* The taxi driver, delivering DeathNotification letters to widows, stops at Colonel Moore's house to ask his wife for directions to another house. She initially thinks her husband has died, and is not pleased to find out why she just got the scare of her life.
-->'''Julie Moore''': ''You [[PrecisionFStrike JACKASS]]! Do you know what this is?! [[WhatTheHellHero Do you know what you just did to me?!]]''
-->'''Taxi Driver''': (sheepishly) ''[[BearerOfBadNews I-I don't like this job, Ma'am]]. [[TheWoobie I'm just trying to do it.]] (continues toward cab)''
** Several subtle hints suggest that the taxi driver is an Army veteran, making the job even more of a gut punch for him. He knows all too well what’s in those envelopes
** And it shows just how truly sad he is to do it in the way he slowly walks back to his cab. The actor here is wonderful in portraying just how awful this job is. When Julie yells at him his face seems to fall even more because he just wanted help doing an already difficult task.
** Also, just before when Julie goes over to her neighbor's house to discover she had a cab driver come to her door who was NOT just asking for directions.
** As well as the montage of Julie and Barbara delivering the other letters to the wives, the last one who receives the news with her two young children.
** A similar exchange did happen in real life, which led to Julia Moore supporting efforts to improve the methods for casualty notification. Thanks to her, the Pentagon changed its policy and from then on, the casualty notifications were delivered by an officer in uniform and a chaplain. Because of this, there is now an award named after her, given by the Ben Franklin Global Forum, for recognizing civilian spouses of military servicemembers for positive contributions to the US Army. Furthermore, when Congress mandated that the US military change the names of installations named after members of the Confederacy, Fort Benning was renamed Fort Moore to honor both Lieutenant General Moore and Mrs. Moore.
* When Moore sifts through the diary of one of the slain NVA soldiers and finds a picture of the soldier's girlfriend inside.
* Jimmy Nakayama's excruciating burns by napalm and his plea to Joe to tell his family that he loved them.
** Even worse that Jimmy himself died two days later at an army hospital in real life at the same week when his first child was born.
* The sorrowful music played while Joe carries Jimmy to the helicopter and while he's taking pictures of the carnage.
* The death of Lieutenant Herrick's platoon Sergeant. Whilst Herrick's final words are a vainglorious "I'm glad I could die for my country" his mortally wounded platoon Sergeant hands Savage his bloodied wedding ring and asks him to "Tell my wife I love her" before dying. In response to critics' comments that the scene was "corny" the writer pointed out this was a true story and this was the real man's last remark, soldiers dying in pain thousands of miles from home and family not worried about saying anything original.
* Moore discovering the body of Jack Geoghegan, still wearing the bracelet bearing the name of his newborn daughter.
* When the reporters arrive as the 7th Cavalry is mopping up LZ X-Ray, they immediately mob Colonel Moore and barrage him with questions, many of which are pretty stupid, to say the least. One even asks, “How do you feel about the deaths of your men?” Moore—[[AFatherToHisMen who has been privately agonizing over every man he’s lost]], despite having no illusions about what happens in war—can’t even process the sheer disgusting insensitivity of her question, and gives her a blank stare for a moment before walking away.
** More than a few viewers wished that particular reporter had been shot, or at least punched in the face.
* At the end of the movie, surrounded by death and carnage, Moore and Galloway share a private moment.
--> '''Galloway''': Sir, I don't know how to report this. I don't...I don't...\\
'''Moore''': Well...you've ''got'' to, Joe.
* Right after the Americans withdraw after their supposed victory, a large number of Vietnamese soldiers lead by General An come out to collect the dead, lamenting that the Americans are going to take this win as a sign that further escalation is possible and that ''even more'' people on both sides are going to die in the coming years. And while the Vietnamese mourning their fallen is a tearjerker within itself, the fact that they are able to recover foreshadows the ultimate futility of the American mission, as TheDeterminator Vietnamese will ''not'' back down fighting for their homeland, even if they too have to lose many of their own.