Goofs

For the dedication of Provo Privy, the colonel and Sgt. Muldoon are back at Ft. Bragg. John Wayne is in the same uniform and the bleachers are visible in the background.

After they parachute into the mission to snatch the NVA General, and Sgt. Kowalski fights and kills the three VC before being killed himself, Kowalski gets off a call to Kirby, just before dying with the radio set next to the right side of his head. Less than one minute later Kirby's party catches up and sees Kowalski dead next to three dead VC, but there is no radio set next to the right side of Kowalski's head.

The original poster states that "At the start of the movie, the orientation team is a part of the 3rd Special Forces Group. Muldoon and McGee are wearing 3rd Group flashes on their berets." This is incorrect. The solid red flashes on the berets of the orientation team, Muldoon and McGee at the beginning of the film are the flashes of the 7th Special Forces Group, not the 3rd SFG.

At the start of the movie, the orientation team is a part of the 3rd Special Forces Group. Muldoon and McGee are wearing 3rd Group flashes on their berets. The next time we see them, they are with Col. Kirby watching Peterson. They are then wearing 5th Group flashes.

Before they all leave for Vietnam, Sgt. Muldoon wakes everybody up and turns to Petersen's place and the top of an open guitar case can be seen with a guitar in it. Then we get a look at the place from Muldoon's point of view. The next shot shows Muldoon again, but the guitar is now out of the case and leaning against the wall.

At around 37 mins, the captain is told "Skipper, Savoy 3 is on on the horn sir". When the captain answers the radio call, he says "Savoy 3 to Savoy 6, over". It should be the other way around or "Savoy 3, this is Savoy 6".

When Col Kirby meets Vietnamese Colonel Cai in Danang, Col Cai is wearing the collar insignia of South Vietnamese captain which is 3 floral pips. A South Vietnamese colonel wears 3 pips with a bar beneath them.

One scene shows several helicopters touching down in a landing zone (LZ) near the base camp. Simultaneously (and well before all the helicopters have completed their landing) at least 1 jeep is shown driving out into the LZ, approaching a helicopter from its rear and crowding alongside it's spinning tail rotor. This is extremely dangerous and people have literally lost their heads because of this. Safety mandates that everyone stays clear of all helicopter spinning tail rotors at all times and an LZ should be kept clear of all non-emergency vehicles.

Kirby arrives in Vietnam on an airfield where the airfield operations do not make any sense. For some reason there are troops marching around in circles on the tarmac and one version of every single type of aircraft the army owns sitting right next to each other. In addition, there are jeeps driving all around the tarmac with troops with loaded guns. This is a very dangerous and improbable use of an airfield.

When Col. Kirby lands in Da Nang he is met by Col. Morgan who arrives in a jeep driven by a Private First Class (E-3) wearing the Special Forces green beret. This is highly improbable. Until recently soldiers seeking to join the Special Forces had to hold an E-4 rank or higher just to apply. Even if a lower-ranking soldier were accepted for SF training, he would hold a higher rank after earning the green beret (at least specialist or sergeant E-5, as demonstrated in the A-teams in the film.) Simply put, the Green Berets have never had PFCs as members.

This film is famous (or infamous) for its "sun setting in the east" final scene, due to the fact that "Vietnam has no west coast" and therefore if the sun is sinking into the ocean, it "must" be setting in the east. However, there are plenty of places in Vietnam (the eastern peninsula of Cam Ranh Bay, the southeastern shore of Ga Cà Ná, Hái Long, Vung Tau, and dozens of places just south of Saigon) where one can stand on the shore and watch the sun sink into the sea, because bays and peninsulas have both eastern and western shores. Without further evidence of an error, nothing in the film itself states clearly that the characters are standing facing eastward toward the ocean.

During the night attack on the base, a medium shot of the attacking "Vietcong" clearly shows that, although dressed in the traditional VC black pajamas and conical straw hats, most, if not all, of them are Caucasians (the film was shot at Fort Benning, Georgia, and many soldiers were hired as extras).

When Kirby's helicopter crashes in a ball of fire the rigging cables used to suspend it are visible.

The M-16 that Col. Kirby smashes against a tree is a toy gun made by Mattel in the 1960s. You can see tell by the speaker holes in the magazine (which is also much larger than a real M-16 magazine).

Col. Kirby uses a "fatal hookup" when rappelling from the mansion's balcony. He is clearly shown wrapping the rope the wrong way through the karabiner. As soon as weight is put on it, the karabiner opens and the rappeller falls free. U.S. Army karabiners in 1968 were non-locking, and were called "snap links" because of it.

Although hard to spot in the film, still photographs taken on location reveal Colonel Kirby and Captain MacDaniel to be wearing highly polished, standard combat boots - not paratrooper's jump boots - with their tan Class A uniforms in their scenes at Ft. Bragg. Special Forces soldiers, all qualified paratroopers, wore jump boots with both their dress and fatigue uniforms.

While wearing fatigues stateside (presumably at Ft Bragg) all enlisted personnel are wearing subdued rank insignia etc. Yet when they deploy to DaNang, Vietnam (presumably a combat zone) all enlisted personnel are wearing full-color rank insignia (gold stripes, etc).

The need for subdued insignia is so as to not allow the enemy see it from very far away and/or easily determine who outranks who. Would seem like this combat precaution would not be in play at Ft Bragg, but sure would once deployed "in country."

It is clearly implied that Col. Kirby and Capt. McDaniel both have previous tours to Vietnam. But, early on, when they are shown wearing their ribbons, neither one has any ribbon earned while serving in 'Nam. Nor do they have the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal which was awarded for Vietnamese service prior to 1965. From 1965 on, U.S. forces earned the Vietnam Service medal. Most also earned the Vietnam Campaign medal issued by the Vietnamese government and authorized for wear by U.S. service people.

When John Wayne's Helicopter was hit and crashes straps attached to the main rotor that they dropped it from are visible.

The movie supposedly takes place in Vietnam. Besides the southern yellow pines that make up 95% of the forests, there is an obvious lack of palm trees and other tropical plants. In addition, in the beginning of the movie they walk past a water tower with a red and white checkered paint scheme. This is how water towers are painted on U.S. military bases in the United States. Forward operation posts do not build water towers like this.

Petersen should have realized that soldiers in enemy territory never let their guard down, even when they are returning from a mission.

After the Americans arrive at the base camp, John Wayne/Col Kirby introduces David Janssen to the camp commander by pointing his weapon at him and waving it. As a soldier, his character should know better: you treat your weapon as though it is loaded and never point the muzzle at something unless it is a target.

At about 109min. Kirby orders the following pre-jump sequence: Port side stand up, starboard side stand up. Hook up. Stand in the door. Go. He omits the order to check equipment; no jumpmaster would ever omit this.

When Petersen is killed by the booby trap at the end of the movie, Kirby picks up his pack, but leaves the body without collecting one of Petersen's two dog tags. When combat conditions do not allow for a soldier's body to be immediately recovered, one of the soldier's two dog tags is always collected, and one remains with the body for identification. Any commanding officer would have collected the tag in that situation.

After they parachute in on the mission to snatch the NVA General and the point man fights and kills the three VC, the rest of the unit arrives and in his frustration John Wayne's character slams an M-16 against a tree. No experienced military person on a mission with limited supplies would waste a perfectly working M16. You never know when it may be needed.

Sgt. Muldoon implies the Revolutionary War ended in 1776, when it actually ended Sept. 3rd, 1783.