chunk: Willard, while ambivalent about the mission, joins a Navy PBR (for "Patrol boat, riverine") commanded by "Chief" (Albert Hall) and crewmen Lance (Sam Bottoms), "Chef" (Frederic Forrest) and "(Mr.) Clean" (Laurence Fishburne) to head upriver. They rendezvous with surfing enthusiast Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore (Robert Duvall), a commander of a cavalry squadron, to discuss going up the Nung River. Kilgore initially scoffs at them, but befriends Lance when he discovers he is an expert surfer and agrees to escort them through the Viet Cong-held coastal mouth of the river where surfing conditions are particularly good. At dawn the helicopter raid commences. Amid the attack, Kilgore calls in a napalm sortie on the local cadres and the rivermouth is taken. Willard gathers his men to the PBR, which has been transported via helicopter, and begins the journey up river.