Dislocations was the first Steve Smith episode, and it was all his creation.Unlike the other writers, Vietnam veteran Steve Smith had no need of an advisor and neither I nor the Army felt a need to modify a single word he wrote.
Steve , as I said, was a member of 1/9th Air Cavalry, and always made a reference or two in his scripts to his unit or its operations. In "Dislocations", our guys use the 1/9th radio call sign "Saber", for example. There are also references to Bong Son, their former base, and to "the Cavs" operations in the A Shau Valley.

I don't know the actual inspiration for this particular episode