Over the past 8 years, I've done a lot of long haul air travel which has given me time to catch up on many movies, documentaries, foreign films and TV series that I would have otherwise not had the time for.
I saw the 2008 HBO series "Generation Kill" advertised for some time but never bothered to watch it. Frankly, I didn't care for the title and suspected that it was just some bogus HBO show made for the purpose of making the military look stupid. So two trips ago, I couldn't sleep on a flight from Houston to Sydney, and with about 6 hours left in my flight, I took a chance on it. And after two or three episodes, I was hooked.
Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to finish all 7 episodes during the flight but I couldn't let it go. It wasn't available on Netflix or anything and it took me about a month to find the DVDs in the store JB Hi-Fi in Sydney. I sat down with my wife and re-watched it from the beginning.
Once upon a time, I was a 10 HMMWV Battalion Scout Platoon Leader in a Tank Battalion so I really identified with LT Nathaniel "Nate" Fick. Because I was Army and not USMC, there were a few things I didn't understand. I figured out pretty quickly that "Oscar Mike" meant that they were "On the Move" and other simple jargon.
I found myself having to interpret a lot of the things for my wife. Military jargon, radio calls, troop/Marine dynamics, weapons capabilities and effects, etc. That was OK with me. Frankly, I'm glad she asked.
I saw that the show was based on a 2003 series of articles in Rolling Stone Magazine. So, I assumed that the characters were "composite characters" or used pseudonyms, etc. When I looked into it because some of the characters seemed too crazy to believe, I discovered that the writer used the Marines real names and ranks.
This was actually one of the problems with the show and why my wife struggled to keep up with who was who and some of the dynamics between characters. In most military shows, they will create a composite character who takes on the attributes of 4-5 real people but for simplification and to help the audience follow along, that single character does everything. In Generation Kill, there were many minor characters and they all did minor things here or there. As a former soldier, it made total sense. But to my wife, it was difficult to understand why they might do something like switch out MK-19 gunners or which guy wearing tan camoflauge said what.
Also, with the vehicle movements and changes of missions, it was difficult for a civilian to follow along or make sense of it but as a military guy, it was believable.
In my opinion, most of the Officers portrayed in the show looked ridiculous or otherwise completely incompetent. I don't know how true this was in real life but it almost seemed unbelievable at times.
Another thing that made perfect sense to me was the radio traffic on different nets - Platoon, Company, Battalion, etc. For my wife it was difficult to understand why one guy had information that others didn't have if they all had the same radios.
Personally, I really enjoyed the radio traffic. They also used radio calls for artillery fire, etc. on the intro and credits for each episode.
My wife found the interaction between the Marines to be shocking. She couldn't believe that Marines would really tell these sorts of off color jokes, bathroom humor and generally screwing around with each other. For me, I thought that part was totally believable.
In the DVD Extras, there is a round-table discussion with the author - Evan Wright and several of the main characters in the show. You can find this on YouTube. I was really shocked that one of the Marines played himself - Rudy Reyes.
By the end of the show, I was totally gay for Brad Colbert. And after I found out that they used the guys real names, I took a look at YouTube and found a speech given by the real Gunnery Sergeant Brad Colbert, not the actor. I'll link that below.
Anyway, I've got a few questions that I'm hoping some of the Marines around here could answer for me.
Here are two videos of the real Brad Colbert:
And a USMC OCS Recruiting commercial with LT Nate Fick:
EDIT: Add link to IMDB - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0995832/
Link to Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Kill_(miniseries)
I saw the 2008 HBO series "Generation Kill" advertised for some time but never bothered to watch it. Frankly, I didn't care for the title and suspected that it was just some bogus HBO show made for the purpose of making the military look stupid. So two trips ago, I couldn't sleep on a flight from Houston to Sydney, and with about 6 hours left in my flight, I took a chance on it. And after two or three episodes, I was hooked.
Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to finish all 7 episodes during the flight but I couldn't let it go. It wasn't available on Netflix or anything and it took me about a month to find the DVDs in the store JB Hi-Fi in Sydney. I sat down with my wife and re-watched it from the beginning.
Once upon a time, I was a 10 HMMWV Battalion Scout Platoon Leader in a Tank Battalion so I really identified with LT Nathaniel "Nate" Fick. Because I was Army and not USMC, there were a few things I didn't understand. I figured out pretty quickly that "Oscar Mike" meant that they were "On the Move" and other simple jargon.
I found myself having to interpret a lot of the things for my wife. Military jargon, radio calls, troop/Marine dynamics, weapons capabilities and effects, etc. That was OK with me. Frankly, I'm glad she asked.
I saw that the show was based on a 2003 series of articles in Rolling Stone Magazine. So, I assumed that the characters were "composite characters" or used pseudonyms, etc. When I looked into it because some of the characters seemed too crazy to believe, I discovered that the writer used the Marines real names and ranks.
This was actually one of the problems with the show and why my wife struggled to keep up with who was who and some of the dynamics between characters. In most military shows, they will create a composite character who takes on the attributes of 4-5 real people but for simplification and to help the audience follow along, that single character does everything. In Generation Kill, there were many minor characters and they all did minor things here or there. As a former soldier, it made total sense. But to my wife, it was difficult to understand why they might do something like switch out MK-19 gunners or which guy wearing tan camoflauge said what.
Also, with the vehicle movements and changes of missions, it was difficult for a civilian to follow along or make sense of it but as a military guy, it was believable.
In my opinion, most of the Officers portrayed in the show looked ridiculous or otherwise completely incompetent. I don't know how true this was in real life but it almost seemed unbelievable at times.
Another thing that made perfect sense to me was the radio traffic on different nets - Platoon, Company, Battalion, etc. For my wife it was difficult to understand why one guy had information that others didn't have if they all had the same radios.
Personally, I really enjoyed the radio traffic. They also used radio calls for artillery fire, etc. on the intro and credits for each episode.
My wife found the interaction between the Marines to be shocking. She couldn't believe that Marines would really tell these sorts of off color jokes, bathroom humor and generally screwing around with each other. For me, I thought that part was totally believable.
In the DVD Extras, there is a round-table discussion with the author - Evan Wright and several of the main characters in the show. You can find this on YouTube. I was really shocked that one of the Marines played himself - Rudy Reyes.
By the end of the show, I was totally gay for Brad Colbert. And after I found out that they used the guys real names, I took a look at YouTube and found a speech given by the real Gunnery Sergeant Brad Colbert, not the actor. I'll link that below.
Anyway, I've got a few questions that I'm hoping some of the Marines around here could answer for me.
- There is a character dubbed "Captain America" who appears to be a Platoon Leader. In Marine Recon, is it common or even possible for a Captain to be a Platoon Commander?
- The characters in the show act like Humvees are not their normal mode of transport. Did these guys just get assigned Humvees right before the 2003 invasion of Iraq? If so, what was their normal mode of transportation?
- At one point in the show, Team Leader Brad Colbert goes on a rant about all the training that they had to go through to get to where they are. He rattles off Airborne, Ranger, SERE, Scuba, etc. In the YouTube video I found of the real guy, he's wearing a Scuba badge. So my question is - What kinds of special training do Recon Marines get?
Here are two videos of the real Brad Colbert:
And a USMC OCS Recruiting commercial with LT Nate Fick:
EDIT: Add link to IMDB - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0995832/
Link to Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Kill_(miniseries)