story which creates a lot of fallout in
the squad. Meanwhile, Spoon and Teri discuss what happened between them, but
instead of deciding to leave each other alone, they find themselves in each
other's arms again. Distracted, Spoon lands on the wrong runway and get
himself a SOD. Spoon's father is finishing up his business, and Teri must
decide whether to tell him about her and Spoon. She decides to stay with
Spoon's father.
Stand Down
Breaker continues to be razzed about the newspaper story, and Burner is
itching to tell everyone he also talked to Mason... but he holds off. While
Breaker gets ready to fly, Ice notices she has a cold, but Breaker tells Ice
she's fine, not taking any medication that would affect her flying. While in
flight, Breaker has hydraulic trouble, and has to shut down an engine. As she
lands, she loses control - she ejects, but too low for her chute to open, and
she dies. Kelly orders a stand-down while the investigation proceeds. He
visits Mr. Willis, Breaker's father, to offer his condolences. Dana Mason also
visits Mr. Willis, and at the funeral, Willis is hostile toward Kelly. He feels
that the Marines gave her a raw deal, rode her too hard. Burner and Ice work
through their own demons; Burner about the story, Ice that she had not
supported Breaker enough. The investigation shows that the problem was
mechanical; there was nothing Breaker could have done. Mr. Willis reads a
letter Breaker wrote to him, telling him that she felt she had reached a
turning point, that she was ready to try to take the chip off her shoulder and
blame no one but herself for her failures, and go on to be a great
pilot.
Raid on Osirak
Kelly's niece, Prudence, arrives in Pensacola to visit, but Kelly is
called away on a mission. Spoon and Burner, in trouble for running into the
mayor's car while dirt bike racing, are assigned to escort her. The college
genetics student just wants to have a good time, but being who she is, Spoon
and Burner endeavor to keep her out of trouble. Though they initially think
her "psycho", she explains that she is always trying to live out of the shadow
of her older sister. Kelly, meanwhile, is called to bomb the nuclear reactor
in Osirak, Iraq. It is about to go online and can produce weapons-grade
plutonium. Hammer is also selected to go on the mission - because of his
experience in air-to-ground combat, Hammer is made the leader of the mission.
He tries to get Kelly to quit the mission, afraid of losing him as he did
Badger; but Kelly insists, and they practice the run until they get it right.
Once over Iraq, Hammer's plane is hit, but only damaged - Kelly's bombs
destroy the target and the two go home safe.
Boom
Burner, Spoon, and Ice are practicing mid-air refueling. As Burner returns
to base, he buzzes the beach to impress some girls, and produces a sonic boom.
This sets off a chain of events, from broken windows to a lost champion cat,
and Kelly comes down hard on him, grounding him and scheduling an
administrative hearing where his wings could be taken away. Burner insists he
was not supersonic, and Kelly takes his plane up with a wingman, and when the
wingman's machmeter reads supersonic, Kelly's plane is still subsonic.
Technical problems notwithstanding, Burner still has to face the board. His
seemingly sincere apology and willingness to accept the decision of the Board
leads to a SOD and his restoration to training. Kate is in danger of losing
the Bucket's liquor license after a minor is found to have been served. Kate
realizes she is the victim of a push to "clean up the beach" and the desires of
Jules Clegg, a councilman who wants to buy up a whole tract of beach front
property. Kelly, who helped Kate set up the bar after Max, her fighter pilot
husband died in the 1980's, speaks on her behalf, along with a couple dozen
other Marines. The Council reinstates her license, foiling Clegg... for
now.
The Red Baron
German pilot Major Dieter Rittman, Mongoose, joins with the Sharpshooters
in an exchange program. He borrows Spoon's car, and Spoon freaks when Dieter
brings the speed up to 90 mph on a narrow bridge and almost trashes the car.
Dieter has his eyes on Ice, though she tells him she does not date other
pilots in her squad. Dieter notices his hands shaking and gets a prescription
from a local doctor. Burner and Dieter fly a mission, but while having a
shaking attack, Dieter goes to low and has a near-miss with Burner, who
refuses to fly with him again. Ice finds the pills and tells him he must
ground himself, or she will tell Kelly. He tells her that when he ejected out
of a Tornado during a Paris air show, he saved hundreds of spectators, but
screwed up his back. He goes to Kelly's office, then sneaks out the back way,
going up for one last flight. Hammer goes up to coax him down, but Dieter
makes a nose-dive for the ocean, pulling himself up just in time. Spoon
thinks Kate is trying to seduce him, but it turns out all the personal
questions are to help plan his surprise birthday party.
Vertigo
A young man walks up to Hammer and informs him that he is his father.
Chris tells Hammer that his mother, Amanda, whom Hammer had a relationship with
22 years ago, recently died of cancer, and he has tracked Hammer down from some
photos and articles she kept about him. At first, Hammer is dumbstruck, but he
eventually begins to like the idea. Chris, who is an auto mechanic, details
Hammer's SUV, and then Kate's car. But Kate, Spoon, and Burner soon learn that
Chris paid to have the detailing done, and they wonder what else he is lying
about. Chris tells Hammer of his dream to open his own body shop, and Hammer
volunteers to give Chris $20,000 to buy a shop. Burner tells Hammer about
Chris, and he calls Amanda, who is still alive. He gives Chris the money
anyway, and is pleased when Chris gives the check back. Amanda told him Chris
was not his son, but that she'd used Hammer as a role model. Hammer tells
Chris that he would still like to be his friend. Spoon and Burner volunteer to
judge a beauty contest, but quickly look for a way out when the contestants
find out who they are and start pestering them to vote in their
favor.
Wild, Wild West
The Sharpshooters travel to Fallon, NV, for strike training. Kelly meets
with an old associate, Will Tangent, call sign Jackal. Jackal runs the training
base. He asks Kelly who the best nugget is; Kelly mentions several names of
promising pilots, including Spoon. Jackal makes it a point to fly with Spoon,
and during their flight, Jackal dogs Spoon hard, finally aborting his mission,
saying Spoon was targeting the wrong target. Spoon disagrees, but goes up with
Jackal again on a strafing run. Again Jackal aborts the mission, and gives
Spoon a SOD during the debriefing. Hammer arrives to take over for Kelly, who
goes to Washington for some ceremonies. Jackal tells Hammer that Spoon is
dangerous and should be grounded. Kelly gets a call from Jackal's CO that
Hammer is causing trouble at Fallon; Kelly returns to investigate. He talks to
Spoon and Hammer and reviews Spoon's tapes; he was in the right and reverses
Spoon's SOD. Gunner, the owner of a local bar that caters to the military,
fills Kelly in on Jackal - he is hoping to take over Kelly's spot, and is
trying to make Kelly look bad. Burner meets a girl, Marylyn, in Gunner's bar.
