I just watched it on AMC. I couldn't help but think of Bo Gritz and his failed Operation Velvet Hammer and Operation Lazarus. It's been a while, and I could be confusing this with something else due to the gradual onset of CRS, but does anyone here remember these operations being funded partially by certain celebrities? I know one was William Shatner, but I also seem to remember Gene Hackman and Robert Stack as being in on it. Since the latter two were in the fictional movie Uncommon Valor, it made me think that they might have based it on fact, or at least on what they hoped would have happened. The guv'mnt broke it up before they could get it done, and I think they actually ended up getting stranded in Laos because of it.

I also noticed that the film was produced by John Millius, who, IIRC, wrote the screenplay for Apocalypse/Now.

I missed it

In fact one of those missions was funded by Texas millionare Ross Perot

Apocalypse Now?

Fuck that!
He wrote Red Dawn!

I believe that Shatner was a supporter as where others. I also heard that he received support from a major defense firm that provided NV and GPS equipment that was hard to get in 1982. I gave some money to the effort to rescue the POWs myself and believe it was well spent.