Had to do this one first, it was the sweetest and best.
So we are treated early on by the introduction of a boy (who was maybe only a year or two younger than Bobby, max) who got a gun from his dad and was eager to go on his first hunt to kill a deer he'd seen walking by a stream a few times. But when it all came down to it, the kid wasn't able to do it -- he said the deer seemed like an old friend. Thus, we are introduced to young Billy Sayres, a tender-hearted kid who will be presented with more than one moral dilemma in this story.
Flash forward supposedly to a handful of years later, and we see Bobby at the kitchen table with his dad, explaining why he wants to enlist in the Navy to fight Korea.
Bobby gives an excellent dissertation here as to why his character would prefer to join the Navy to joining the Army: he supposes he'd at least not have to look another man face-to-face as he kills him. This was beautifully done, and it makes me wonder if Bobby was able to put so much soul into this because he may have connected himself with what the character was saying? Of course, that's conjecture. At any rate, here's a beautiful screenshot of this:
After deciding to enlist, the character goes for his physical assessment and is of course turned down for action due to his eyesight. It's interesting to see Bobby struggle to read the eye chart on the wall due to the fact that I suspect he had perfect eyesight. We never have seen Bobby wearing glasses except for this particular show, and it would seem neither of his parents needed glasses or contacts either. So I'm wondering what the experience of wearing glasses for this show was like for him! Of course I figure these glasses had fake lenses in them so his actual sight wasn't altered....
By the way, total treat was hearing the way he pronounced "Double-ya" when reading off the chart for the eye doctor. I might have only noticed this because, here in the South, I mostly hear it like "Double-you." Bobby's accent seems mostly rounded and free of any dialects, but there are times you can hear that midwest in there!
Here's a screencap of him wearing the glasses, and also some kind of coat that makes his chest and shoulders look twice their normal size. Hmm.
Here's another of him in his basic training uniform. Isn't it sweet?
So the character ends up being accepted to the medical corps, and next thing we see, Bobby's over in Korea talking to some buddies about to go into battle. It's pointed out to him by one particularly rough character that the medical corps guys are basically screwed because they have to get up close to the action to help the wounded, yet don't have guns or anything to protect themselves. Bobby responds dourly with a "Thanks for telling us..."
Had to feature that thousand-watt smile on here somewhere!
This is a really great close-up taken from the moment the two medical corpsmen ran out to try to help some injured soldiers, and Bobby's character's buddy was attacked and killed by a Korean. It stirs up such an anger in him that he grabs a gun and heads out to the front. When a fellow soldier reminds him he isn't allowed to do that, he replies, "I don't see anybody who's gonna stop me." GREAT moment.
So he gets out there, determined to do his part. Very quickly, however, a grenade is thrown in his direction and even though he's able to duck down enough to stay safe, he loses his glasses... and suddenly has no idea where he is or who's coming at him.
(Let me just add here that I totally understand the feeling. This is definitely about the size of what I'd be able to see without my own glasses...)
But he boldly stands up and charges anyway. Brassy boy!
Thank goodness he is stopped at the last minute when he realizes the duo he was about to clock were fellow soldiers. A grateful Billy Sayres drops his bayonet just in time to collapse to the ground... evidently, he was wounded after all in the wake of the grenade....
The next thing we see is Billy in the hospital, being questioned by his military superiors regarding his actions on that day. At first, he is wary and seems to feel he's going to be in trouble for having engaged in combat against what he was trained to do...
To his surprise, however, he is pinned with a Bronze Star for his courage.
Let me just pause this by saying, if anyone has ever seen a picture of Bobby's son Dan smiling just this way, you can totally see the resemblance. It's a precious thing.
This was, as I said above, my very favorite of the shows sent to me. Bobby did an amazing job portraying this tender-hearted yet brave young man. He was around 17 or 18 when he filmed this, which causes me some sadness to realize Bobby was already on drugs at this point and probably hiding the huge secret. He must have felt very alone and afraid for the future, given he had only recently been bounced from Disney and was struggling to get parts. Even so, he gave his very best to this performance.
Hope you enjoyed the retelling!
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