He runs into trouble with Marylyn's abusive boyfriend, Monty, and the two end
up fighting several times.
Class Strike
After two weeks at Fallon, it is time for the final exam - a class strike.
Ice is chosen as the strike leader. Practices don't go off as well as she'd
hoped; Hammer tells her that she is in charge now, she must be more of a leader,
no matter what. The failures of the others reflect on her. Kelly tells her to
have confidence in herself and her pilots; don't be afraid to lead. Spoon meets
Gunslinger, an operator of one of the range's mobile SAM simulators. She drops
him a hint that Jackal is not playing by the rules - he scouts out the SAM
locations and finds that Jackal has had them moved. When Ice learns this, she
starts to disseminate false information to all but her flight crew; one pilot
who befriends her, Flex, delivers the misinformation right into Jackal's hands.
When the time for the strike comes, and Ice deviates from her published flight
plan, Jackal's tricks go down the tubes and the Sharpshooters score the course
record. Burner continues to help Marylyn break away from Monty, even asking
Gunner to put her up in a spare room. Monty is a sore loser and picks fights
and even shoots at Burner. Though he offers to take her back to Pensacola with
him, Marylyn decides to stay behind and try to find her independence.
Blue Angel
The Blue Angels return to Pensacola, and former Angel Frank "Ripper" Ranson is
looking for fresh blood to join the team. He actively recruits Hammer,
encouraging him to apply for the Marine slot on the Navy aerobatics team. Hammer
is torn between his responsibilities with the Sharpshooters and the desire to
hold one of the most prestigious aviator positions attainable. Kelly tells
Hammer that he owes it to himself to apply, but in the end, Hammer realizes he
has a more important mission training new flyers, and he stays (to Kelly's
relief). Meanwhile, Ranson and Kate hit it off, mainly because Ranson reminds
her of her dead husband, Max; Max was also a Blue Angel. Ranson takes Kate up
in his vintage biplane, bringing her back to her days as a wing walker, and she
is almost swept up in the romance of running off with Ranson; but she decides to
stay, realizing her feelings are too wrapped up in memories.
Lost
The Sharpshooters take a group of kids on an adventure outing, and Burner
takes a liking to Ronnie Lewis ... but Ronnie later goes missing, and the
Marines start organizing search parties to find him. Before long, the local
sheriff, Lamont Gibbs, and a TV crew also arrive on scene, as well as Ronnie's
aunt, Joy Daley. Ronnie has been abducted by Wayne and Bonnie, who have been
trying to get their hands on Ronnie for some time. Wayne, dressed in fatigues,
leads Ronnie through the woods when they encounter a hiker - Bonnie shoots him.
When the sheriff and Marines find him, he says that a Marine shot him and had
"the missing kid". Bonnie calls in a ransom demand - $250,000. Ronnie is
noteworthy because several years ago, his parents both died, and the community
donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to a truest fund for Ronnie. The
ransom demand is broadcast and money starts to flow in. Kate sees Joy speak to
Sheriff Gibbs and then sees file footage of Ronnie accepting his trust fund -
Gibbs is there, standing behind Joy. Kate questions her about them. She admits
knowing Gibbs, and helping him set up the kidnapping. Ice, Burner, and Spoon
find the cabin where Ronnie is being held - Spoon is shot and limps back to
camp. Burner is captured by Bonnie and Wayne, but he is able to help Ronnie
escape. Ice takes him to safety. Gibbs goes to the cabin and Burner overpowers
them all, but Wayne escapes, finds Ronnie, and holds a gun to his head. Kelly
arrives on a chopper and convinces Wayne to give up Ronnie.
Mishap
Ice's mother Lauren arrives in Pensacola, to Ice's dismay. She meets Kelly
on the golf course. She tells Ice about the man she just met, and when Ice
learns "the man" is Kelly, she makes her mother promise not to see him again.
But she goes to lunch with him anyway, and Ice is furious. Lauren gets ready
to leave, but goes to see Kelly one more time. He takes her into the radio
room while Ice is in dog fighting (ACM) training and shows her that her
daughter is good at what she does - she's not just doing it to spite her
mother. Lauren tells Ice how proud of her she is. Spoon comes in for a landing
after his dog fighting exercise, and flies too close to a civilian plane in
restricted airspace. The plane crashes, killing the couple on board. Major
Swinton arrives to investigate the incident, and Spoon feels like he is being
put through the wringer. Burner tells Spoon he know what he is going through.
When the investigation is over, Spoon is cleared, but he wants Swinton to
apologize for what he'd been put through. Burner pulls Spoon away before he
can make matters worse. A new nugget, Swamp, arrives. He is from a previous
class, but needs more ACM practice.
Fox Two
A new IP arrives with the Sharpshooters: Capt Morgan Hickman (Rush), who has
been an instructor at the Top Gun school. Burner is Rush's first student for
ACM training. When Burner gets the best of Rush, Rush dips below the hard deck
at 10,000 feet. Burner follows him under the deck and Kelly quickly calls the
training off. Back on the ground, Kelly reams both pilots telling Rush that he
needs to set an example and Burner that he should be keeping his mind on safety
even if his IP does not. Rush signs Burner up for another round; Kelly thinks
Rush wants to prove something to himself, or to Burner, but Rush insists he's
learned his lesson. While dog fighting, Burner takes too many G's and his
canopy develops a leak. Without his mask on, he quickly gets hypoxia, and
starts flying erratically. Rush yells and screams at Burner to get his mask on;
when he finally regains enough sense to hear Rush, he puts his mask on and they
both land safely. Hammer's old XO, Pearly, has been reassigned from a Pentagon
desk job to command a flight wing. He needs to requalify on the Hornet. After
two IPs tell Hammer that Pearly can't handle the plane, Hammer takes him up
himself. The flight is a disaster, and once they land, Pearly decides for
himself that it is time for him to hang up his wings. Swamp tries meet a girl,
but just as his ACM training is going badly, so are his social skills. Spoon
and Burner ask Kate to talk to him, to boost his confidence; Swamp does most of
the talking and when Kate tells him that all he needs to do is be himself, he
regains his confidence and aces his ACM flight, and gets the girl.
Blue on Blue
Ice is "shot down" by an opfor pilot, Paco. She later meets him in a dance
club and when she realizes it is he, she turns down his offer of a date - she
doesn't date pilots. Burner makes it a point to repeat her rule to Swamp, who
seems enamored of her. Ice gets several poems left anonymously in her locker.
