During the Vietnam War, Doc Peret reports to his elderly lieutenant sick with dysentery that Paul Berlin heard Cacciato left. Cacciato is a dumb and ugly seventeen-year-old who has decided to leave the war to go to Paris, which the lieutenant refers to as Gay Paree. The lieutenant decides that Cacciato's squad will go after the man so he does not have to report him as AWOL. Cacciato has mapped his six-thousand mile route from Vietnam to Paris, and the soldiers begin following his route. Not far in, they spot the man in the distance on the top of a mountain. Cacciato keeps revealing himself by leaving behind traces of his belongings and follows the exact route he had mapped out, so Third Squad is able to stay not far from Cacciato for days. At one point, Cacciato is only a hill away and begins waving to his squadron and yelling goodbye to them. Paul Berlin personally hopes that Cacciato is smarter than everyone gives him credit for and will actually get away. The squad catches up to Cacciato a second time, and Stink begins running armed toward the young soldier. Cacciato outsmarts his squad for the first time by setting up a booby trap; Stink trips over a wire and a smoke bomb goes off. The next morning, the squad sees Cacciato's breakfast fire, and Berlin is disappointed that Cacciato did not work smarter. The lieutenant commands multiple members of the squadron to fire off flares. He commands Berlin to fire a flare, too, and though he takes a minute to do, Berlin fires. The squadron then runs after Cacciato.