Some scenes showing Capt. Sobel's incompetence and pettiness actually happened. Sobel had difficulty reading a map, which led to his getting lost many times in the field. He was also tricked by 'Maj. Horton' into cutting a wire fence, thereby releasing cows. In that instance, the only difference between what happened in real life and in the series was-that the actual event happened at night. Sobel also ran around exercises and rifle ranges with a leather aviation jacket. He went through the men's footlockers and confiscated allege "'contraband" and scattered their possessions. Sobel would also pick on soldiers, gigging them for the smallest of infractions or ones he just made up, like having dirty ears. The feud between Capt. Sobel and Lt. Winters, where the former altered the time of inspection and charged Winters with failure to carry out orders, did play out as shown. What was left out was, that Strayer and his staff found a legal loophole that got Sobel's charges set aside. Sobel followed it up by charging Winters with failure to ensure that the soldier cleaning the latrine was not properly shaved. That charge was also set aside but it also got the mutiny going. There were other acts that were not shown in the series; on a night exercise, Sobel and 1st Sgt. Evans decided to teach the importance of soldiers guarding their weapons as they slept by stealing about 50 rifles from sleeping troopers. Come morning the two assembled the company, chastising them for their failures. They were interrupted by angry members of Fox Company. The two thieves got lost, went into the wrong camp and stole the rifles from the wrong men. In another night exercise, Easy Company was lying in ambush. A wind came through the woods and ruffled the branches, leaves and grass. Sobel panicked and began shouting, "Here they come!'", thereby giving away Easy's position.