She assumes they are from Paco. Burner tells her to go for it - go out with
him. It is soon obvious to her, though, that Paco did not write the poems. She
gets a message from her poetry writer to meet her - the author is Swamp. Ice
tells him that she is rethinking her rules. Spoon and Burner make the ACM
training into a competition - is the learned pilot better than the gutsy pilot?
Spoon shoots down Kelly when they fly together, though - a blue on blue
incident. When Burner and Spoon go up as opposing forces, Spoon pushes his
plan too far and goes into a spin - he is able to pull out at the last moment.
Spoon's mind may have been elsewhere: Gunslinger arrives from Fallon to meet
him, and they have a good time together... until Teri suddenly reappears - she
has left his father. Forced to choose between the love that broke his heart,
and his new opportunity, he chooses Teri, who agrees to move to Pensacola to be
with him.
Cuba Libre
The Sharpshooters are in Key West for more ACM training. They hook up with
a local Cuban exile group for some softball, and they're celebrating their game
when word comes in that Cuban fighter have sunk a refugee ship. Worse, they
later find out that one of the people who was killed was the uncle of Eric and
Elena, two of their new friends. Eric and his friend Gustavo take a light
plane to Cuba to try to rescue some refugees, but they are shot down in Cuban
skies. Meanwhile, during ACM training, Paddles has to bug out of a mission
when he hurts his back. He goes in for tests and learns he has a herniated
disc, his second in five years. He fears this means the end of his career as a
righter pilot. Hammer and Swamp go looking for him when he fails to show for
duty - they find him in a bar, drunk; he starts a fight and even hits Hammer
before he gets knocked out. The next morning, Hammer says that he needs to
take his injury as a challenge, and face it like a Marine. While in the skies,
a Cuban fighter approached US airspace. Kelly recognizes the pilot as Col.
Diego Ruiz, whom he had met several times. NORAD Col. Drew Campbell arrives to
debrief Kelly; he wants to know how Ruiz got through US defenses. During
another hop, Ruiz turns up again. Kelly realizes he wants to defect; but when
a Cuban squad heads their way, he does not head for the US - Kelly also
realizes that he is distracting the Cuban military while his family escapes
Cuba. Kelly has an unarmed four-ship squad challenge the Cubans; the Cubans
blink and head home, and Ruiz flies back to Florida, to freedom. The arrival
of Ruiz is a big boost to the Cuban exile community.
Sortie
Back in Pensacola, the nuggets do some bombing run practice. While in the
air, Burner spots a UFO - giving him the finger. The object turns out to be
Clyde Donaldson, an old Vietnam vet who takes to the skies in his lawn chair
attached to giant helium balloons. Kelly makes it a personal project to make
sure Clyde can share his stories with a new generation of Marine. General
Cassidy, a former CO of the Sharpshooters, is retiring, and Kelly throws his
retirement party. He asks Kate to be his date; while at the party, Kate
wonders aloud why they never go out with each other. Burner saves Lucy, a
photographer, from a purse-snatcher. They spend some time together, but when
she learns he's a Marine, she bolts. They meet later at a carnival and spend
the day together. That night, when they kiss, she bolts again. When she fails
to show for a date at the Bucket, Burner finds her and reaches out to her - he
is falling in love. They go to her place and make love. Later, Ice spots Lucy
shooting pictures of Cassidy and Kelly - and Lucy is wearing a Marine uniform
and corporal's stripes. She is honor-bound to report that Burner is
fraternizing with an enlisted. Ice confronts Lucy, who tells Ice that she is
in love with Burner, and nothing else seems to matter. Ice tells her she's a
Marine - that should come first. Burner waits for Lucy at the party, and she
arrives in uniform. She tells him the truth. He feels betrayed and walks
away. He later tells Kate that he is ready to risk everything for her, but
Kate reminds him of her dishonesty. Lucy tells Burner she is ready to quit the
Marines to be with him, but he tells her no - he can't trust her.
Touch and Go
The nuggets enter the final phase of training - FCLP, simulated carrier
landings. Ice runs into Kelly's godson, Steven Raines, in the parking lot. He
sees her later, and the two hit it off, culminating in the two of them spending
a passionate night together. The next day, Steven goes to the airfield to
observe Ice in her landings. During her run, a deer gets on the runway and she
clips it. Fearing her landing gear might be damaged, Psycho orders her to make
an arrested landing, her first. She lands fine, but the incident is too much
for Steven as he realizes flying is her life. He breaks it off. Before he
leaves for home, Ice goes to him, to give him one more chance to stay, but he
tells her that if he were with her, he'd be second in her life. Ice is
devastated. Teri pressures Spoon to move in with her, but he is reluctant.
Spoon's father arrives to Spoon's surprise, but it gives Spoon the chance to
tell his dad about Teri - but he already knew, because he'd sent a PI to find
her. Spoon is furious and walks out on him. He tells Teri he is ready to move
in with her, that his biggest block had been that his father did not know about
them. Mr. Henry sees Spoon before he leaves - to tell him that he is proud of
what Spoon has accomplished. Hammer and Martinez participate in a 96-hour
sleep deprivation study; Hammer retains his composure, but Martinez is a groggy
bundle of nerves by the end. Kelly buys a Porsche.
C.Q.
Mr. Henry drops two bombshells on Spoon: he is scared that Tucker will be hurt
or worse on the carrier... and that he is dying of pancreatic cancer. The news
makes Spoon seriously reconsider his plans. During night carrier landing
practice, Ice does poorly; Kate tries to bolster her spirits, but a second bad
night causes her to be scrubbed from the live carrier phase of training.
Burner, however, does so well that he wins a bet with Kelly, who buys him a
bottle of tequila. Navy Lt. Overhauser tries, in vain, to accustom the nuggets
with the carrier's layout, with Burner giving him an especially hard time.
Spoon tells Burner that he is considering dropping out of training; Burner rants
about Mr. Henry, and Spoon counters with insults about Burner's family, leaving
a general tension between them; Spoon keeps his father's cancer to himself.
Kelly, Burner, Spoon, and Swamp head for the carrier. Kate, Ice, and Hammer
cool their heels in the Bucket, and Hammer notices Ice having trouble seeing.
He takes her up at night and determines she is slightly far-sighted, easily
correctable with glasses. He sends her to the carrier. There, Burner sings the
Navy hymn for Overhauser in exchange for a quiet stateroom. Burner and Spoon
continue to feud. Burner almost gets sent back to the hard deck for flubbing
too many landings, but he nails his last one.
