User Reviews

With Chuck Norris, and Stalone there was a lot of scripts about M I A's from the Vietnam war back in 84. Airwolf and Once a Hero hits this hard emotion. What I like is Hawk trying find his brother. We got information from the firm, and there is a chance Sinjin could be a a bad guy camp. Hawk has to get the old team together! There is spy game, sub stories with twists and turns. Once in the jungle there is some sketchy characters, and a plan. There is an armed camp and a surprise raid with one of the characters freaking out. All goes bad, but a few surprises hit as Airwolf goes hard and fast to save the day. Decent budget and acting for an hour show. 7 stars.

String gets word from Thai intelligence, through arranged meeting by ArchAngel, that his brother is being held at a specific POW camp in Nam, turning to former soldier pals, Kearns (Rod McCary, the guy who has *that face* and has been in everything genre you could think of) and Wallace (Thomas Callaway) for help. String also has aid from someone inside Laos, a French woman named Charmaine (Cathie Shirriff), who gets them guns, ammunition, and a jeep. Santini will be in the Airwolf while String, Kearns, Wallace, and Charmaine go into the jungle to investigate, circle, and eventually raid the camp for St. John (and try to help others captured in the Vietnam Conflict). Kearns and Wallace were once POWs themselves, eventually rescued, owing a debt to St. John for their escape. Wallace, with political aspirations, is still guilt-stricken by giving up a tunnel Kearns helped to excavate with escape plans, admitting to it when suffering PTSD as they encounter a prison holding Asian captives but no St. John. It seems, when String later locates three American POWs nearly carted off by a remaining, heavily-armed Vietnam stronghold, St. John was taken out of the camp prior to his arrival...once again String is close to rescuing his brother but fails due to circumstances beyond his control. Basically a Missing-in-Action / return-to-Nam plot continuing the St. John story arc not abandoned by the redirection in creative for more domestic stories in the second season. Vincent has a good emotional scene when St. John's whereabouts are once again alien to him, the narrow miss in rescue remaining a haunting loss his Stringfellow Hawke can't correct. Leaving the jungle is clearly painful for String as Santini must convince him that remaining in foreign territory won't rescue St. John. Wallace's redemption is of sincere importance within the drama of the plot of this episode...Kearns' infuriation with him is understandable. Wallace putting his life in jeopardy as machine gun fires at his colleagues, taking a grenade to the enemy is the classic war movie heroism such a plot often produces. Caitlin isn't a part of this story, her absence still noticeable considering how the second season has went to a lot of effort to establish her presence in all things Airwolf. Brief appearance by Soon-Tek Oh as a Thai intelligence officer and a fun cameo by Professor Tanaka as a bandit leader looking to profit from String and company in order not to be subverted. A lot of Airwolf in this episode including Santini putting on a show all by his lonesome is an added plus.

This is it, if you wanted to see Airwolf in a completion type episode, this one comes as close as any other outside of the first episode of season three, which is so rushed (and mostly without the original cast) it doesn't hold up well. Stringfellow Hawke goes on a rescue mission to a Laos POW camp to free his brother Saint John Hawke. To do it he needs some help in the form of two Vietnam War friends, a French woman with colonial ties to Vietnam (as a guide), Dominic Santini, and Airwolf! Oh and a bunch of guns and rockets. This plot is lifted almost verbatim from the script of the 1983 Vietnam war POW film, Uncommon Valor. If you are here as an Airwolf fan watch the Airwolf episode first as it's very entertaining on it's own but loses it's charm a bit if you watched Uncommon Valor recently. It actually doesn't deserve to be a 10 but I thought taking Airwolf into Laos to rescue Saint John was just cool as anything. Some pretty blatant goofs at the end where they use stock footage of American badged F-86's from a Korean War film instead of Migs. Favorite parts of this one, Dominic gets a lot of time flying Airwolf solo, maybe more then any other episode! The meltdown of his war friends while they are in dire straights, and Stringfellow, armed to the teeth, chooses to use a pistol to fight the enemy, lol. After the Deer Hunter came out in 1978, and Reagan was elected, there started to be a new patriotism in the air. There are many memorable action Vietnam War POW films that came out in the early to mid 1980's. Uncommon Valor, then Chuck Norris would do three MIA films, my favorite was MIA 2, and Stallone's Rambo First Blood part 2. This Airwolf episode is reminiscent of all of these films and ends about the same way as all of them. 10 of 10.