"In Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam war epic Duvall plays the commander of a helicopter squadron who flies into battle with Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries blaring from loudspeakers and utters the immortal line: I love the smell of napalm in the morning. Duvall's scene-stealing portrayal earned him Bafta and Golden Globe awards for best supporting actor as well as an Oscar nomination in that category."
"What is less well known is that his character was based on a real officer who fought in Vietnam. Lt Col John B Stockton was hard to miss. Like Duvall in the movie, he wore a black Stetson and spurs on his boots. He carried his papers in leather saddlebags and even had his unit's mascot, a mule called Maggie, smuggled into Vietnam despite a strict no pets policy."
"Stockton's style choices were not random. In his book Pleiku: The Dawn of Helicopter Warfare in Vietnam, military historian JD Coleman describes him as: Balding, rawhide-lean, just under six feet tall, [Stockton] had the handlebar moustache of the old time cavalryman. When viewed without his headgear, he looked a lot like a Yul Brynner with facial hair. Stockton was commander of 1st Squadron, 9th Air Cavalry Regiment and was fixated on the word cavalry."
Robert Duvall's cameo as Lt Col Kilgore in Apocalypse Now features the line I love the smell of napalm in the morning and earned Bafta and Golden Globe awards and an Oscar nomination. The Kilgore character was based on real officer Lt Col John B Stockton, who wore a black Stetson and spurs, carried papers in leather saddlebags, smuggled a mule named Maggie into Vietnam, and played Wagner from side-mounted helicopter speakers during assaults. Duvall studied Stockton's accounts when preparing the role. Stockton commanded 1st Squadron, 9th Air Cavalry and embraced helicopters as modern cavalry.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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