Heh... that's funny :~D We'll have to watch the DVD with ya next time we're in the neighborhood.
The special features and "making of" stuff is really good. The Director was excellent, and did a good job with the movie. He's the same guy from "The Fugitive" movies. It has that sort of tone. Too bad he didn't get Tommy Lee Jones for the Costner role.
I was impressed that Ashton Kutcher spent eight (8) months training for the movie before any shooting started, much of it actually at the rescue swimmer "A" school. The extras, the other guys at the "A" school were apparently all members of the U.S. Olympic swim team.
I think they captured the school reasonably well. Of course, to make a movie they compressed the school a bit. It's by far the longest "A" school in the CG, at eighteen weeks. I'm pretty sure that some of its happens out in San Diego at BUDS school, with the prospective SEALS. But there was none of that. The essence of the school is very much like BUDS in lots of ways, though. They did capture the fact that washouts are very high.
It takes a highly motivated, extremely fit person to even be considered for ASM school, and at that only about half of them make it all the way.
I'll give 'em credit. ASM's are in a class alone. They're tough in a world where tough is below average. They do stuff that would put most people in a blind panic. And... they do it for almost no money. Like our guys in combat. Only these guys find ways in peacetime to risk their lives every day in new an creative ways without the bother of waiting for somebody to be shooting at them.
Though... It would be nice if someday somebody would tell a Coast Guard story without it always being about the dang rotorheads. :-)