Captain Willard was nominated for deletion. The discussion was closed on 22 October 2017 with a consensus to merge. Its contents were merged into Apocalypse Now. The original page is now a redirect to this page. For the contribution history and old versions of the redirected article, please see its history; for its talk page, see here.
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I'm looking for the best picture or any informations about the KAF's U-6 (Beaver). It seem that the KAF had 3 aircrafts. But in 1971, during the viet cong's sapper attack at the Pochentong Air Base,at least 1 Beaver was destroyed.In 1972 at leat 1 Beaver was refurbished with a new engine. http://www.khmerairforce.com/AAK-KAF/AVNK-AAK-KAF/Cambodia-Beaver-KAF.JPG Thankfull for this info. [Unsigned]
Watching the Redux version of the movie yesterday, I noticed an important detail about CPT Willard that this article seems to have gotten wrong, or at least not quite right. While this article describes Willard consistently as a Special Forces officer, there is no explicit indication at any point, even in the augmented version of the film, that he is, in fact, a Green Beret. The only point where the script flirts with the idea (as FlieGerFaUstMe262pointed out) is when Willard, reading through Kurtz's dossier, marvels at Kurtz's passing jump school and doing Special Forces training at "38 fucking years old." Both programs are notoriously grueling and difficult even for young men in their physical prime, and when Willard mentions that he "did it when [he] was 19 and it damn near wasted [him]," it's somewhat ambiguous whether he's taking about jump school or Special Forces training. If it is the latter, Willard does not indicate whether or not he was one of the extremely small percentage of candidates who actually make it all the way through the selection and qualification process. Indeed, he is never seen wearing a green beret or any Special Forces insignia. Just after his bedroom freak-out at the beginning of the film, Willard's unit is stated by the visiting sergeant to be the fictional 505th battalion of the real 173rd Airborne, but attached to SOG. This seems to be accurately reflected in the uniforms he wears from that point on in the movie: the insignia on his right shoulder, indicating his former combat unit, is of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, and the SSI on his left shoulder indicates that his current assignment has him working directly for MACV. There is also a Ranger Tab there, showing him to be a graduate of Ranger School. If he was with the Rangers before apparently becoming some sort of black-bag-man-without-portfolio for the CIA and the top echelon of MACV, the affiliation with the 173rd Airborne would make sense, as Company N, 75th Ranger Regiment, was attached to it in Vietnam. If he had been with the Special Forces, the insignia he wears doesn't make any sense at all. There may be an element of OR in this, but certainly not more than there is in making him out to be a Green Beret. At least in calling him a Ranger you can point to concrete elements in the costuming as evidence. What's everyone else's take on this? --Dynaflowbabble 05:13, 3 May 2009 (UTC)
As an intirim solution, I have changed the lead so that it introduces Willard as an officer with MACV-SOG, rather than as a Ranger or Special Forces officer per se. This affiliation is explicitly stated in the film, and so using it is probably the best way to avoid the appearance of possible original research in the lead. --Dynaflowbabble 06:49, 3 May 2009 (UTC)
Well there was no Special Forces tab during that time, and for him to be wearing the Green Beret in the combat zone would be a little tacky. I'll have to admit I have not seen the beginning of this move in a long time, and cannot remember the scenes you are talking about. So I must take your word for it. If what you say is true, I would say that you accurately represent his status. --< Nicht Nein! (talk) 09:55, 3 May 2009 (UTC)
Ok I think the author above has it. I'm a former soldier of the 173rd and a military history buff. He is wearing a 173rd unit combat patch on the right shoulder, indicating that he was in combat with the 173rd and having a ranger tab on the left shoulder with his current unit assignment MACV-SOG, he would have been most likely a Ranger in N company (but may have not been either), the movie never clearly mentions the Captain's military career, its only eluded to by what he mentions. He could have simply been a Ranger qualified paratrooper in the 173rd, then was assigned to MACV-SOG at a later date from the time he earned his combat patch with the 173rd. If he was indeed a ranger in combat during this period, he should by all account be wearing a ranger combat patch