Corrected entry: The movie takes place in 1983, during the invasion of Grenada in October that year. The battle of Heartbreak Ridge occurred in Sept/Oct 1951. SGM ChooZoo informs Stitch that he, Highway and Stoney Jackson had left the Army after Heartbreak Ridge and joined the Marine Corp. At the time of the invasion of Grenada Highway would have had a total time in service of 32 years, 8 years past mandatory retirement for an E-7.
Corrected entry: After Highway defeats Swede, the marine says "Sir, I'll wait outside for the M.P.s to come." In the military, after basic training, non-commissioned officers are referred to by their rank, not 'sir'.
Corrected entry: Gunny Highway is a Medal of Honor recipient. Everyone salutes a MOH winner regardless of their rank, this would have been the case several times but especially at the party where they were in their dress uniforms.
Correction: While it is a tradition for salutes to be rendered to Medal of Honor recipients regardless of rank, it is not a requirement. There is no law, regulation, or standing order requiring that salutes be rendered by superiors to those of a lower rank who have been awarded the Medal of Honor. Moreover, such salutes would only be rendered when covered, which, except for certain ceremonial occasions, would not be the case for Naval and Marine service members when indoors.
Corrected entry: LT Ring's airborne device is Army, not the Navy Jump device that Highway and the rest of Recon Wears.
Correction: Army jump wings are authorized for graduating army jump school. The gold navy jump wings are not authorized until the successful completion of 10 jumps, to include a water landing and full combat gear jump.
Corrected entry: As the recon platoon is heading toward their "ambush" of Major Powers and 1st platoon, Highway tells Jones to "unsling those rifles, and you're making too much noise." Jones starts to unthread his rifle sling from the buckle in order to remove the sling from his rifle. Anyone familiar with the manual of arms (which includes ANYONE who has ever graduated from USMC basic training) knows that to "unsling" a rifle means to take it off your shoulder (from a slung position) and carry it in your hands, ready to use.
Correction: Not necessarily, I was in the Infantry and we "unslung" and taped our rifles to keep from making too much noise.
Corrected entry: In the movie, after the invasion of Grenada, when Clint Eastwood is directing Mario Van Peebles to get on the bulldozer, he is seen moving the selector on his M16 from "safe" to "auto". Just after Van Peebles gets on the bulldozer, he again moves the selector from "safe" to "auto".
Correction: Many special forces personnel do this at regular intervals as a form of reassurance (check out Andy Mcnabs "Immediate Action" autobiography for a far better and first-person explanation).
Corrected entry: Gysgt. Highway has 6 service stripes on his uniform. Since each stripe is 4 years, that would indicate he's been in anywhere from 24 to 27 years (having not received his 7th one yet if this is the case). The movie takes place in 1983, yet he won the CMH for actions during Heartbreak Ridge in Korea in 1951, 32 years prior to the events of the movie. SgtMaj. Choozoo briefly states that their involvement in Heartbreak Ridge was before they joined the USMC ("We joined the Corps later") and that they were in the 23rd Infantry. The 23rd Infantry Division of the U.S. Army (as is implied) was involved heavily in WWII and Vietnam, but not in the Korean War, so this is historically wrong.
Correction: They are not talking about the 23rd Infantry Division they are referencing the 23rd Infantry Regiment of the 2nd Infantry Division.
Correction: USMC hash marks are FOUR years. If Highway was in Korea, he may have got out for a number of years and has "broken time" before he went back in the service. He would have been awarded an Army MOH and it's highly unlikely in real life you'd ever see an MOH recipient attending recruit training which he would have had to do as a former Soldier.
Correction: Choozoo informs Stitch that He and Highway were in the Army during Korea then joined the Corps so it is possible for the stripes to depict the correct time in the service.
Correction: Service stripes or hash marks worn on a dress uniform indicate 3 years of military service not 4. I do remember the corps discussing making their hash mark indicate 2 years but I don't think it ever came about.
Corrected entry: Early in the film, Gunny Highway is tricked by Jones and is left stranded in the roadside diner when the bus they were on pulls away. Gunny Highway hitches a ride to the base and arrives with his two suitcases which would have been left on the bus while they were taking a short meal break.
Correction: They were waiting for another bus. That's why he had his gear (and Stitch had his guitar as well).
Corrected entry: When the Recon unit lands in Grenada their rifles do not have slings on them. When they get to the fortress and scale the wall all their rifles suddenly have slings on them.
Correction: When the recon team lands on Grenada their rifles have slings.
Corrected entry: During the second Field Training Exercise, when the Recon Team jumps out of a CH-46 helo, Swede and Gunny Highway paused for a conversation for several seconds while the rest are doing the actual jump. A delay like that would throw them way off the Drop Zone.
Correction: They were never shown landing. There is no time reference so we don't know how long it took them to rejoin the others. It could have been minutes, hours or even days between the scene in the plane and the scene of the platoon together again.
Corrected entry: When Highway beats up the Swede, Swede tells Highway "I'll wait outside for the M.P.s, sir". On a Marine base such as Camp Lejeune, the police authority would be the Shore Patrol(S.P.s) not the Army's Military Police, and anyone who's been in the brig as often as The Swede would know that.
Correction: Not sure about 1983, but the MP's are called that, either Military Police or Provost Marshal's Office. MP/PMO. Ran into plenty of them. There are shore patrol, but they would not be taking care of this kind of problem.
Correction: I was TDY with Marine Barracks in 84 and no-one called them "MP's", they were always SP. With Army, it was MP.
Corrected entry: Gunny Highway is drunk in the other room while Mario Van Peeble is told how Highway won the "CMH" in the Korean War. He said their platoon sergeant, Stony Jackson, recommended Highway for the award. First, the award is called "The Medal of Honor." There's no "Congressional" in the title. Second, only officers can recommend soldiers for the Medal of Honor. Stony Jackson's rank was that of an NCO.
Correction: The Medal of Honor is also known as the Congressional Medal of Honor; in fact, the official organisation for recipients is called The Congressional Medal of Honor Society. See: http://www.cmohs.org/medal.htm.
The "Medal of Honor" is erroneously called "The Congressional Medal of Honor", but no military personnel would call it "CMH." Even on the Congressional Medal of Honor Society's website the NEVER call it the Congressional Medal of Honor, in every instance it's simply called "The Medal of Honor."
Corrected entry: Whenever a Marine Corps unit goes anywhere they are accompanied by a United States Navy Corpsman. So when Profile gets hit a "doc" should have been there to be responsible for medical care. Although Marines are trained in basic injury care, they are still accompanied by a Corpsman per unit.
Correction: Recon units have SARC's or Special Amphibious Reconnaissance Corpsman. If they were in fact going into combat in Grenada they would never have left without a SARC.
Correction: Force Recon troops are like Army SF or Navy SEALS. Each trooper has several jobs. So, no corpsman would have accompanied them. However, one of them should have had training equal to a corpsman or better.
Correction: Not an E7 who is a CMH winner! They retire when they want to.