Night Traps
Actress Kristi Blake arrives on the carrier, ready to research an upcoming role
in a feature film. She plans to watch Ice to get a feel for her life - but Ice
is less than impressed when Blake tells her the plot line of the movie, and
knocks Kristi's appearance, demeanor, and attitude. Spoon tells Ice about his
father; Ice asks him to tell Burner, but Spoon refuses. Psycho and Whiz worry
about Swamp and Burner, afraid that their just-passing grades in day quals could
lead to failure at night. Cpl Eddie Williams celebrates being accepted into
OCS, but is so distracted by the news that he walks right into the path of
Spoon's jet wash on the flight deck, knocking him out with a concussion. Spoon
is shaken and he goes to Kelly to turn in his wings; but Kelly asks him to take
a little more time to decide. Burner confronts Spoon about going off the flight
list; Spoon tells him about his father, but Burner tells him to continue to
challenge himself. With her glasses, Ice nails the night landing. Swamp is not
so lucky - after a near crash, he is waved off and disqualified. Worse,
Burner's plane has an engine fire; Spoon tries to talk him through emergency
procedures, but his plane is too badly damaged, and it crashes, just after
Burner ejects. The near loss of his friend prompts Spoon to finish what he
started. Back in Pensacola, Kate and Kelly toast the class of 9-98; Burner
hopped right back in the pilot's seat after the crash and qualified; Spoon,
though, took the top score. Kristi Blake finds Ice and tells her that she has
rethought her movie, and will be rewriting to portray her role more
realistically.
Rules of Engagement
Kelly showcases his soon-to-be-graduated nuggets, but has a hard time convincing
anyone to give Ice a good look. Spoon and Burner get invited to a happy hour
for the Panthers, whose CO, Spider, has one slot to fill before heading for the
Persian Gulf. He talks to both, but finds fault in both - he settles on Burner,
though. But when Burner finds blood in his urine, Spider tells Spoon that if
Burner is not able, he will take Spoon. Ice, meanwhile, tries to drown her
sorrows in booze at Kate's; out of character, she is rude to Kate and tries to
drive herself home. Hammer brings her home, though, and checks on her the next
morning - he tells her that when he was a nugget, he had trouble getting CO's to
look at him because he is black. He tells her he succeeded because he
persevered, like she needs to. Jealousy between Spoon and Burner boils over,
but the realization that their little family is breaking up makes Ice, Burner,
and Spoon take stock. All of the angst and nervousness has the nuggets deliver
horrible performances in their graduation exercise practices, but in the end,
they prevail and knock the socks off the audience. Kelly and Hammer become the
targets of terrorists looking for revenge for their attack on the Osirak
reactor. Both are shot at, and FBI agents Margolis and Bigelow try to protect
them - but Kelly's new Porsche is rigged to explode, and Kelly realizes it just
in time to drive it out on a firing range, seconds before it explodes. At a
final get-together at Kate's, Kelly and Hammer dole out the nuggets' flight
assignments, with the results as yet unknown.
Tip of the Spear
Kelly speaks to a friend, Jack Hightower, on a quick assignment in Egypt. While
speaking, Hightower is killed by a car bomb, and Kelly begins to reassess his
place in the military. After graduating another class of Nuggets, he asks Col
Doug Drayton to be reassigned as Ace in the 18th Marine Expeditionary Unit
(MEU). Hammer asks Kelly about taking a staff position in the same MEU, and
Kelly tells him the opportunity is too good to pass up. When Kelly gets the
nod, he calls Ice, Burner, and Spoon away from their current assignments to be
on his team. The Aviation Combat Element of the 18th MEU is the Fighting
Bandits, and will be in Pensacola for up to six months of training before
deployment to the Middle East. Also on the team are Edward Turelli, Capone, a
Cobra pilot with a family history of Mafia involvement, and Abigail Holling, a
Huey pilot with the RAF on loan to the Bandits. Later, at a gathering at the
Bucket, Kate gives Holling a nickname - Cricket. Capone offers a friend's house
to Ice, Spoon, and Burner. Spoon's father takes a turn for the worse, and even
when Spoon visits him, he refuses to go on chemotherapy for his cancer. Hammer
in concerned about Spoon and voices them to Kelly. Kelly, though, thinks Spoon
will be OK. When Spoon screws up a live fire exercise, though, Drayton himself
asks Kelly about Spoon. Kelly is not happy that Hammer went behind his back to
the Old Man, but Hammer reminds him that he has a new role now - he's not
Kelly's XO anymore. Spoon does recover his wings, though soon after his father
dies. Burner meets Sarah at the Bucket, and starts going to her church events
with her.
Gypsy Tumble
Spoon's car is stolen in a gypsy tumble, when a young kid makes it look like
Spoon hit his bike - his confederates steal the car when Spoon gets out to check
him. Ice suggests Capone may have connections to find the kid and the car.
Capone is able to locate the kid, and he is arrested. The police have to
release him to his mother; Spoon and Capone talk to the mother, wanting to help
Earvin (Magic) Schneider, as well as get Spoon's car back. When Magic doesn't
come home, his mother asks that Spoon and Capone help find him - they do, just
as he is being beaten by his gang members. Magic realizes that he is headed
down a wrong path and manages to get Spoon's car back before he and his mother
move away. Kelly's daughter Janine comes to town for a visit and meets and
falls for Sgt. Dominguez, one of Kelly's troops. She does not tell Dom her
father's name. Kelly taps Cricket to be the "corner man" for the Marines' entry
in an upcoming boxing match with Navy. Janine later sees Dom, the boxer, win
his match. Cricket tells Dom that Janine is Kelly's daughter, and is angry she
may have ruined his career. In an effort to nip problems in the bud, Janine
tells Kelly about them. Kelly tells Dom he has nothing to worry about. Burner
is away trying to make his carrier qualifications. Col. Drayton suggests a new
handle for Cricket: Mad Dog (after he saw her yelling at the referee in the
match).
A Wing and a Prayer
Burner is aboard the USS John Stennis to requalify his carrier landing, but he
is spooked by mechanical difficulties and another pilot's crash landing. Hammer
and Kelly are on hand to watch his flight. But things turn bad when a storm
system suddenly catches Burner and moves in on the Stennis. In Pensacola, Spoon
and Ice move into the house provided by Capone. Spoon reminisces about his
father, opening up to Ice. Ice asks him if she scares men away. One thing
leads to another, and they begin to kiss. They are interrupted by someone
looking for Louie, the previous occupant. Burner's plane is hit by lightning,
and he loses most of his instruments and his radio reception. Ships in the area
send up flares for him to see, but he misses them. Spoon and Ice are engaged in
another embrace when Capone interrupts them to tell them about Burner. They
rush to the base to get updates. Burner loses an engine and is out of fuel.
