Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: To follow your instincts and to inspire your men, by your example, you have to be with 'em. Where the metal meets the meat.
Sergeant Ernie Savage: Beautiful morning, Sergeant.
Sergeant Major Basil Plumley: What are you a fucking weatherman now?
Sergeant Major Basil Plumley: Seen the new rifles too, the M-16.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: That's supposed to be a pretty good weapon.
Sergeant Major Basil Plumley: Ahh, lotsa plastic. Feels like a BB gun to me. Believe I'm gonna stick with my pistol.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: Think we're gonna get close enough to the enemy to use that?
Sergeant Major Basil Plumley: What do you think, sir?
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: I think you oughta get yourself an M-16.
Sergeant Major Basil Plumley: Sir, if the time comes I need one, there'll be plenty lying on the ground.
2nd Lieutenant Jack Geoghegan: Barbra and I spent a year in Africa. We helped build a school for orphans. They were orphans because the warlord across the border didn't like their tribe. I know that God has a plan for me, I just hope it's to help protect orphans, not make any.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: You got a death wish, Galloway?
Joe Galloway: No, sir.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: Then why are you here?
Joe Galloway: Cause I knew these dead boys would be here, sir.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: I can hear you laughing you know.
Julie Moore: I'm not laughing, I'm marveling.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: At what?
Julie Moore: That you can find stubbornness in your children and think it comes from anywhere but you.
Sgt. Ernie Savage: Good morning, Sergeant Major.
Sergeant Major Basil Plumley: How do you know what kind of goddamn day it is?
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: I got a problem, Snake Shit, and I think you're the solution.
Maj. Bruce Crandall: I've been called a lot of things, Colonel, never a solution.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: I'll never forgive myself.
Joseph Galloway: For what, sir?
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: That my men... that my men died and I didn't.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: I wonder what was going through Custer's mind when he realised that he'd led his men into a slaughter?
Sergeant Major Basil Plumley: Sir, Custer was a pussy. You ain't.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: Where you from, son?
Joseph Galloway: Refugio, Texas, sir.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: Well, that's the first thing I've heard today that makes any sense.
Joe Galloway: Sir, I don't know how to tell this story.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: Well you have to, Joe. You tell the American people what happened here. You tell them how my troopers died.
Joe Galloway: Yes sir.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: Broken Arrow.
Chosen answer: There is no definitive information on this topic, and although factually accurate, a technical problem with a weapon was probably not enough to build an entire sub-plot, and would not hold the interest of the moviegoer. There were enough casualties without having to take into consideration weapon malfunction.
Macalou