Character mistake: When the platoon is walking to the village the next morning after the firefight in the jungle the previous night Brownie is shown walking with no sleeves on his fatigues then later on right before he's shot and killed by the VC he's shown with sleeves on but rolled up when talking to Ericsson near the farmer in the rice paddy.
Casualties of War (1989)
Directed by: Brian De Palma
Starring: John C. Reilly, Sean Penn, Michael J. Fox, Don Harvey
Factual error: When the helicopter comes into the village after Brownie is shot, it is shown displaying the red cross, as well as door machine guns. As a medevac operating under the protection of the red cross, it can't be armed. If it was a dustoff, that would be fine as dustoff choppers are called in as the closest unit to evacuate a casualty is still a combatant aircraft. Since it has the red cross on it, it is not considered to be a combatant and can't be armed.
Capt. Hill: You couldn't let it rest, could you? You had to push it?
Eriksson: Go to hell. SIR.
Lt. Reilly: What happened is the way things are. So why try to buck the system?
Eriksson: Can you imagine that? You escape Viet Nam and you die from an airline fatality.
Clark: Never happen, Cherry. You survive the Nam, you get to live forever, man.
Question: When the guys are getting ready to go into town, one of them says about the sarge "as short as he is he's out of here in 30 days." Someone also said "anyone as short as Brownie shouldn't have been out there". What do they mean by short?
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Answer: "Short" in this context is military slang for someone whose tour of duty is coming close to an end. It's a derivative of "short-timer."
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