Prodigal Son Stake out Blunder

[timm525]

In part 1 right after the intro, we see the Vice gang hiding out in the swap staking out the plane waiting for the drug dealers to pick up their load.Crockett is sitting there smoking a cigarette while he makes his "soaked up more swamp then Elvis" speech. As a Viet Nam vet, one would think that he would know if you are staking out/ambushing someone in the field, you don't talk, move around, or SMOKE!I know that any sound they made would easily have been masked by the noise of the engine from the drug dealers boat on approach but cigarette smoke is very distinctive and if you look at the swamp grass during the shootout there is next to no wind to carry it away.If the drug dealers were astute, they may have picked up on the smell and therefore would have known someone else was in the immediate area. That could have easily blown their cover.If you ever read any of Richard Marcinko's "Rogue Warrior" books, you know that as Navy SEAL in Nam he never let his guys have any kind of scent at all. He and his platoon actually ate the same fish and rice the Vietcong ate along with wearing the same black pajamas and sandles instead of US issue boots and fatigues. He wanted his guys to smell just like they did and he didn't want to leave any distinctive size 12 US issue boot prints for them to track. The point is "blending in"...Just my opinion.

[COOPER&BURNETT]

In part 1 right after the intro' date=' we see the Vice gang hiding out in the swap staking out the plane waiting for the drug dealers to pick up their load.Crockett is sitting there smoking a cigarette while he makes his "soaked up more swamp then Elvis" speech. As a Viet Nam vet, one would think that he would know if you are staking out/ambushing someone in the field, you don't talk, move around, or SMOKE!I know that any sound they made would easily have been masked by the noise of the engine from the drug dealers boat on approach but cigarette smoke is very distinctive and if you look at the swamp grass during the shootout there is next to no wind to carry it away.If the drug dealers were astute, they may have picked up on the smell and therefore would have known someone else was in the immediate area. That could have easily blown their cover.If you ever read any of Richard Marcinko's "Rogue Warrior" books, you know that as Navy SEAL in Nam he never let his guys have any kind of scent at all. He and his platoon actually ate the same fish and rice the Vietcong ate along with wearing the same black pajamas and sandles instead of US issue boots and fatigues. He wanted his guys to smell just like they did and he didn't want to leave any distinctive size 12 US issue boot prints for them to track. The point is "blending in"...Just my opinion.[/quote'] It's not the smoke that I would think would alert me, but a lit cigarette at night.Either way, it was not a smart idea. Good call tim.

[timm525]

You would smell it long before you saw it. How many times have you been outside to a park or anywhere and someone lit up. You may not see them right away but you can smell them and you know exactly what that smell is.

[COOPER&BURNETT]

You would smell it long before you saw it. How many times have you been outside to a park or anywhere and someone lit up. You may not see them right away but you can smell them and you know exactly what that smell is.

That could be true.However...........do you think the colombian's noses still work?

[timm525]

Well ya got me on that one.

[miamijimf]

As a Nam Vet and survivor of Ranger School I know you are correct of course. But this was a Hollywood type production where realism is not the first priority. I could have never made it as one of Richard Marcinko's Navy SEALs. Wearing black pajamas, living in the jungle etc would have been OK but eating the same food the VC ate- no way.

In part 1 right after the intro' date=' we see the Vice gang hiding out in the swap staking out the plane waiting for the drug dealers to pick up their load.Crockett is sitting there smoking a cigarette while he makes his "soaked up more swamp then Elvis" speech. As a Viet Nam vet, one would think that he would know if you are staking out/ambushing someone in the field, you don't talk, move around, or SMOKE!I know that any sound they made would easily have been masked by the noise of the engine from the drug dealers boat on approach but cigarette smoke is very distinctive and if you look at the swamp grass during the shootout there is next to no wind to carry it away.If the drug dealers were astute, they may have picked up on the smell and therefore would have known someone else was in the immediate area. That could have easily blown their cover.If you ever read any of Richard Marcinko's "Rogue Warrior" books, you know that as Navy SEAL in Nam he never let his guys have any kind of scent at all. He and his platoon actually ate the same fish and rice the Vietcong ate along with wearing the same black pajamas and sandles instead of US issue boots and fatigues. He wanted his guys to smell just like they did and he didn't want to leave any distinctive size 12 US issue boot prints for them to track. The point is "blending in"...Just my opinion.[/quote']

[Ferrariman]

Not being in the service (just missed Nam) this never crossed my mind. The part that would've worried me in the real world was the empty weapons some of them were holding.

[Richie Rich]

... wearing the same black pajamas and sandles

OK - that is hardcore right there.I wonder how many times they had hot lead comin' at them from US troops, after a mistaken identity?

[timm525]

Where he did his "hunting" was mostly behind enemy lines.Buy his autobiography for 8 bucks. It is excellent reading. Very funny and profane.Click ---> here

[crocketsgrl]

I am surprised that Castillo would allow them to even move. We have seen Castillo with his ways and moves. He could probably stand still and not move, slow his breathing for hours. But the cigarette thing I never thought of. Coming in from a plane I would think you'd see the lit cigarette before the smoke from the night vision and you would not smell it in a plane either. Remember he put it right out when they heard the plane coming in. Sue

[miamijimf]

Speaking of reality and military stuff- anyone notice the Comandante in Hostile Takeover? The costume people went a little too far and made him look like a PX warrior. He has a Ranger unit patch, Coast Guard and Army wings, Nam style tiger stripe fatigues, and other stuff you can't see in this shot. Would a self respecting S. American drug lord dress like this? Funny.

[timm525]

Maybe he was multi service Jim! :DI didn't recognize all the bars and symbols he was wearing but I know it looked silly. I guess they were going for the stereotypical "banana republic" comandante or "heneral"

[timm525]

I am surprised that Castillo would allow them to even move. We have seen Castillo with his ways and moves. He could probably stand still and not move' date=' slow his breathing for hours. But the cigarette thing I never thought of. Coming in from a plane I would think you'd see the lit cigarette before the smoke from the night vision and you would not smell it in a plane either. Remember he put it right out when they heard the plane coming in. Sue[/quote']The plane with the drugs was crashed in the swamp. The drug dealers came in by air boat.

[Stinger390X]

Good point Timm...When you walk by an open air cafe or coffee shop you can smell the cigs for sure from quite a distance away! Me being a non-smoker also makes my nose a bit more sensitive than others I suppose?Another blooper I noticed in that episode was when the guys are unloading the plane the one brother is on the boat and the other is in the plane and the one on the boat is handing the bag of coke to the brother on the plane??? hang on... Your supposed to be UNLOADING the plane...not loading it?small camera blooper there as they were probably just handing the bags back and forth?

[timm525]

Good observation, I missed that. I'll have to go back now and look for it.