Fallen Angels: List 1

by Walter Dean Myers
After finishing high school, aspiring writer Richard Perry does not have the money for college, so he decides to enlist in the army and ends up fighting for his life in Vietnam.

This list covers pages 3–107 in the 1988 edition published by Scholastic Inc.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3
40 words 2518 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. fatigues
    military uniform worn by personnel when doing menial labor
    Most of us were in fatigues, the army’s work clothes.
  2. infantry
    an army unit consisting of soldiers who fight on foot
    We picked up about fifty more guys in Anchorage, most of them infantry from Fort Lewis.
  3. personnel
    group of people willing to obey orders
    “Medical personnel assigned to the Sixty-seventh Group or the 312th or the Twenty-third Battalion fall out and get in those buses over there. Everybody else stand at ease.”
  4. artillery
    large but transportable armament
    A rumbling noise off to my left sounded like distant thunder. We knew it was artillery.
  5. outfit
    any cohesive unit such as a military company
    “What kind of outfit were you in?” Peewee asked.
    “I was with the Twenty-fourth Transportation Battalion, but I put in for a transfer ’cause I had a run-in with my commanding officer.”
  6. court-martial
    a trial that is conducted by a military tribunal
    “They give me a choice, transfer or court-martial,” he said. “So you know I got to transfer, because I can’t stand no jail time.”
  7. barrack
    a building or group of buildings to house military personnel
    Three guys from each hooch, which is what they called the barracks, had to pull guard duty and the ranger volunteered for it.
  8. truce
    a state of peace agreed to between opponents
    I told him that I had heard that there was going to be a truce, and there wouldn’t be any more fighting.
  9. quota
    a prescribed number
    “I got to kill eight more Cong before I get my quota. Then I can go home.”
  10. malaria
    a disease caused by parasites transmitted by mosquito bite
    Take your pills. Once a week for malaria, twice a week if you’re too stupid to remember the day you last took them.
  11. ration
    the food allowance for one day
    Peewee looked out over the trucks, which were mostly packed with crates of rations and supplies.
  12. insignia
    a badge worn to show official position
    The lieutenant was sharp, his brass belt buckle and insignia were shined, and his uniform was creased in all the right places.
  13. flak
    artillery designed to shoot upward at airplanes
    The captain who greeted us was wearing a flak jacket, the heavy vest that was supposed to stop bullets and shrapnel.
  14. corporal
    a noncommissioned officer in the armed forces
    We were told by a corporal that Alpha Company was “In the Deep.”
  15. flare
    a device that produces a light for warning or illumination
    In the distance someone was shooting off flares. In a way it was beautiful, like brilliant white and red flowers against the dark sky.
  16. teem
    move in large numbers
    I could break the loneliness, the feeling of not belonging to the life that teemed around me, by going to the basketball courts.
  17. intelligence
    the operation of gathering information about an enemy
    “You could get into surveillance with your test scores,” a lieutenant had said. “Maybe even army intelligence.”
  18. paddy
    an irrigated or flooded field where rice is grown
    We were on flat ground going along a row of small rice paddies.
  19. concave
    curving inward
    The blood gurgled out of the wound it made and sprayed along the concave metallic surface.
  20. canteen
    a flask for carrying water; used by soldiers or travelers
    Sergeant Simpson let a young boy wear his canteen.
  21. makeshift
    done or made using whatever is available
    He got his towel and went out to our makeshift showers.
  22. static
    crackling or hissing noise caused by electrical interference
    After chow we put the television on, but nothing was on. Nothing at all. All we got was static.
  23. convoy
    a procession of land vehicles traveling together
    “They must have got a convoy,” Brunner said.
  24. flank
    the side of military or naval formation
    Third platoon’s responsibility is just to protect the left flank of the LZ.
  25. lush
    produced or growing in extreme abundance
    I didn’t know we were even getting near until the door gunner put his hand on his headset, as if he were listening to something, then moved to his gun, pointed it down at the lush green jungle below us, and started firing.
  26. caliber
    diameter of a tube or gun barrel
    The .50 caliber started spitting, and the shells came out at an enormous rate.
  27. dense
    hard to pass through because of heavy growth
    There was no fire, and we stopped in a pretty dense area.
  28. subside
    wear off or die down
    We waited twenty minutes. Nothing. The sound of gunfire subsided.
  29. surveillance
    close observation of a person or group
    “It’s a long-range surveillance team,” Walowick said. “They don’t fight if they can help it. They just go out and see what’s out there.”
  30. intricate
    having many complexly arranged elements; elaborate
    The perimeter of the camp was marked by intricate patterns of barbed wire barriers.
  31. maneuver
    a military training exercise
    I swept my eyes over the gate, the way they had showed us to on night maneuvers back at Devens.
  32. communism
    a form of socialism that abolishes private ownership
    Brunner said he was fighting because he hated Communism.
  33. domino theory
    idea that communist nations will convert neighboring nations
    Lobel said something about the domino theory, how if Vietnam fell to the Communists then the rest of Asia might fall.
  34. salve
    a preparation applied externally as a soothing remedy
    “Yeah,” Brew was putting salve on his feet.
  35. correspondent
    a journalist who supplies stories for news media
    One of the correspondents had left a New York Times behind and I went through it.
  36. sprawl
    sit or lie with one's limbs spread out
    But the dead Vietnamese soldier, his body sprawled out in the mud, was no longer a human being.
  37. lurch
    move suddenly or as if unable to control one's movements
    Suddenly it picked up speed, wheels squealing, lurching from one side of the narrow street to the other.
  38. strut
    brace consisting of a bar or rod used to resist compression
    The struts were supposed to take the jolt out of the landing, but I wanted to be out before they hit.
  39. barrage
    the heavy fire of artillery to saturate an area
    Just the idea of being hit by a white phosphorus barrage sent a chill through me. The barrage lasted for fifteen seconds, then stopped abruptly.
  40. lapel
    a fold of fabric below the collar of a coat or jacket
    One kid, the angry stain of blood on his T-shirt growing with every breath, watched calmly as the medic wrote up the tag. The medic tied it to his lapel and patted the kid’s shoulder.
Created on Sat Apr 06 14:48:27 EDT 2013 (updated Tue Aug 08 13:41:50 EDT 2023)

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