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For the article on the U.S. Army on the Island, see here
This article lists all the military-related aspects of Lost. This mainly concerns national militaries off the Island, but the survivors also considered forming an army on the Island.

USArmy

US Army logo (prominent in the recruiting office scenes)

Character involvement with the military[]

Character Notes
SamAustemPromo

Sam Austen

Mikhail

Mikhail Bakunin

  • Claims that although he lied about being in the DHARMA initiative, the rest of his story was true. ("Enter 77")
  • Says of the DHARMA Initiative, "They foolishly initiated a war against The Hostiles, 'The Purge' they called it." ("Enter 77")
  • He says, "I spent some time in Afghanistan. I had experience with field medicine in the Soviet Army." ("Enter 77")
  • Was stationed at a listening post in Vladivostok. His unit was decommissioned when the Cold War ended. ("Enter 77")
Desmond

Desmond Hume

Royalscotsregbadge
  • When asked by Charles Widmore, during a job interview for the Widmore Corporation, whether he has any "military experience" Desmond said he doesn't, but later stops to stare at a recruiting poster for the Royal Scots outside an army recruiting office in London. ("Flashes Before Your Eyes") According to February 20th, 2007 Official Lost Podcast, this event was in 1996.
  • This implies that Desmond joined the British army relatively late, some time after leaving university.
  • Served in the Royal Scots Regiment of the British Army (logo seen to the right; subsequently merged into "The Royal Regiment" in 2006) where he reached the rank of Lance Corporal.
  • Desmond was imprisoned in Southway Garrison in Essex and dishonourably discharged from the British army on April 4th, 1999. ("Live Together, Die Alone, Part 1")
  • Speaking of Her Majesty's Army, Kelvin says to Desmond, "Tell me, Desmond, why'd you leave that nice old lady's army? Oh, I remember now. You got kicked out because you couldn't follow orders." ("Live Together, Die Alone, Part 2")
  • Desmond is shown undergoing his basic training for the Royal Scots at Camp Millar, north of Glasgow, where his Sergeant disciplines his whole squad, including his friend Billy, because Desmond's flashes make him late for a morning roll call.
  • Desmond's regiment was deployed in Iraq. However, he must have been a member of the military for a few years some time between 1996 and 1999, in-between the two Gulf Wars (Timeline:pre-crash).
  • According to an Official Lost Podcast a Desmond flashback in a future episode will show what happened during his time in the military. Official Lost Podcast/February 20, 2007
Kelvinlookingtough

Kelvin Inman

Sayid Officer

Sayid Jarrah

  • Was a Communications Officer for the Iraqi Republican Guard during the first Gulf War. ("Pilot, Part 2")("One of Them")
  • Tariq, whom he tortures, seems to imply his father Hassan Jarrah was a military hero, saying, "Sayid, you are a loyal soldier. The son of a great hero." ("One of Them")
  • Juliet states that he was involved in some kind of shameful incident in the Iraq town of Basra. ("One of Us")
  • In Outlaws, Sayid tells a story about executing a man when he was in the Iraqi army stationed in Tikrit.
Mini-Jin3

Doc-jin-as-boy

Jin-Soo Kwon

  • Jin was conscripted into the army (like all South Koreans) before he moved to Seoul. ("D.O.C.")
  • Jin's army photo is seen on Mr. Kwon's wall. ("D.O.C.")
Locke-mini

John Locke

  • There is no evidence that Locke was actually in the military, but he appears to fantasize about being a military commander.
  • Locke plays a military board game similar to Axis & Allies, is mocked by his boss for being nicknamed "The Colonel", though his work file shows no military experience. ("Walkabout")
  • Locke's apartment in The Man from Tallahassee has a poster on the wall displaying a number of military flash badges, headed "Special Operations Forces."
  • Locke's school locker contains a picture of the author and explorer Sir Richard Burton, who served as a captain in the army of the East India Company. ("Cabin Fever")
Apocnow
  • In "The Man from Tallahassee", Ben mocks Locke for seeming to think he can pilot the submarine. Locke says to Ben, "For all you know, I was a commander in the Navy."
  • Sawyer calls Locke "Colonel Kurtz" in Confirmed Dead. In the movie Apocalypse Now, Col. Kurtz (Marlon Brando) was a member of the U.S. Army Special Forces, who went insane and became the revered leader of a group of Cambodian villagers. His home was in a Buddist temple.
Keamy-mini

Martin Keamy

NaomiDorrit-mini

Naomi Dorrit

  • It is implied that Naomi Dorrit has had military training. She describes her mission on the Island as "a high risk covert op in unstable territory." She complains of the rest of her team, "these are the wrong people for a mission like this. None of them have field experience, military training." ("Confirmed Dead")
Omar-mini

Omar

Mayhew-MiniKocol-Mini
Lacour-MiniRedfern-Mini

Mercenary team

Omar

Leonard

LeadSoldier

Ussoldiernumber1 Miscellaneous

The following are miscellaneous minor characters who are associated with the military,

Items and locations[]

Tom'sweaponofchoice

The same type of pistol Tom was holding

Weapons[]

Main article: Weapons

Vehicles[]

