Factual error: When Mac Taylor's ID card from the Marine Corps is being shown, there are two unintentional mistakes and one probably intentional. First, the design of the ID card in no way resembles an actual DoD issued military ID, but this was probably an intentional mistake by the creators of the show. The picture on the ID however, has two unintentional mistakes. First, Marines are never photographed in their dress blues for official purposes; Mac would have been in cammies or service dress charlies for the photograph. Second, Mac is revealed in several episodes to have been an officer, yet he is shown wearing the dress blues of an enlisted man.
Factual error: Lessing is said to have tried to enter the Marine Corps three times but failed the psych test; no psych tests are given when entering the Marine Corps.
Chosen answer: Probably to broaden the scope of the show's plot and give the audience a chance to see the characters in a different setting, People act differently at home from the way they do at their workplace. By the ninth season, the characters would have become overly familiar and predictable. It gives the writers a chance to do something different with them.
raywest ★