When R. Lee Ermey died, naturally there were many references to "Full Metal Jacket" but in my mind this is his best role. As many memorable lines as FMJ but a more well rounded multi dimensional character.
Many years ago I worked with an older man who had served in Vietnam. At one point we discussed all the major Vietnam movies I knew of: We Were Soldiers, Deer Hunter, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, etc. He claimed none of them were accurate to the real Vietnam war.....except for this movie.
I remember watching this on the TNT channel 12 with my grandpa. I miss chilling on his couch smelling and hearing him sip on his black coffee reading the paper. I can still smell the pages and the burnt pine firewood in the double wide with 70s brown wall paneling and orange shag carpets. It was always boiling in there, I think he might've kept it that way so we'd go play outside 😂
Oh this was just a Vietnam vet telling me stories of his time there, this was in the very early eighties when I was in high school. It wasn;t like research or anything like that. He told me a story like in the movie where 3 sentries not paying attention were killed and decapitated. But he never gave any names of places or dates.
At Tan Son Nhut air base 4 guys in an observation post had their throats cut by V.C. at the start of Tet. Taking turns staying awake and one or two of them who were supposed to be awake fell asleep.
This VC behead tactics, is VC studies from China Communist Party(PRC). Because our ROC(Taiwan) Army forces, there are also examples like this, in Kinmen Island. Our Army force in Kinmen Island, PRC's special force often in this way , secretly attacking our garrison; and every time I choose to sneak in the middle of the night.
You do realize that the Taiwanese military beheaded people they suspected of being communists right? There was kind of a well known mini genocide on that island in the 50s against anyone even remotely sympathetic to anything to the left of the KMT.
