The Leather Boys one starts chatting him up. When Pete walks in they all recognise him and Reggie suddenly understands that Pete too is gay. He leaves. The book was published in 1961 under the pseudonym Eliot George—an inversion of the pen-name of the famous 19th century female author, Mary Ann Evans, who published as George Eliot. Freeman is credited under her own name in the film as the author of the screenplay based on the novel of "Eliot George". The original novel is explicit about the sexual relationship between the two male characters, and about the odds that the hero's wife is
Battle of FSB Mary Ann the base over to the ARVN. This lax attitude, combined with the skill of the attacking sappers, had fatal consequences for many in Charlie Company. Although not "cringing in their bunkers", the defenders of Mary Ann were not prepared for a ground attack. This lack of readiness was not noted by the 196th LIB commander, Colonel William S. Hathaway during a visit to the base on 27 March, the day before the attack. He later stated that what he'd seen at Mary Ann that day "was a big improvement over that I had seen before...the troops were alert." On the