Goofs

When Cole shoots at Grafton near the crash site to deter him from coming to help, the two are about 20-30 yards apart. When we see Cole's smoke screen from Grafton and Camparelli's perspective at the crashed Intruder, it's 200 yards or more.

When Camparelli is down and the A1H aircraft are providing cover, one of the A1Hs banks for a bombing run and there is no external ordinance on the aircraft, yet after the pass several explosions occur as if bombs had been dropped.

After the encounter with the MiG, the plane seen landing on the carrier has the side number of 505. The plane Grafton and Cole are seen getting out of immediately afterwards has a side number of 520.

When pulling out of their bomb run on "SAM City," the face shields on their helmets keep changing position.

During the Ironhand flight, the weapons under the Intruder go from Shrike missiles, to bombs, then back to missiles.

In several scenes, the North Vietnamese are shown firing Sa-2 "Guideline" SAMs at Intruders flying at tree-top or roof-top height. As the Sa-2 has a minimum engagement altitude of 250 metres (820 feet), it would be impossible for them to engage such a low-flying target.

During the court-martial, a captain (played by Fred Thompson) tells Grafton and Cole "You took an oath to ... obey the orders of the officers appointed over you. It's the same oath that every officer in the Navy's taken for damn near 200 years." That would be the ENLISTED oath, which includes a promise to "obey the orders of the President of the United States and... the officers appointed over me." The oath taken by officers in the US armed forces does NOT contain that clause.

The search radar that is tracking Jake and Morg McPherson during the bombing raid on the truck park appears to be a generic microwave dish Doppler type radar, instead of the Fang Song radar normally seen at an SA-2 site.

The USS Saratoga was stationed at the Gulf of Tonkin during the date the movie is set at, not USS Independence.

At 1:25:20, CMDR Camparelli walks past the "modernized" BB-63 USS Missouri. The USS Missouri was decommissioned in 1955, and wasn't modernized and re-commissioned until after 1986.

When the A-6B is pursued by the MiG-17, it is not necessarily an error for the MiG to be armed with missiles. The MiG-17F commonly used at the time by the VPAF was a day only transonic fighter which would not be involved in night intercepts. However, the VPAF did possess a few MiG-17PM/PFUs that carried a limited radar and K-5 (NATO AA-1 "Alkali") missiles. This version was considered all-weather. The specific type of MiG-17 is not mentioned, nor is there enough detail of the aircraft shown to determine if the small spherical radome of the PFU is present inside the air intake.

The smoke and holes in the canopy in Camparelli's aircraft can been seen while he is talking with Razor before the aircraft is hit.

A Stevie Ray Vaughan song is playing during the bar fight. This film takes place in 1972 and Stevie Ray didn't record music until the 1980s.

When LT Grafton goes to the ship's library a copy of "Heretics of Dune" by Frank Herbert is clearly visible on the end of the shelf. It wouldn't be published until 1984 --- 12 years after the supposed date of the film.

When Cole and Grafton are getting chewed out in Camparelli's office, after bombing sam city, there is a copy of Aircraft Carriers of the World next to the desk on the shelf. This book was not published until the 1980s.

When Cole is talking to the Sandy, he says "I'm popping smoke" and then he says "do it" --- the Sandy pilot should have replied "I have Red (or whatever color) smoke" to confirm it was Cole's smoke --- this was always done to ensure the smoke was not from an NVA or Vietcong as they often used captured US smoke grenades to try and dupe the aircraft into bombing the wrong area. The same error occurred when Grafton was putting out smoke for the rescue helicopter.

Several of the ships seen in the background for the Subic Bay scene did not exist or were not in service during the Vietnam War. Those ships include the USS Sides (FFG-14), USS Peleliu (LHA-5), which weren't built yet, and the USS Missouri (BB-63) which was still mothballed at the time.

At Po City, when Jake Grafton goes on the hanging chair, CPO Frank McRae is watching. His mouth is silent but you simultaneously hear his voice cheering on Jake.

When Grafton suggests that Camparelli may someday become an Admiral, Camparelli responds, "Ever seen a Black man who's an Admiral?" In fact, in 1971, just one year before the events of this film, Samuel L. Gravely, Jr. became the Navy's first African American Rear Admiral. Though Admiral Gravely was a Surface Warfare Officer, and not an Aviator, Camparelli would've no-doubt been aware of his promotion to Rear Admiral, as it was big news for the Armed Forces.

Razor says he's "bingo fuel" and has to return to the carrier. Bingo fuel mandating a turn back applies only to peacetime, Razor could stay on station in an active combat zone, particularly to support a downed A-6.