My cousin and his best fiend went to Vietnam on purpose because of that movie, had to join the Marines to do it. They saw combat, one got wounded but healed up OK and they are both proud of their service. They married each other’s sisters when they got back and formed a sort of superfamily, both working as linemen.

But when their own sons went in the service they insisted it was gonna be something other than infantry.

"...if the gentlemen of Virginia shall send us a dozen of their sons, we would take great care in their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them." Canasatego 1744