Asa Williams was the controller of a C-141 attempting to land at Kadena, Okinawa. The C-141 crashes into a Learjet as it is departing. Dom is the flight engineer on the C-141, the only surviving member of the crew. Dom wakes in a hospital badly scarred, with no memory of the accident. After being released from the hospital, Dom is assigned to a unit in Vietnam. Asa, grounded as an air traffic controller, is attached to the same unit, and their lives intersect. Asa is assigned to a covert operation in Cambodia. Dom meets a young girl on a beach in Vietnam. While with the young girl, Dom experiences Vietnam that most people were never aware of, from being subservient to the French to being under communists.