MovieChat Forums > U.S. Marshals (1998) Discussion > Goof that's not really a goof

Goof that's not really a goof

posted 17 years ago by DustinFulgencio
3 replies | jump to latest

Somehow this got put in the "goofs" section:

"Factual errors: The classified dossier on Mark Sheridan lists him as "Marine Corps Special Forces." The Marines don't have Special Forces - only the Army does."

Who comes up with this stuff? The Marines have Force Recon companies. The Navy has their SEALS. The Army, of course, has a bunch of different Special Forces...Delta, Green Berets, Rangers. Even the Air Force has some commandos.

It's true that any dossier wouldn't say the guy was "Marine Corps Special Forces", though.

[–] ericburkemper 17 years ago

No branch of the military has special forces, only the army.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Special_Forces

If the guy was in force recon it would say Force Recon, if anything.

Saying there's a Marine Corps Special Forces is like saying there's an Army Counter-Terrorism Unit <Note caps>

Sure they exist but nobody refers to them as that, only their specific name.

[–] DustinFulgencio 17 years ago

Don't give me Wikipedia crap.

"Special Forces" is used to describe any unit or group of units that conduct special operations. Force Recon fits into that category. SAS, SBS...they fit into the same category. The SEALS certainly do.

In the US, no group has the proper name "special forces" except for the Army's Green Berets, but that doesn't mean that's all the special forces we have. You're too hung up on names. It's the operational capability of a unit that determines whether or not it is "special forces".

And any special forces team is capable of conducting anti-terrorism operations; I'm not sure what your point is with that.

Anyway, if the character in this movie was indeed Force Recon, the movie was right to call him Marine Corps special forces. It's unusual to say it that way, but they probably did so because few people have heard of Force Recon. "Dumbing down" the script, so to speak.

[–] ericburkemper 17 years ago

The point being that any official document will either say MARINE CORPS FORCE RECON or just MARINE CORPS, not MARINE CORPS SPECIAL FORCES, because that's just a description, not an official name. Much like how any official document would say something like NAVY SEALS for someone being in the Navy SEALS, not NAVY SPECIAL FORCES.