The Transformers Scene that Actually Happened

image via Arnold AFB

It's hard to imagine a scene from a Michael Bay movie even coming close to reality. Especially when the scene is from a film series whose plot is devoted to the adventures of strangely explosion-prone talking vehicles. But reality likes to be funny like that sometimes.

video via Youtube

In the above scene Captain Lennox finds himself unable to contact his superiors, and in desperate need for fire support, calls all the way back to the US via a cell phone. The hapless operator even makes Lennox find a credit card before he connects his call, oblivious to the battle was was going on on the other end of the line.

image via The Guardian

"Sorry, I couldn't hear that. What's the expiration date again?"

In reality, soldiers are almost always connected via satellites the latest equipment to ensure that they never find themselves in a position where they couldn't call for support if they needed it. Unless you were one particular Army Lieutenant during the Invasion of Grenada in 1983.

Needing fire support badly and under siege inside a building, this unnamed lieutenant could physically see US Navy ships just off shore, but had no way of contacting them. Why? Because each US service insisted on using their own radio frequencies and neglected to share them with each other during the invasion. But what else could you expect from an operation run off of tourist maps.

image via Caribbean Trade Council

Seems legit.

So said lieutenant found a payphone and called the world's most surprised desk clerk back at Fort Bragg in North Carolina to request fire support from the ships that he could physically see from where he was.

And yes, they totally made him use his credit card.

image via Wikipedia

"Grenades?"

"Check."

"Ammo?"

"Check."

"Plastic?"

". . . what?"