China Beach (TV Series)

Who's Happy Now? (1989)

Michael Boatman: Pvt. Samuel Beckett

Photos 

Quotes 

• Pvt. Samuel Beckett : [Beckett is preparing the body of a Colonel who died while enjoying K.C.'s 'services']  I found these among his personal effects.

  [Handing letters to Boonie and Hyers] 

  Boonie : [reads from one letter]  Colonel Darling, we regret to inform you that your request for combat duty has been denied.

  Jeff Hyers : [reads from another letter]  Dear Buster, the way we're fighting this war it seems like everyone is sleepwalking. My regrets that something so minor prevented your transfer. Best, Brigadier General Stanley.

  Pvt. Samuel Beckett : They don't give medals for sleepwalking. It'll keep you out of the bush, off the battlefield, but no gold, no ribbons. So... why here's one...

  [picking up homemade ribbons] 

  Pvt. Samuel Beckett : For all the paper cuts you got while you were filling out those carbon separated forms, in triplicate. Here's one for all the hours spent behind a desk sending official memorandums through the appropriate channels, and one tiny little ribbon for having died while not serving your country during a "military police action"... which they refuse to call a war.

  K.C. : [Beckett offers a ribbon to K.C. and she pins it to the Colonel's uniform]  For imaginative and self-sacrificing action while engaged, for never abandoning your post, for the silly stupid, bad, heroic idea that this was some place that you wanted to come.