Main article: Automobiles
  • Military Mercedes-Benz G-Class: Seen at Sam Toomey's house. ("Numbers")
  • Drug smugglers' plane: The aircraft's call-sign prefix was shown as 5Z. This is a Kenyan military designation. ("The 23rd Psalm")
  • Transportation truck: A "M939 series 5-ton 6x6 United States Army logistical transportation truck" was used by Kelvin and Sam Austen to transport Sayid. ("One of Them")
  • Submarine: The submarine used by the Others may be a military vehicle. The interior has been identified by fans as that of a United States Navy Gato-Class Submarine of the kind used in World War II. ("One of Us")

Locations[]

Cultural references[]

Literary works[]

Main article: Literary works

An occurrence Odyssey Badtwin

  • Locke flicks through the pages of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, a book set in the American civil war. ("The Long Con")
  • The Odyssey, an ancient literary work frequently compared to the story of Desmond and Penelope, recounts the voyages of Odysseus, a shipwrecked Greek military commander struggling to return from the battle of Troy to rescue his wife Penelope.
  • The novel Bad Twin refers to the possibility that the Widmore Corporation were involved in work on behalf of the military, 'other rumors hinted at classified defense contracting or private security work of questionable ethics.'

Miscellaneous[]

  • Locke, Sawyer and Pickett talk about distance in "klicks" (military slang for kilometers). This implies that the people they're talking to—Sayid, Jack, and Tom respectively—are also familiar with the term. ("Three Minutes")
  • The title of the episode "Hearts and Minds" stems from the strategy used by the US Military to curry the popular approval (win the "hearts and minds") of the Vietnamese people during the Vietnam War. It has become a popular term today denoting the way a society can use its military and public relations skills to conquer a country, not necessarily through brute force but through winning the "hearts and minds" of the people. The term also holds connotations with propaganda and propaganda's fictitious nature. (Wikipedia) (Ideology)

The Lost Experience[]

Main article: The Lost Experience

Characters[]

  • DJ Dan was a Gulf War veteran.
  • Alvar Hanso has military connections. His biography on the Hanso Foundation website states:
    "He first made his mark during the Second World War, providing munitions to various resistance movements around Europe. After the War, Hanso became the leading purveyor of high-technology armaments to NATO.
    "After decades of keeping the world safe through the development of sophisticated weapons systems, Hanso turned his attention to critical areas of science and technology - always searching for new ways to improve the human experience, and create a brighter future for all humanity."
  • M. David Benson, president of the Apollo Candy Company, served in the US army in Korea and is an associate of Alvar Hanso.
  • Nils Christer Benson, father of M. David Benson the founder of Apollo Candy, was a US Marine in the Second World War. The Apollo Candy website states,
    Leaving Norway, with his pregnant wife, Elli, Nils established a new life in the U.S., joining the U.S. Marine Corps in December of 1941. Sadly, however, Nils Benson lost his life on Omaha Beach just a few short years later. Apollo Candy Company

DJ Dan theories[]

Main article: DJ Dan

It is of note that DJ Dan, in the plot of The Lost Experience, is a 'nutty' conspiracy theorist, and thus his theories and those of his callers are not always meant to be taken as canon truth for the show. They are often used as parody for real-life fan theories.

In his podcasts, DJ Dan labels Alvar Hanso, "your favourite arms dealer turned mad scientist." (DJ Dan May 16 transcript). He later refers to him as "company founder Alvar Hanso, an arms dealer with ties to the original atom bomb." (DJ Dan June 8 transcript)

In a later podcast DJ Dan asks, "Why are college students building electromagnetic super-weapons? Electromagnetic super-weapons, people." He continues, by suggesting students are "running research simulations for classified electromagnetic super-weapons. And when he decides, 'Hey, I'm 18, I don't need to be contributing to the corporate war machine,' they pull his scholarship." DJ Dan implies that the Hanso Foundation have abandoned a "weapons program" because of his broadcasts. He plays a tape of a student who says that the Widmore Corporation are involved in funding research intended to "simulate an electromagnetic pulse strong enough to knock a space-borne body [like, "the moon"] out of its recurring orbit." (DJ Dan May 26 transcript).

Sri Lanka video[]

Main article: Sri Lanka video
"Your research is intended to do nothing less than save the world as we know it. In 1962, only thirteen years ago, the world came to the brink of nuclear war. The United States and the Soviet Union almost fulfilled the promise of mutual assured destruction. A promise they continue to foster through a destructive Cold War. After the Cuban Missile Crisis, both nations decided to find a solution. The result was the Valenzetti Equation. Commissioned under the highest secrecy, through the U.N. Security Council the equation is the brainchild of the Italian mathematician Enzo Valenzetti."

He also states that the Valenzetti Equation relates, in part, to the military threats of nuclear, biochemical, and conventional warfare,

"It predicts the exact number of years and months until humanity extinguishes itself. Whether through nuclear fire, chemical and biological warfare, conventional warfare, pandemic, over-population... The results are chilling, and attention must be paid..."

In the second part of the video, Thomas Mittelwerk responds to a question by stating that his new Hanso Foundation project is also, among other things, concerned with ending warfare,

"If you knew, with mathematical certainty, that you could end all famine, war, and poverty, what would you do? Exactly, you'd find the best way to get it done -precisely, surgically, without allowing for any more suffering than is absolutely necessary."

Psychology Orientation test video[]

The Psychology Orientation test video contains several images of explosions, including one which resembles an atomic mushroom cloud.

See also[]


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