The 20 Most Historically Inaccurate Movies Ever

[brewens]

173. I watched Stone's company commander on C-Span2, plugging his book. I can't remember the

exact tittle, Charlie Company maybe, whatever company it was in the battalion he was commanding. He said the start of the movie was spot on accurate. Mainly showing them arriving in country and then out humping through the bush. After that, not so much.

He was Stones company commander for his first tour, Stone did two. He said he remembered him as a gung-ho trooper. He had a couple problems with the movie. The drug use depicted for one thing. He claimed at the time he was there, no way. Not out in the bush anyway. Maybe an officer like that would be oblivious to what was going on, but I'd say those guys would know better. He did say he couldn't say stuff like that didn't happen in the later years. Didn't one of the guys actually sneak off to fire up some heroine?

He also talked to Stone about just who the two Sargent's might have been. That was purely fiction, Stone told him so. Kind of an amalgamation of two Sargent's he knew and what might have happened.

Then he criticized it for depicting "the super platoon' that did everything you've ever read about from Vietnam. That part I'd agree with. Then again, it wasn't that bad because all of that stuff did happen somewhere to someone. I wasn't there but have read every book on it I could get my hands on, at least up to the late 80's.

A couple other things that company commander said about Vietnam I found interesting. He claims every major operation he was involved in was a tactical success, with by WWII standard, acceptable casualties. I don't really doubt that, he was just saying his guys always got the job done. Also that there were a lot higher percentage of volunteers than you would think. The recruiters really did a good job. The percentage of enlisted men vs draftees was comparable to WWII. You'd think that it would be just the opposite.

I can actually see how that could be. I'd like to see some serious research on that. At least early in the war, I can imagine a lot of guys getting stoked up and enlisting to go fight the communists. Just like their dads singed up for WWII. Then the image of everyone mobbing the recruitment centers during WWII might be a little overblown. My dad said he just waited to be drafted, even though he was more than willing to go. He was needed on the farm and his older brother was already in the army. The nearest recruitment center was 300 miles away. Then there were probably more draft dodgers in WWII than they lead us to believe. I can see it being a lot closer statistically than you'd think.