Evidently the Army’s accountants have a long and proud history. After D-Day they parachuted in with their little accounting machines to make sure everybody was getting paid. My boyfriend says the little museum they have here at Fort Jackson is actually very interesting.
Armor and artillery deserve more screen time.
Seems like you could do a pretty good movie set at one of the service academies. The Lords of Discipline, set at a Citadel-like academy in the 1960s, is worth a look, although the book is much better.
I’d like to see more intrigue at the Pentagon. No Way Out and Seven Days in May were both good.
You could do a good drama set aboard one of the destroyers enforcing the quarantine during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Is that Soviet freighter gonna stop? What if it doesn’t…?
UDTs during WW2 and SEALS today - both really deserve a well-written, big-budget movie.
Chickenhawk by Robert Mason is a fascinating look at Army helicopter pilots during the Vietnam War. I always thought it’d make a great movie: http://www.amazon.com/Chickenhawk-Robert-Mason/dp/0143035711/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237404734&sr=1-1
For that matter, you could do a great movie about Apache attack helicopter pilots today. Or, as a counterpart to Air Force One, how about Marine One?
I’ll have to check that out, thanks!
Entertaining, but the entire story was pretty much Hollywood bullshit. All of the characters were fictional, and no mention was made of the officer who is considered the father of the Seabees,Admiral Ben Moreell. Certainly a better film could be made of this important group, and I’ll volunteer to be the paid consultant on a moment’s notice.
Has there ever been a movie about the WASPs? Or a movie about the Blimp Corps, hundreds patrolled the skies looking for U-boats a few even fought it out them with guns ablazing.
Although I wouldn’t vouch for its authenticity - there was a dearth of hippie tank commanders during WW2, at least in the European Theater.
OK, I’ll bite. What the heck is a snipe? Because based on a Wikipedia search, I get the impression that you want a movie about wading birds that are employed by the navy.
How about WWII paragliders. A jeep and 8 guys crashing from the skies.
Maybe something about Special Forces where they do their normal job – train foreign armies. That might be too boring though.
Just ask John Wayne!
Actually, even if we stick to pilots and such, there seem to be a lot of really interesting planes that just never got any screen time. Right now I’m reading a very good book called Wreaking Havoc, by Joseph Rutter, about flying the A-20 Havoc, a twin-engine light bomber, in the South Pacific during WWII.
Actually, I bet you could make a pretty good and entertaining movie about transport pilots. Pretty much any conflict from the 1930’s to the modern day involved air transports in a big way. There’s got to be some kind of interesting character stories going on there.
Also, I was toying with an idea for a story centered on a Vietnam-era Wild Weasel crew, somewhat inspired by Flight of the Intruder, a Stephen Coonts book (and movie based on the book), with the interactions between the two crewmembers who would have to rely on eachother very closely to survive.
So, reading Wikipedia, it turns out that Air Force Security Forces includes among its ranks airmen trained in paratrooper skills and tactics, the idea being to use them to secure (or retake) an airfield that is in enemy hands. Iron Man gave the Security Forces a lil bit of screen time, I’d like to see them get some more time in a movie where they do more than serve as cannon fodder to motivate the hero to have his big heroic epiphany.
And Bogie (as a tank geek, no I’d never use that word without an intended pun) piloting his M3 Grant (yeah, and a Yankee I would NEVER call it a “Lee”) in Sahara.
When in doubt, look at the disambiguation page.
Strategic recon in the coldwar. A number of modified bombers was used to photograph parts of the Soviet Union , China and a number of other countries before Satellites became available.
Lots of drama and cool airplanes and a number of them did not make it back.
Jedburghs, the unappreciated role of the OSS in world war 2
The invasion of the Dominican Republic in 65, little known war lost in the headlines of southeast asia.
Declan
My dad’s part in WW-II always interested me. He was with an engineering unit that followed on the heels of the Nazi retreats North Africa and Italy and patched together the infrastructure the Germans had damaged with thier scorched earth tactics. They were close enough to the fighting that they were often shelled, and encountered a number of booby-traps. They worked on potable water supplies, sewage and irrigation systems, power plants, you name it. Kind of like a whole company of McGivers, if that had been a good show.
Sand Pebbles staring Steve McQueen.
“Don’t break their rice bowl”
The proper term is a “Greasy Snipe”. That is a member of the engineering crew on a ship. In the Navy that would be the BT’s and MM’s. In the merchant marine the licensed engineering officeers, oilers, firemen and wipers.
A decent chunk of Courage Under Fire happens in Denzel Washington’s tank. Although the interior is a very Hollywood version of the inside of a tank, that part of the movie is done pretty well. The Meg Ryan part was laughable. It had so many errors that made it unwatchable.
Since you metioned The Beast I’ll say that it showed a very Hollywood version of the inside of that tank too. At one point they had I think 6 people inside the tank. Russian tanks are very small and tight for the crew that is assigned. There is no room inside for extra passengers.
Another great Viet Nam true story book is Low Level Hell. It would make a great movie. Some may have guessed that I would like this book by looking at my alias.
Missed the edit window.
For an Apache movie see Fire Birds. I said it was an Apache movie, I didn’t say it was a good Apache movie. There are an amazing amount of errors in that movie. They had complete cooperation with the Army but I assume they didn’t listen or look around.
I know this thread has basically been about American military, but I would really love a movie about the Rhodesian Bush War, specifically special forces like the Grey’s Scouts (who were a horse mounted tracking unit) or the Selous Scouts (who recruited native tribesmen and used all kinds of unorthodox guerrilla tactics.) I think the Rhodesian nation is a little too un-PC for a movie about it to fly, unfortunately.