Biography for
Sgt. Bob Barnes (Character)

Staff Sergeant BARNES is a veteran in the battlefields of Vietnam. He is a no nonsense soldier who has a much varied way of fighting the enemy and treating his subordinates than Sgt ELIAS does. ELIAS is more of a liberal, yet a highly effective soldier.

BARNES does not respect incompetent rank such as platoon commander Lt WOLFE and likes to do things his way. He treats his men as a machine type existence that needs to be oiled, meaning his way cannot be compromised by ELIAS. ( Both men have half the platoon following each varied lead - BARNES the whiskey drinking card player, ELIAS the dope smoking chill out merchant ).

When Manny, a grunt in the platoon is " crucified " by the VC, BARNES is the " eye of the rage " of the platoon when encountering the closest village. He kills a seemingly innocent elderly Vietnamese woman for information as to whether the village is VC or is harbouring them. ELIAS sees this, confronts BARNES and plans to tell their superiors. BARNES picks an opportunity during an engagement when ELIAS is alone and kills or " frags " him. Pvt TAYLOR suspects this and challenges BARNES who in turn nearly kills him. Such is the comparison between cherry and veteran.

That said, in the final engagement BARNES gets seriously wounded and tells TAYLOR to kill him which he does. This may give him partial closure for the death of ELIAS whom TAYLOR found direction and possibly friendship with.

" The war is over for me now but it will always be there the rest of my days as I'm sure ELIAS will be fighting with BARNES for what RA called, possession of my soul " - Pvt TAYLOR.

Staff Sergeant BARNES in the opinion of the writer is the most powerful character in this movie.