Desert Son

Episode aired Oct 7, 1995
TV-14
47m

IMDb RATING

7.4/10

295

YOUR RATING

Spencer Garrett and Tracey Needham in JAG (1995)

Action Crime Drama Mystery Thriller

Due to a human error in an exercise, artillery fire injures seven Marines, one of whom later dies. The accused is a son of a former commandant of the Marine Corps. Harm and Meg investigate; ... Read allDue to a human error in an exercise, artillery fire injures seven Marines, one of whom later dies. The accused is a son of a former commandant of the Marine Corps. Harm and Meg investigate; Meg, with help from Ollie North, finds the truth.Due to a human error in an exercise, artillery fire injures seven Marines, one of whom later dies. The accused is a son of a former commandant of the Marine Corps. Harm and Meg investigate; Meg, with help from Ollie North, finds the truth.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.4/10

295

YOUR RATING

3User reviews

See production info at IMDbPro

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Lt. Williams asks Lt. Rabb what charges he could possibly be facing, though he doesn't answer. First he was on duty while drunk, which is conduct unbecoming an officer. Next he failed to mention being drunk before participating in a live-fire exercise, that is dereliction of duty and negligence. Then he personally took target measurements and readings for a live-fire test while being drunk, that could be considered reckless endangerment. Finally if any fatalities resulted from those actions he could be facing a homicide charge, at least criminally negligent homicide, possibly even involuntary manslaughter.

Goofs
Lieutenant Rabb keeps addressing Captain Reed as "sir", but he should not as they are of equal rank, proper procedure when speaking to someone of equal rank is to address them by their rank and/or name. The Air Force/Army/Marine Corps/Space Force rank of Captain is equivalent to the Coast Guard/Navy rank of Lieutenant. They are both paygrade O-3 and both wear the same collar insignia: double silver bars.

Quotes
Harmon Rabb, Jr.: Was Lieutenant Williams intoxicated?
Private First Class Gomez: Intoxicated, sir?
Harmon Rabb, Jr.: Drunk, loaded, stoned, plastered, smashed?
Private First Class Gomez: I don't think I'm qualified to answer that, sir.
Harmon Rabb, Jr.: Are you a sea lawyer, private?
Private First Class Gomez: No, sir.
Harmon Rabb, Jr.: You sound like one.

Connections
References Mister Magoo (1960)

Soundtracks
Kick a Little
(uncredited)
Written by Porter Howell, Dwayne O'Brien, and Brady Seals
Performed by Little Texas

User reviews3

Review

Featured review

8/10

"He said he was sorry"

Action abounds in this October 1995 episode (so I don't regard anything written 26 years later in 2021 as a "spoiler").

This was Meg Austin's second episode and her character's chance to show some of the enthusiasm, grit and ingenuity which the writers were trying to impart to the "Harm side-kick" character as they moved on from Andrea Parker's Caitlin Pike character from the pilot episodes.

Tracey Needham gets into the role and - apart from driving Harm into a "free-fire zone" on a range (one knocked-over road-sign is all that it takes) - she comes up to the expected standards.

She also meets up with "Ollie North" (RL US hero from the time of filming) and generally the Harm-Meg duopoly is forming nicely.

The sub-text (retired General projecting expectations onto second-born after first-born has died "heroically") is well-handled.