in lieu of the 173rd patch, but may have been given the choice of what to wear (as with some soldiers who go to combat with x number of units X number of times.) In his position, its strange he is wearing any insignia at all, as with most SOF missions, especially one of this nature, he most likely would have not been wearing anything at all, or just maybe a 173rd patch to identify him as a "normal" infantryman instead of a SOF soldier in case of capture by VC or other enemy forces. On another note, it is very unlikely he was a green beret or went to SOF school or training "At 19", this at the time was almost impossible, you had to be identified and selected to be a green beret and I know of not one soldier that went through SF training before the age of 21 during that period. it is more likely that he volunteered for an Airborne assignment at 19, in which he went directly to school after basic training, I'm still trying to figure out how or when Willard was commissioned as an officer. This is an ongoing argument with my father a 4 year Vietnam Vet with SF. If I'm wrong please let me know. SSG Perkinson, 173rd Combat Veteran 1998 to 2006 14:10, 16 July 2009 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.196.83.215 (talk)
When Willard talks about going through a course at 19, he was talking about airborne training. They never make his commissioning source clear, although if we could actually see some of the briefing papers that might make it clearer. Also, given the timeframe of the movie Willard could have been with the LRRP unit of the 173rd, although the comments about him working for COMSEC Intelligence could hint at an assignment to one of the Field Force LRRP companies. With reference to the SOG assignment, they did wear fatigues with patches when in the rear (on occasion, at least...the "profile" fatigues). When in the field they tended to wear unmarked OD jungle fatigues (although some did break up the outline with black spray paint or even wear NVA uniforms). The tiger stripes Willard wears would most likely have been one of the "profile" uniforms.Intothatdarkness (talk) 19:40, 27 May 2011 (UTC)
The unit currently listed for Willard in the article is wrong, too. The MPs who get him from his room give his original assignment as 5th Battalion, 503rd Infantry. There was, of course, no 5th Battalion active in Vietnam (the 173rd Airborne Brigade had the 1st through 4th battalions. The direct quote mentions that he's "assigned SOG," meaning that he would have been detached from his parent battalion and seconded to MACV-SOG. Intothatdarkness 19:32, 20 March 2013 (UTC)
--- There were definitely some mistakes in the movie but something's stood out to me. His Tigerstripe uniform was mainly used by SF types which is why I had originally thought so. Due to his array of patches portraying his experience maybe it was something he picked up early on from South Vietnam. I saw what our veteran up there said about doubting he'd get that chance at 19 and I'm not saying he's wrong, he'd know better than I. Throughout the film I felt they wanted to portray him like he was (at least at one point) the most dangerous and easily over the top compared to his peers. Someone who would definitely get noticed right away. — Preceding unsigned comment added by XSaintsXTroopsX (talk • contribs) 03:09, 29 June 2017 (UTC)
An earlier (December 1975) draft of the screenplay offers hints about John Milius and Francis Coppola's intent. (Note that they may have initially written the unit information in vague or contradictory terms knowing that a technical advisor could straighten out the details later.)
Willard's visual introduction in the early screenplay: "Our VIEW MOVES TOWARD one particular officer; B.L. WILLARD, in uniform, a Captain of the Airborne..."
Deleted scene between Willard and an unnamed captain and the civilian sent by G-2 (intelligence) to pre-screen him for the mission:
CAPTAIN: What unit were you with?
WILLARD: None.
CAPTAIN: Rangers, eh?
WILLARD: Sort of.
CAPTAIN: Were you Long Range Recon--
WILLARD: No. I worked too far north for LRRP.
CIVILIAN: If you're B.L. Willard, 4th Recon Group, we'd like you to come with us.
G-2 trailer-office scene. (The senior officer is a colonel, not a lieutenant general.)
Note that in this iteration of the script, Kurtz calls Willard a "Schmuck." Such a horrible curse word made me faint and soil myself. The horror! Bridgman (talk) 23:01, 1 November 2019 (UTC)
An IP and I have deleted this section. I think its an opinion piece (philosophical wordplay IMO) that is given undue weight by the lengthy quote. Mztourist (talk) 03:15, 29 December 2019 (UTC)
Referencing and citation: criterion not met
Coverage and accuracy: criterion met
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