Trivia: When Stanley introduces himself, Mason replies with "but of course you are". James Bond said the same thing to Plenty O'Toole in Diamonds are Forever, and both Bond and Mason were played by Sean Connery.
Trivia: Arnold Schwarzenegger was offered the role of Stanley Goodspeed, but turned it down because he disliked the script.
Trivia: The line "I'll take pleasure in guttin' you, boy" is from another Alcatraz-related film, "Escape From Alcatraz" starring Clint Eastwood.
Chosen answer: Alcatraz is small enough and out in the middle of the bay that any lookout in a high point could see and hear a chopper, no matter where it approached from. The idea of the decoys was to split any enemy fire received. The whole insertion of SEALS was absurd, in a real situation like that, the SEALS would have been inserted by submarine or used dive motors to pull themselves to the island.
Grumpy Scot