Force Recon, March 7, 1997

By Shirley

Force Recon is the shirtless episode of Season Two. We got to see Harm for a nice long sequence as he worked out with the gunny. It was a good excuse for him to have his shirt off. The fact that the gunny kept his shirt on didn't make any difference. Who wanted to see the gunny's chest anyway? The backyard spectators enjoyed it too.

I had been worried about this episode before I watched it because I was afraid that Harm would be put into a humiliating situation, sort of like what happened to poor Meg when she went undercover in Boot. My fears were groundless.

Harm and Mac are sent to investigate the training methods of one Captain Koonan. Mac went as the investigating JAG officer, and unbeknownst to her, Harm was placed undercover as the replacement gunnery sergeant. It was a classic moment when Mac and Bud came face to face with the new gunny (Harm).

He made one heck of a gunny, and obviously enjoyed his stint as a marine. He was just itching for that bar brawl. I liked the way he strolled down to Mac and said, "Major," after he and the rest of the team were released from the brig, and his rather guilty admission of his enjoyment of the rough and tumble side of military life.

Harm posed a very valid question. How DO you train men for war? In the Colonel and Capt. Koonan, we have the two opposites. Col. Malcolm was so politically correct that he all but jumped for joy when he saw that Chegwidden had sent him not just a marine, but a female marine, to investigate the case. Capt. Koonan believed that it was better to weed out the weak ones beforehand, rather than have them show up during a mission. It was obvious that Harm was torn between his respect and admiration for Koonan, and the realization that what Koonan was doing, though effective, was not according to the UCMJ. I think that Harm must have exerted his influence to have Koonan discharged rather than court-martialed.

Finally, those were big marines. DJE said that he hurt his back carrying Tesla in the scenes when they were running from the village. I'm not surprised. That was one big fella.

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