Small Stuff at Danang
TITLE: Small Stuff at Danang
AUTHOR: John B. Williams
GENRE: Combat/Comedy
TYPE/DRAFT/PAGES: Screenplay/First Draft/ 112 pages
TIME/LOCALE: 1968/Danang AB, Viet Nam
STUDIO/NETWORK: N/A
SUBMITTED FOR: General consideration
DIRECTOR: N/A
PRODUCER: N/A
TALENT: N/A
PROJECT STATUS: N/A
SUBMITTED TO: N/A
DATE: N/A
CONCEPT: A young airman in the police squadron on Danang Air Base at the height of the Viet Nam War works his way into an important supply connection with a ranking army NCO then parlays that into an important meat connection with a navy CPO. He soon becomes the most sought-after wheeler-dealer on post and would have become one of the most influential men in the police squadron, if he had not been black. Racial issues bring both humor and tragedy to the story until the hero goes from living large to barely surviving.
SYNOPSIS:
Emmanuel Wilson discovers a small mountain of silk parachutes waiting to be discarded because they do not fit the new F4E fighter jets. He convinces the maintenance NCOIC to hold the parachutes for him until he returns. Wilson pays a visit to an army supply sergeant whom he had heard wanted to find some silk. Wilson offers him the parachutes and the sergeant promises him ample repayment if he can deliver on his promise. Wilson takes a flight jacket to the maintenance NCOIC, and the NCOIC turns over the parachutes without objection.
Wilson parlays his supply connection into a meat connections and uses his connections to do good both on the base and off. He supplies steaks to his squadron at their weekend cookout. He also feeds a local Vietnamese peasant whom he had befriended and adopted.
His activity in the village draws the attention of a few black men who have deserted the army and are operating lucrative businesses in Danang City. These men are generating tens of thousands of dollars a week, but all of it is in military payment currency (MPC) printed by the army, which is worthless in the US. Also, if the army issues a new series of MPC, those holding the old currency can exchange only a few hundred dollars for the new, and this would cost these AWOL men tens of thousands of dollars. They want Wilson to help them solve this problem and they will pay him handsomely.
Wilson has a relationship with his desk sergeant that is like father and son, even though Wilson is a young black man from the ghetto, and the desk sergeant is an old red neck from the Deep South. When the desk sergeant leaves Danang, he is replaced by another red neck, and this one immediately segregates the flights, sending blacks out only at night when the Viet Cong attacks are most deadly. Racial relations deteriorate to the point of confrontation, but Wilson has powerful friends who protect him. Gradually, as those friends ship out, Wilson has to depend on his own devices to protect himself. His generosity to his flight members and bunk mates brings him their support, but they are as powerless as Wilson against the powerful desk sergeant.
Wilson has concealed from his baby sister the real horror of being at Danang, but eventually he has to admit to her that he fears for his life, not from the Viet Cong, but from Americans—white men. His sister panics and puts the letter into the hands of a local politician, who puts it into the hands of a congressman, who puts it into the hands of President Johnson, who responds to Wilson directly asking for names and dates.
A series of events gets Wilson kicked out of Danang and sent to Saigon. There he finds evidence of wrong doing by his demented desk sergeant and is able to bring him to justice. He returns to the US a different man, shell shocked, strung out on drugs, but with a duffle bag full of US Treasury money orders he received for helping the AWOL soldiers in Danang.
EVALUATION:
KEY LEAD BREAKDOWN:
EMMANUAL WILSON: a young, black buck sergeant in the police squadron in his early twenties. He is wiry, strong, and pleasant mannered.
STRETCH: a wiry, excitable black man; mid twenties.
BEAR: a large, mild tempered black man with Southern accent; mid twenties.
AUSTIN: a well spoken black man from New York; early twenties.
BARNES: Red neck desk sergeant with Southern accent; thirty something.