Rated APC: another pile of crap

I was an 0311 (rifleman) with the Marines in VN in '68 and have been to VN a number of times since '94.

I don't like to fixate on technial or historic flaws in a movie but here are two in Going Back, aka Under Heavy Fire.

1) In the first part of the movie the Marines are confronted with what looks like an armored personnel carrier; I think it was referred to as a "tank" in the dialogue. The North Vietnamese did not use armored vehicles in South Vietnam until their '72 offensive with the exception of the attack on the Special Forces camp at Lang Vei near the Laotiona border in '68.

2) The movie has the Marines landing against hostile fire on a beach. There were no contest landings at the waterline during the war.

This movie has the same flaw that the Boys of Company C had in that it has a captain interacting on squad level frequently with enlisted men. A platoon leader, a Lt., would be in that position, not a captain. Captains are not known to go out with squad strength patrols; Lts. often do not as well.

The maudlin level of this movie was rather beau coup, I'd say. I went back in '94 with a group of vets and crossed paths with many vets in VN on following visits and never saw such handwringing over the war as I did in this APC rated mess.