Uncommon Valor

Uncommon Valor is a 1983 American action war film directed by Ted Kotcheff and starring Gene Hackman, Fred Ward, Reb Brown, Randall "Tex" Cobb, Robert Stack, Patrick Swayze, Harold Sylvester and Tim Thomerson. Hackman plays a former U.S. Marine colonel who puts together a rag-tag team to rescue his son, who he believes is among those still held in Laos after the Vietnam War. Plot In 1972, a group of soldiers in Vietnam carry one of their wounded during the platoon's evacuation to the helicopters, but they are left behind as the helicopter carrying "Blaster", "Sailor", and Wilkes departs the hot landing zone. In the early 1980s, retired Marine Colonel Jason Rhodes is obsessed with finding his son Frank, an Army Lieutenant listed as "missing in action" since 1972. After 10 years of searching Southeast Asia and turning up several leads, Rhodes believes that Frank is still alive and being kept in Laos as a prisoner of war. After petitioning the United States government for help, but receiving none, Colonel Rhodes brings together a disparate group of Vietnam War veterans, including some who were a part of Frank's platoon: the demolitions expert Blaster; the "tunnel rat" Wilkes who suffers from PTSD; and the machine gunner Sailor. Additionally, two helicopter pilot acquaintances of Rhodes, Distinguished Flying Cross recipient Johnson, and Charts, join the group. Former Force Recon Marine Kevin Scott joins the team and later turns out to be the son of a pilot who was shot down in Vietnam and listed as MIA.