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?
Casualties of War (1989)
1 question
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.
Lt. Reilly: What happened is the way things are. So why try to buck the system?
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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