Red Tails Page #4

Should have let you crash.

You'll be okay.

No surprises, Ray Gun.

You get healthy, all right?

Luck is with you, Ray!

I think we can cautiously

declare the landing a victory.

It's a slog, but the

ground troops are holding.

Colonel Bullard.

Sir.

Your boys chalked

eight kills in the air,

on the ground.

No losses in their first wave.

Outstanding. Pass along

my congratulations.

Thank you, sir.

Action reports and

assessments by 1500.

Colonel.

Eight German fighters

or 80 German fighters,

it still doesn't change what I

think of you and your boys.

We don't care.

Respect the uniform.

Believe me, sir, that is

all I have respect for.

It's not as bad as all this.

Leg's good, eye's fine.

In a week's time,

I'll be able to see fine out of one

eye and mostly out of the other.

"Mostly."

Is that what you

want me to tell Stance?

"Sir, Ray Gun has one-and-a-half

eyes' worth of ability."

Look, come on.

I landed a plane blind.

Lightning...

Hey, don't get me in this.

If the Flight Surgeon

won't clean bill you,

what do you expect me to do?

Just talk to him.

He listens to you.

I mean,

you got the same respect

on this base

as the old man, so...

I'd rather be dead

than on the ground.

Easy, you're

the best friend I got.

Please don't do this to me.

General Luntz, Colonel Bullard.

Thank you, Lieutenant.

Colonel, please.

Thank you.

No, thank you, sir.

Colonel, I'm in a hell of a fix

with our target in Europe.

Our boys are

getting cut to shreds.

I read the action report

from Operation Shingle.

Eight kills in your first wave.

Thirteen in ail.

That's a right trick.

Colonel, I'll give

it to you straight.

I can't afford

the kind of losses

my bombers have been suffering.

Do you have film

of the air cover

your bombers are

getting now, sir?

We need to change

the way we fight.

I need pilots who will fly close and

tight to the heavies all the way.

Not put my men in harm's way

by chasing rabbits.

So you're asking me

to tell my men

not to shoot down

Jerry fighters?

I'm asking them to put the

bombers ahead of themselves.

I don't care if they never

splash another Jerry fighter.

I need to get my heavies

to the target and back.

The losses from enemy air, I believe

my men can get that down, sir.

If you can bring back one or two

more of my planes every mission...

Sir, I believe we can cut

your losses by 70% or 80%.

Colonel, the word is

you're arrogant.

If "arrogant" is the only word

people use to describe me now,

I would say I think

I'm making progress.

Can you help us?

I'm asking you man to man.

Can you help save lives?

We need new planes.

No more hand-me-downs.

If you get us new planes,

we can help your boys.

I got a bullet right through my canopy.

I ought to be dead, y'all.

But nothing

happened to me though.

It's Black Jesus,

I'm telling you.

Oh, go on with that.

Let's play.

Don't sass Black Jesus, now

you might need him one day.

What happened to you is luck.

Just luck.

Lords of Poker,

Black Jesus, White Jesus,

Tooth Fairy, Easter

Bunny, all of them!

I done lost all my damn money.

Something is wrong.

Ain't that right.

How about you just get wise?

There is no special

mojo running the world.

Things just are how they are.

Us getting shot up

and the people we're protecting

not caring a thing for it.

I hear that.

You talk real tough, Joe Little.

Real cold.

Well, reality's

a little chilly.

Is that right?

Let's play!

Let me tell you about

this cold, hard brother.

While y'all trying to get by with

your whiskey and cigarettes,

guess what he's

doing with his rations?

- What's that?

- What he doing?

Trading them all for lingerie

to spoil his old lady.

Oh, really?

Perfume, silks.

Aw!

That tease!

Yeah, well, lucky at love

and lucky at cards.

Right like that. Boom!

Man, you are so beautiful.

Of course, you have no

idea what I'm saying.

I love you.

Oh, uh...

Wow, that's...

Uh...

Uh...

Shh!

What are you doing here?

This is an officers' club.

I am an officer.

This is a whites-only

officers' club.

You're off

the reservation, pal.

Try the Italian dance hall

near the main plaza.

Hey. Go home, n*gger.

I got what I came for.

Good night.

Am I going

to be court-martialed?

I don't know.

I'm sure you trying to start a

race riot won't help you...

I was finishing

what they started!

Wrong or right,

we got regs to live by.

And you throwing punches,

busting them up, gets you what?

A good feeling, Easy.

Right here.

A throb that says I didn't choke

on what they were feeding me.

How do your heart feel? You say

"they" like it's all of them.

Same as always. "Shuffle

along, cause no strife.

"Don't scare the ofays

by speaking out."

Some other time I'd have stood

with you, side by side.

"Some other time"!

But you put a minute's worth of

righteousness ahead of a whole war!

Ugh!

Same old Joe Little.

Still getting into the wrong

fights for the wrong reasons.

Your reasons any better?

You spent your whole life being one

big, lousy Atlanta Compromise.

Well, go sell that somewhere else.

I'm not buying it.

I've come bearing gifts.

I'm all ears, sir.

Bomber escort

New P-51 s.

You did it.

You really did it, sir.

Come on. Let's get some food.

I'm hungry.

Welcome home, Colonel.

Lieutenant Little

. What am I going to do with you?

Everything's a fight, isn't it?

It must be so goddamn

exhausting being you.

You know something, Joe Little?

You're a punk.

You remind me

of one of those kids

from a comic strip,

walking around,

pushing his sleeve up one arm,

hand balled in a tight fist,

walking and looking at the

world through a squint.

Always looking to knock something

down just because it's standing.

It's right there.

It's right there.

You really want to

knock something down?

Try using that.

Because I will

tell you straight,

I don't have

anything against you.

I have the highest

expectations for you.

Lieutenant Little,

I need everyone on

this next mission.

And you're lucky you're the

best damn pilot we've got.

Report to your unit.

Bless you

For being an angel

Just when it seemed

That heaven was not for me

Bless you, for building...

They let you out, huh?

Or did you bust out?

Very funny.

Look, uh.

I said some things.

Yeah, you did.

I didn't mean them.

Yeah, you did.

You know me. Act

first, think later.

Well, nobody's perfect.

We good?

Yeah, we're good.

I figured it out.

What? That throwing punches

doesn't solve your problems?

No.

That maneuver Pretty Boy

pulled on me, got on my tail,

I figured out how to do it.

Fancy trick flying

will only get you killed.

Or make me an ace.

The American pilots flying escort now

go for every kill they can score.

That's how they were trained.

That's how they fight.

Here's how we change up the strategy.

Lights up.

At all costs, under every circumstance,

you protect the heavies.

Colonel.

We signed up to shoot

Germans, not babysit planes.

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