IslandHopper wrote:Additional Flubs for "Blood and Honor."
When Magnum and Alex leave her apartment in her car, she drives Magnum to Admrial Hawkes' office, which is being guarded by a Marine sentry (Magnum is narrating). The next shot is of a Navy Enlisted Service file. The camera then cuts to Magnum opening the file to the first page which is a DD-214, which is the service record for a member of the military. In this case, the service record (DD-214) he is looking at is his own as you can see his name (Magnum, Thomas Sullivan) in the upper left hand corner. The fact that Magnum is reviewing his own service record is confusing because in his narration he is talking about Andy (Adm. Hawkes' son), which leads you to believe that he is reviewing Andy's service record looking for clues as to why he would be leaking the top secret information.
It is possible that Magnum was looking at his own record to determine his status and to find a way out of his current active duty status. The DD-214 appears to be authentic, however, the problems or flubs with the DD-214 are:
1. Magnum's date of birth is listed as 5-7-1947, which contradicts the DOB's identified in "Memories are Forever" and "Try to Remember";
2. Magnum's pay grade appears to be listed as O-10 (difficult to tell as it is a little fuzzy), however, as a Commander, Magnum's pay grade should be O-5, not O-10;
3. Magnum's SSN (upper right hand corner of the DD-214) is different than the SSN identified in "Memories are Forever." It is difficult to tell the SSN exactly, as it is a little fuzzy, but the SSN here appears to start with 571- and is definitely not the same SSN as identified in "Memories are Forever";
4. The section of Magnum's DD-214 that lists his decorations, medals, badges and citations only includes: (i) Vietnam Campaign, (ii) Vietnam Service, and (iii) Purple Heart. It fails to mention Magnum's S.E.A.L. qualification and badge or his Surface Warfare Badge that he wore on his uniform in the pilot episode. Magnum's other ribbons are not listed either.
5. YOU NEED TO WATCH CAREFULLY FOR THIS NEXT FLUB. As Magnum turns to the next page in the service record, you will see that it has nothing to do with military service at all. It is a trial docket from June 1984 regarding a mortgage foreclosure lawsuit. This was obviously added as filler for the file, but you can tell that it is a trial docket and has nothing to do with military service.
"Blood and Honor" is one of my favorite episodes from season 6. It involves a good mystery/espionage plot. The writer(s) cleverly lead you to believe in the beginning that Alex is the source of the leak of the top secret information. It also provided a great fight scene between Magnum and Dennis Haysbert's character (Lt. Jameson).
Follow up:
I've taken the photo that is posted for this episode of his DD-214 and blown it up. On his paygrade it actually says "S-10" which we all know isn't an officer's paygrade, it's a Robin 2 (Get it, Chevy S-10?)! Anyway, I don't know why it says that but it does.
Box 2 "DEPARTMENT, COMPONENT AND BRANCH" says "WEATHER BUREAU NAVY" whatever the hell that means.
Box 6 "PLACE OF ENTRY INTO ACTIVE DUTY" says "PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII" no big surprise there.
Box 8 "STATION WHERE SEPARATED" says agin, "PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII"
Box 9 "COMMAND TO WHICH TRANSFERED" says, interestingly, "INACTIVE DUTY" which translates, to me, into an inactive reserve status. If he was fully discharged I think it was say just that.
Box 10 "SGLI COVERAGE" is marked for $100,000.
Box 11 "PRIMARY SPECIALTY NUMBER, TITLE YEARS AND MONTHS IN SPECIALTY" is interestingly blank.
Box 12 "RECORD OF SERVICE" is where is time in various important times in his career should have number corresponding to dates of that event. On this DD-214 there are just "X" in the spaces. Makes no sense.
Box 13 "DECORATIONS, MEDALS, BADGES, CITATIONS AND CAMPAIGN RIBBONS AWARDED OR AUTHORIZED" is as stated above but the entries aren't done accurately. It should look like this:
NCM-1//PHM-1//NDM-1//VSM-1//VGC(?)-1//VNCM-1
(Navy Cross, Purple Heart, National Defense Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Vietnam Gallantry Cross (unit award w/palm), Vietnamese Campaign Medal)
Using this image:
Box 14 "MILITARY EDUCATION" is blank as well. Hmmmmmm...???
After that there's really nothing else worth noting.