The Stennis rushes to put itself in Burner's flight path, and he spots the deck,
just in time. He lands safely, but has a new spiritual feeling, like someone
higher than himself eased the storm and held his plane in the sky. Ice and
Spoon reconsider taking their relationship to a new level.
Call to Glory
Burner comes home from his carrier training just in time for a major combined
arms exercise, with air and ground forces working together. Ice is disappointed
to be working on the ground, particularly since she would never work on the
ground in real combat; but Kelly tells her the training is invaluable for a
pilot. As Ice heads for her contact point, her truck explodes, injuring her and
the other soldiers. Although she is OK, her arm is slightly injured, and she
must prove it strength to the flight doc, Lt. Lawrence Brandon. Kate notices
that Burner does not seem himself - he is upset that everyone is calling his
incident heroic, when all he did was fly. He continues to grapple with his
feeling that he's discovered a higher power in his life. Spoon presses Burner,
who says that he can't figure out why he is still alive, why was he saved? He
doesn't care about flying anymore. Spoon tells Burner that for as long as he's
known him, Burner has been flying for everyone but himself. Spoon gets jealous
of Ice and Dr. Brandon, who has been helping her recover - he has tried to
forget what happened between them, but it is difficult. Burner goes to see his
mother in a nursing home, and he tells her he forgives her, himself, and that he
loves her. Burner turns in his wings, telling Kelly his heart isn't in it, and
he hopes the Marines can find him a job working with disadvantaged kids.
Officers and Gentlemen
The pilots are getting survival training from Capt Ray Hartley, a member of the
Special Operations Training Group. Col Drayton asks Kelly to host a party for
General Barshack, to be given in honor of Senator Hickman, a strong supporter of
Maine aviation; and he asks Kelly to bring a date. Hartley meets Kate at the
Bucket and the two seem to hit it off - the next day, he shows up at the Bucket
at closing time, inebriated. Kate offers to make him some coffee at her place,
and Spoon sees them drive off together. But once there, Hartley rapes Kate.
The next day, when Ice asks Kate for some relationship advice, Kate snaps at
her. Kelly asks Kate to go to the party with him, and she declines. Hartley
tells Kate to keep quiet about what happened. Ice confronts Kate, and she tells
Ice she was raped, but not by whom. Ice and Spoon, meanwhile, try to find a new
roommate - when Spoon mentions Hartley as a possibility, Ice puts two-and-two
together and asks Kate if it was Hartley. Though she would not confirm it, Ice
takes her information to Kelly. He confronts Hartley, who denies it. Kelly
talks to Kate, who confesses she'd been raped before ... and felt raped again in
court. Kelly promises it will be different this time, and she presses charges.
Hartley is arrested. Kate takes Kelly up on his date offer. Capone invites
himself to be Ice and Spoon's new roommate.
Tattoo
During a war exercise, several Stinger missiles are found to be missing. NCIS
investigator Stoddard suspects a local neo-Nazi group with an inside connection.
Cpl Dwight Schaeffer, new to the MEU, pulls Ice out of her burning fighter when
a leaky hose spills fuel. Hammer pulls Schaeffer's burning shirt off his body
and finds a swastika tattooed on his back. Stoddard suspects Schaeffer, but
when it is found that the first stolen Stinger turned up before Schaeffer came
on board, he is cleared. Stoddard wants to use him as an undercover operative,
over Kelly's objections, but Schaeffer refuses. Hammer relates a painful story
of a racial attack on him and his father to Schaeffer, just before recommending
him for a medal. After Schaeffer's uniform is defaced, he attacks a black
Marine; Kelly is furious. Lt Chadway, in charge of both, takes Schaeffer aside.
He tells Schaeffer he stole the Stingers, and that he is going to do it again.
Schaeffer wants to go, too. On the way out of the ammo dump, they are stopped
by Stoddard. Chadway shoots himself and Schaeffer is taken under arrest. Kelly
reveals that he knows Stoddard and Schaeffer are a team, using this tactic to
ferret out people like Chadway. Schaeffer goes to Hammer to tell him he is
doing this work to make up for past misdeeds, and he hopes Hammer understands.
Capone moves in with Spoon and Ice just in time to meet Teri as she comes to
visit. Ice sits through an uncomfortable lunch with her. Later, Spoon and Teri
decide to give them selves a few days to see if they can work things out. Ice
advises Teri that Spoon is worth the wait. Though they fight about each other's
ability to commit, Spoon chases after her before she can leave, and they decide
to keep working on their relationship.
Burke's Breech
An old Vietnam compatriot of Kelly's, Gen. Mitchell Burke, is now working as a
civilian advisor. He is in Pensacola to help teach a tactic he invented,
Burke's Breech. Combining land, air, and helo forces, the maneuver is designed
to punch through an enemy stronghold. Capone is selected to work with the
General at the exercise HQ. Capone worries when he hears Burke appear to
flashback to Desert Storm, and when Burke orders helos too close to air-dropped
explosives, Capone calls a checkfire, halting the exercise. Burke later tells
Kelly that he called the checkfire, but Capone hesitated in relaying his order.
After mulling it over by cooking some soup, Spoon and Ice convince Capone that
he needs to tell Kelly the truth. When he does, Kelly confronts Burke, who
accuses Capone of lying. Kelly goes to visit someone Burke served with in
Kuwait and learns that they were exposed to nerve gas there. The effects may
finally be showing on Burke. Kelly goes to see Burke when he learns Burke has
resigned as an advisor. Kelly tells Burke he is his hero - Burke gives Kelly
his personal weapon as a memento. Spoon thanks Kate for giving Teri a job at
the Bucket while she's in town. Mad Dog is making a video for her folks in
England, annoying everyone. But when a rival group steals Reggie, the MEU
mascot, her video is useful in identifying the kidnappers, the 232 Warthogs.
