Fallen Angels is a 1988 war novel written by Myers and
published by Scholastic Corporation that takes place during the
Vietnam war's Tet Offensive in 1968.

The story follows a small of soldiers— Private Richard "Richie" Perry,
Private Harold "Peewee" Gates, Corporal Lobel, Private Johnson,
Corporal Brunner, Private Sonny Monaco, Private Walowick,
and Private "Brew" Brewster—who are all stuck together in Vietnam.

They came there for different reasons,
but now they share a single dream: leaving alive.

The book deals with issues of race relations in the
Army during the war and with the pains of combat,
especially for those of a young soldier.

Furthermore, it questions the motives behind the
fighting and its actual reasons.
Only the bond the soldiers share can help them make it out alive.

Fallen Angels won the 1989 Coretta Scott King.Fallen Angels is listed as number 24 in the American Library Association's list of 100 most frequently challenged books of 1990–2000.

Richie Perry -
The narrator and protagonist.
Richie is a seventeen-year-old high school graduate from Harlem.
Though he is smart and ambitious, his alcoholic single mother
cannot afford to send him to college, so he joins the army to
escape an uncertain future. Richie is sent to Vietnam and,
during his months there, suffers numerous harrowing combat
experiences and tries to grapple with the meaning of war,
heroism, and good and evil.

Kenny Perry -
Richie’s younger brother.
Kenny depends on his older brother,
who acts as a father figure to him and
enlists in Vietnam in part to help support him.
Yet Richie seems to need Kenny just as much as
Kenny needs him. Kenny’s dependence on Richie
and his admiration and love for him act as
Richie’s only solid link to the civilian world
during the war and provide him with
his only sense of purpose.

Mabel Perry -
Richie’s mother, a depressive alcoholic
who has barely functioned since her
husband left her years earlier.
Though Richie and his mother have never
gotten along well they realize how much they
need each other while Richie is in Vietnam.
They try to repair their damaged relationship through their letters.

Harold “Peewee” Gates -
Richie’s closest friend in Vietnam.
Peewee copes with the fear and uncertainty
of the war with comical bravado, though he
occasionally allows his true emotions to
peek through the bluster.

Lobel - *a movie freak*
A member of Richie’s squad.
Jewish and possibly homosexual, Lobel
is the target of prejudice nearly as frequently
as the black soldiers, to whom he pledges his support
in racial skirmishes. Lobel is a devoted fan of the movies,
and he distances himself from the horror of battle by
imagining that he is merely playing a role in a war film.

Monaco -*The brave one*
A soldier of Italian descent on Richie’s squad.
Monaco seems slightly braver than the rest,
always taking the dangerous position of point man.

Captain Stewart - The commander of Richie’s company. Captain Stewart wants to be promoted to major, but his company needs to accrue a higher enemy body count for him to earn the promotion. He sends Richie’s company on numerous dangerous missions, risking the lives of the soldiers under his command for the sake of his own ambition.

Sergeant Simpson -
The leader of Richie’s squad.
When Richie first arrives in Vietnam,
Sergeant Simpson is near the end of his tour of duty.
He warns Richie and the other new soldiers not to get
him killed because of their inexperience.
Later, under great pressure from Stewart,
Simpson extends his tour by thirty days
, but he survives and returns home, just as he wished.

Lieutenant Carroll - *he died :( *
The leader of Richie’s platoon.
A smart and sympathetic leader,
Lieutenant Carroll is well-liked by
the men under his command, and
his death during combat leaves them all grief-stricken.

Lieutenant Gearhart - *i dont really like hes character*
The inexperienced leader of
Richie’s platoon after Lieutenant Carroll’s death.

Brewster -
A devoutly religious soldier in Richie’s squad.
Brew plans to join the ministry upon his return to civilian life.

Corporal Brunner -*the bully*
An ambitious soldier on
Richie’s squad. A bully, Corporal Brunner constantly
kisses up to soldiers of higher rank, while abusing those below him.

Sergeant Dongan - *racist*
An officer who replaces Simpson as the leader
of Richie’s squad. Sergeant Dongan is a racist
and always places black soldiers in the most
dangerous positions during patrols.
He is killed in combat.

Judy Duncan -
An army nurse Richie meets during
the trip to Vietnam. Though Richie sees
Judy only once more before learning of her death,
she serves as the closest thing to a love interest
in the novel, and she is a source of confusion
and tame fantasy for Richie.

Earlene -
Peewee’s girlfriend. Not long after
Peewee arrives in Vietnam, Earlene
writes him a letter, informing him that
she married another man in his absence.
She symbolizes how war disrupts domestic affairs.

Jamal -
A medic in Richie’s company.

Jenkins -
A member of Richie’s squad
who arrives in Vietnam at the same
time as Richie. He dies early on by stepping on a mine.

Johnson -
An extraordinarily strong black soldier
on Richie’s squad who proves himself
to be a born leader and who is the carrier
of the M60 machine gun .

Johnny Robinson -
A boy from Richie’s neighborhood
in Harlem who is killed in Vietnam.

Turner -
A soldier briefly on Richie’s squad.