Behind Enemy Lines
Ice and Spoon head to a convenience store for milk just as Bobby Tobin and his
girlfriend Tracy enter to rob the store to get drug money. With Ice inside,
Spoon sees the robbery and calls it in, and then tries to stop it armed with a
baseball bat. His plan is foiled with a couple gunshots. Kate's electricity
goes out when her jukebox trips the circuit - Kelly promises to help her clean
up the melted ice on her floors. Headed home, he sees Spoon with some cops and
stops. One of the hostages is an off-duty cop and when he draws his gun, Bobby
shoots him. Once Bobby learns he's a cop, he prepares for the worst, even
rigging the back door to explode. Bobby is in no mood to speak to police Lt
Rohas, but Ice convinces him to talk to Kelly. Kelly asks if Capt Brandon can
go in to look at the cop. When he arrives, he is dead, though Ice tells him to
pretend he is alive - she also gives him a message about the back door. Ice
tries to convince Tracy to give up, but she refuses, and Bobby smacks her
around. The police try to rush the back door, but abort when Kelly figures out
Ice's message - but the door blows anyway, injuring a cop. The mayor asks the
Marines to send in a chopper for medevac, and Mad Dog flies in. Tobin thinks
the helo is for him, and he exits the store with Ice. A sniper takes Bobby out.
Spoon comforts Ice after the ordeal and takes her home. Capone learns of Kate's
troubles and visits the local mob boss who handles jukebox and video game
rentals. As a favor to his family, Capone asks Mr. Francetti to fix and
modernize Kate's equipment.
True Stories
During an urban warfare exercise, protestors force a cancellation, and when one
protestor falls off a bridge, Kelly's command chopper, piloted by Mad Dog,
rescue the man. Kate introduces Mad Dog to country music when singer Gary Allan
visits - Kate knows Allan from "the old days" when Max flew. Because of the
delay, though, Mad Dog is not able to go to Allan's concert; so Kate arranges
for Allan to play at the Bucket, specially for Mad Dog. Kelly informs Spoon
that the 232 Warthogs are returning from deployment. He plans a "mission" to
finally rescue Reggie, which goes off without a hitch. Capone's brother Johnny
stops in for a visit. FBI Agent Harding meets with Capone and tells him that
Johnny is mixed up with Russian mobster Antoine Marisovich. Johnny tells Capone
that he was brokering some diamonds for Antoine, and discovered Antoine killed a
customs agent to get the diamonds. The FBI wants Johnny to cooperate with them
to bring in Antoine. Marisovich pays Capone a visit and threatens him, then
goes after Johnny, though he eludes Antoine and his thugs. Johnny tells Capone
about Antoine's girlfriend Katia, who was being beaten by Antoine. He gave her
some of the proceeds from the diamond sales, which is why Antoine is so hot.
Johnny and Capone agree to meet with Marisovich while wearing a wire. Capone
asks Kelly for a little time off, and a little help. As the meeting proceeds,
the Marines land and Antoine flees, only to be captured by the FBI.
Don't Ask, Don't Tell
A new pilot, Bear, screws up a bombing run when Ice is in command, though he
convinces her not to report it - when Kelly finds out anyway, he is angry with
Ice and makes Spoon the new flight leader. Joanna Killian, a photographer for
Tryst, a men's magazine, arrives and uses the Bucket for part of her photo
shoot. Kate introduces Joanna to Capone, who invites her to shoot at the beach
house. Joanna spots Ice and becomes determined to have her in a pictorial. She
also asks Teri to have a photo shoot. Spoon's old college buddy Jack Maxfield
arrives in Pensacola. He has a new job and wants Spoon to show him the town.
Spoon is surprised by a call from Jack from jail - he was picked up for
soliciting. He is even more surprised when Jack tells him the undercover cop he
tried to pick up was a man. Spoon is angry with Jack for lying to him for years
about being gay. When Bear again screws up his bombing run, Spoon lets his
anger about Jack overflow; and when Teri asks if it is OK if she does the nude
photo shoot, Spoon is too distracted by Jack's situation to know what he is
agreeing to. Jack asks Spoon to be a character witness for him at his hearing,
and Spoon refuses. After a talk with Capone, though, he tracks Jack down at the
bar and agrees. As they leave the bar, they are attacked by a biker gang, and
Spoon's photo turns up in the paper. Bear submits the story to a Marine board,
though they dismiss any charges against Spoon - Kelly is not so nice with Bear,
though, and has him transferred out of the MEU. Joanna takes candid photos of
Ice for use in the magazine and despite Ice's pleading and threats, she intends
to publish them. Ice agrees to do an interview, but only if Joanna will do
another photo shoot - one of her in her flight suit, instead of in a bikini.
Jack is fired from his new job after appearing in the paper, and he and Spoon
bid each other farewell, as friends.
On the Tee
Private Andrews takes unexploded ordinance from the firing range, to the horror
of his friend Private Frank Sully. He later stores it in the armory, though
Sully does convince him to take the ordinance back to the range after closing.
Mad Dog and Capone head for the golf course, and invite Spoon, who was left
behind when the other pilots went on a ferrying mission. On the links, Abby is
called back to do a weapons inventory. Spoon and Capone go to help. While all
are in the armory, one of the unexploded rounds blows up, killing Sully and
injuring Spoon and Mad Dog. Capone, who was taking a break outside, tells Kelly
that the others are still inside - but since they do not know what else might be
inside, they cannot be taken out. EOD sandbags and explodes a round, and start
work on another. While Hammer talks to the local press, Kelly goes to see his
people, and Mad Dog awakens. He asks her to check Spoon - she finds him not
breathing. She does CPR to revive him, and notices that another round is laying
on Spoon's leg. Capone confronts Andrews, whom he had noticed earlier - Hammer
joins them and Andrews tells them both how many rounds there are. With just the
two rounds left, EOD takes them out for destruction, and Mad Dog and Spoon are
carried out, hurt but OK.
Aces
Five years after Max's death, Kate goes through some of Max's old things, and
finds a key to a safe-deposit box that she had never known about. When she
opens it, she finds $20,000 in canceled checks and two plane tickets from San
Diego to Saigon. She hires an investigator and flies to San Diego to find out
who Ma Ling Dim is, the woman the checks were made out to. The investigator
tracks down the deposit account, and Kate learns that Ma Ling, now known as
Mary, was not a lover - she is Max's daughter. Kate finds Mary working as a
doctor, and tells her about Max. She had been told that Max promised to return
for her mother, who died in Vietnam. He also promised to take Mary back, to
visit her mother's grave - but he never came. Kate tells Mary that he couldn't,
because he died just before he would have left. Hammer, Kelly, and Ice ferry
some replacement Hornets to the 23rd MEU - when they arrive on the Eisenhower,
an Agent Woodson tells them of a mission they need to fly - a terrorist is
building a nuclear weapon, and they need to take out the factory. The
information about the factory partially came from John Hightower, Kelly's old
buddy. The factory is thought to have missile radar operational, but no
missiles yet. Hammer plans and runs the mission, as Kelly and Ice go up to
scout the location. The original location is a decoy, and just as Ice's weapons
computer malfunctions, they stumble upon the real site. MiGs are scrambled and a
dog fight ensues - Kelly splashes one and Ice is able to bluff the second into
bugging out. A second team swoops in to destroy the factory. With his fifth
kill, Kelly is officially an Ace. On the Ike, Ice meets up with Psycho, her old
IP, and they reminisce about her nugget days and about Burner leaving
piloting.
Article 32
With Ice away tending to her ailing mother, tragedy strikes the 18th MEU.
Capt. Craig Benedict, a helo pilot, walks into Kelly's office, shoots his aide,
and holds his gun on Kelly. When MPs arrive, Benedict ejects his magazine,
clears the chamber, and holds the empty gun up at the MPs, who shoot him dead.
Surprisingly, it is Kelly who is blamed, and he is brought up in an Article 32
hearing, for grievous misconduct. Kelly's lawyer, Major Granger, tries to get
Kelly to be more aggressive in his defense, but Kelly insists the truth will
prevail. Capone tells of a time before the shooting that Benedict complained
that Kelly was pushing him too hard - and in flight, the two nearly collided.
Kelly washed Benedict out of the MEU after that. Benedict's mother, a US
Congress woman, testifies that Craig sent letters to her about Kelly, noting
how he admired him yet was troubled by Kelly's beratings. Maddog tries to
relate a story about how Craig acted like a spurned teenager when she turned
him down for a date, but the testimony is of little help. Spoon's recollection
of a mutual friend at Quantico bears fruit, however. He says the friend
remembers Benedict getting a very bad psych evaluation nearly predicting his
behavior. The report, however, is gone. Col Walters, the presiding officer,
is able to track down the report and recommends that the case be dismissed.
Benedict's mother swallows her pride and comes to Kelly to apologize for what
Craig put him through.
At Poverty Level
Kelly and Hammer are impressed with the skills of EOD Lance Corporal Tom
Gibson. Ice, however, sees him in a different light. While shopping at the PX,
she sees Cathy Gibson try to shoplift a coloring book for her daughter. She
convinces Cathy to put the book back and drives the pair home, to learn that
she and her family live in poverty conditions. Dr. Brandon asks Ice out on a
date, but before he can go, he treats Cathy for a black eye - he suspects
spousal abuse, though but Cathy and Corp. Gibson deny it. Kelly talks to Gison
who describes their financial situation, and that the stresses let his temper
flare and he caused Cathy to fall, though he never hit her. Kelly decides he
needs to help Col. Drayton in Washington, as Appropriations Committee hearings.
He hooks up with Ali, an old flame, who now works for Sen. Hemmings, chair of
the committee. Though his chances seem slim (and an act of aggression by North
Korea makes a new weapons system seem more important than a pay raise), he does
get his hearing and flies Gibson to Washington to offer up his story. Cathy
goes to see Ice and tells Ice her wounds were an accident, and tries to get her
to convince Dr. Brandon to drop his charges. After Gibson saves Hammer's life
by pushing him out of the way of a runaway truck, Brandon starts to think he
may have misjudged Gibson. Before he leaves Washington, Kelly and Ali discuss
possibly continuing a rekindled relationship.
Busted
Spoon's Hornet has a malfunction on a training run, and only quick thinking by
maintenance Sergeant Bobby Franklin lets Spoon get his gear down for a safe
landing. When Miss Taples, of Pensadyne, examines the circuit board, it is
found that it is defective - though the logs show that Franklin himself swapped
out the board for a new, fixed version. Kelly has to place Franklin on relief
pending investigation, though he insists he changed the board properly.
Franklin's sister, Julie, arrives to support her brother, and to represent him
as his lawyer. She accuses Hammer, Kelly, and the Corps of placing the blame on
Bobby because he is black. Taples examines boards from other Hornets and
discovers that they are counterfeit - a search of Franklin's locker reveals a
board in his toolbox, and he is arrested. Franklin insists he did not do it,
and tells Kelly he can prove it - they check the boards again and arrest Taples
when they find her fingerprints on them. She was swapping out the boards and
selling them, and leaving behind a paper trail to implicate Franklin. Julie
drops the suit and she and Hammer agree to try to hook up the next time she's
in town. Teri is upset about Spoon's near-accident, and when he tells her his
father's estate is seriously screwed up, she offers to review it. She contacts
Mr. Janock, an old friend of TH, who agrees to bail out the estate, ensuring
Spoon's mother will have an adequate inheritance. He asks Teri and Spoon to
come work for him, but Spoon refuses to resign his commission despite Teri's
best efforts. She takes the job, leaving their relationship behind. Meanwhile,
with Kate still in San Diego, her niece Megan is watching The Bucket.
Crash Test
Janine is in an accident in Baton Rouge, and Kelly rushes to be at her side. He
learns that she has a concussion, and also had a miscarriage, the first he knew
of any pregnancy. He asks Janine to go to a camp with him, to spend some time
together, though he can only get a 48-hour leave from Drayton. He asks Janine
to bring his satellite phone, but she leaves it behind so they cannot be
disturbed. Flying a rented plane to the camp, engine trouble forces the plane
down. Kelly wounds his knee, though Janine is OK. They set out to reach a
highway, but Janine starts to cramp and bleed, so they head back to the plane.
They talk about her pregnancy and their relationship as father and daughter.
After Hammer is unable to reach Kelly after his pass expires, they set out to
find him. Hammer, Ice, and Capone find the pair when Kelly sets a signal fire
at the sound of the chopper. In training, Ice joins a hostage rescue team to
see how they work, and in a live-fire exercise, she blows away a "hostage." In
the next exercise, the "hostages" will be real people, and she worries about
hurting someone. But in the end she perseveres and helps "save" the hostages.
When setting rat traps, Capone finds bones under the beach house. He worries
they might be victims of one of his mob family members, but police analysis
show that the bodies were stolen cadavers, buried years earlier in a fraternity
prank.
Pensacola Shootout
As Ice and Spoon prepare for the Pensacola Shootout, an annual dog fighting
competition, Samantha Hollings arrives on base. An old friend and rival of
Kelly's, Hollings is now a recruiter for NASA, and is on base to find a woman
pilot for the astronaut corps. Spoon asks Kelly about Hollings, and he tells
Spoon she is only looking for women, dashing his long-held dream of being an
astronaut. In the Bucket, they meet Blaze and Law Boy, the returning champions
from the Air Force. Though they all make nice, Blaze is a tough nut, and tries
to get into both Ice's and Spoon's heads. The tension spikes when Spoon takes
Blaze out and back to the beach house, where Ice sees them together. The
pressure mounts when the competition for the astronaut slot between Blaze and
Ice hits the newspapers. But on the day the four meet in the sky, Ice tells
Spoon that they need to talk about "us," and admitting that takes some of the
edge off. In the end, the Marines win the trophy for the first time in five
years, and Hollings offers Ice the slot. Ice, however, turns her down, saying
she sees her future in the sky, not in space. Hammer is concerned for Megan
and her drinking habits - he challenges her to not drink for three days. She
is able to go a whole shift without a drink, but can't wait to open the bottle
at the end of the day. Hammer bails her out of jail after she wrecks her car.
She tells him she's afraid she'll lose herself if she admits that she's an
alcoholic - but Hammer convinces her she might find herself, too, and he drives
her to an AA meeting.
Answered Prayers
Upcoming
Return to Glory
With a civil war brewing in the Central American nation of San Filipe, the
President puts the MEU on alert - an officer from the MEF Special Operations
Group comes to brief the MEU - none other than Capt. Butch Barnes. Ice is
pleased to see her old friend and asks him to stay at the beach house while
Spoon is away on CQ; Capone is none too pleased about that, though, and he and
Burner have a confrontation in the kitchen, with Capone finally dressing Burner
down for turning in his wings. Burner moves out, though Ice makes sure he
knows that she is proud of him for the decision he made. Burner tells Ice that
he was able to work with disadvantaged teens through the Marines for a while,
but he missed the action and eventually joined Spec Ops. Kelly worries about
upcoming promotion boards - this will be his third time up for full-bird
colonel, and if he misses this chance, he'll be up for retirement instead.
After drug boss Emilio Daohas has an international arrest warrant issued for
his actions in San Filipe, the President activates the MEU. Capone's gunner,
Ski, announces that he is finally engaged, just before a training mission.
Capone and Ski take their Cobra up, despite the fact that Capone is worried
about an odd engine noise. Later, the noise reappears and the Cobra falls to
the ground. Ski is badly hurt, though Capone walks away. Capone blames
himself, though Ski, when he regains consciousness, tells Capone it was not his
fault. Ski later dies in his sleep. Capone tells Kelly he cannot complete the
mission, but Kelly gives him a day to think about it. He later talks to
Burner, who tells Capone that there is no magic answer as to "why" things are
the way they are - you can only do what's best for you and move on. Capone
decides to carry on. Hammer worries aloud that the Cobra incident could be
used against Kelly in promotions. Megan and Burner hit it off, though he
misses a lunch date when the helo crashes. They go for a walk and she abruptly
kisses him ... then abruptly runs off. He finds her later and, to her pleasant
surprise, asks her out again. Kelly asks Burner to stick around and act as his
Special Operations officer while the MEU's officer is away on emergency leave,
ensuring Burner will be helping coordinate the San Filipe mission.
Casualties of War
The mission to San Filipe is a go, and the Marines quickly find and arrest
Daohas ... but in the fire fight that ensues, Spoon shoots a young rebel and
Burner gets pinned down and left behind. The political situation makes it
difficult for Kelly to launch a rescue, with his contact, Stewart, reminding
Kelly that San Filipe's president Rias needs to be able to say that Daohas has
been captured and that the Americans have pulled out. Burner evades capture,
but when he attempts to fix his water-logged radio equipment, he is captured.
Kelly and Hammer communicate with Burner via rudimentary radio signals before
his capture, proving he is alive and well, and a rescue is approved - Capone
offers to fly a Huey to make up for an injured pilot. Ice and Spoon turn to
each other to allay their fears about Burner. Hammer asks Spoon about the
mission and Spoon is angry about the rebel he had to kill. Hammer reminds him
that if Spoon hadn't killed the rebel, he'd be dead ... and that if he didn't
care, he wouldn't be bothered by what happened. Buoyed slightly, Spoon
estimates where Burner would go for pick up. Ice and Spoon fly to provide
close air support. When choppers fly overhead, Burner manages to escape the
rebels. The rescue team finds him being chased down by rebel troops, but a few
strafes from Ice and Spoon aid Burner in reaching the Huey and lifting off to
safety. Later, Burner meets the crew in the Bucket before moving on to his
next mission.
Brothers
Upcoming
SOCEX: Final Exams
While Col Drayton and Kelly inspect an oil rig to be used in the MEU's SOCEX (a
final exam, of sorts), Drayton injures his leg while climbing a ladder. He
tells Kelly that he cannot command the MEU through the SOCEX; Col Bradley
"Thor" Nathan has been tapped for the job. Hammer and Nathan went through
school together, with a healthy rivalry pushing at them, and Nathan asks Hammer
if that past will affect their working relationship. Hammer inspects the oil
rig and suspects Drayton's fall may have not been an accident. The day of the
exercise, a count of the "terrorists" the MEU is to overpower is off and Hammer
calls the SOCEX off for safety reasons. Nathan is livid that the SOCEX was
canceled, a black mark on the MEU's record. Hammer suspects Ra Udin, the
terrorist who killed Jack Hightower might be behind the run of bad luck - a
suspicion confirmed when the MEU is waiting for the Secretary of Defense to
review their ranks and a terrorists tries to shoot him. In Nathan's final
report, he places undue blame on Kelly and Hammer, enraging Drayton, who feels
Nathan has it in for them. He vows to fight Nathan. Ice is angry with Spoon
that he has spent a great deal of time on overseas calls with Teri. While on
the Truman getting ready for the SOCEX, Ice and Spoon discuss their feelings
for each other, and end up kissing on the fantail; they are spotted and
reported, and Kelly reminds them that such behavior will not be tolerated.
Kate returns with news that she has been asked to marry a boyfriend she met
in San Diego. Though she seems happy, Megan points out that it is out of
character for her, causing Kate to second guess her choices - she and Kelly
talk about themselves. Kelly tells her that his feelings about her should be
obvious, and they kiss. The gang all meet at the beach house for a grand
dinner put on by Capone, with Kelly's promotion in the air, Kate and Kelly's
relationship in doubt, and Ice and Spoon's feelings unresolved.
In a departure from my norm, I'm presenting a list of links to sites related to PWOG; basically, the other shows I chronicle have a huge following, and as a fan of PWOG, I would like to see the PWOG fan base grow. Use these links to introduce yourself to the show and other fans.
Season 1 Sites
Season 2/3 Sites
Last Modified: 08 Aug 2001
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