As stated in the show's introduction, TAT was a Special Forces commando unit during Vietnam. Their Commanding Officer was one Colonel Samuel/Steve Morrison (called Steve in "The Sound of Thunder" and Samuel in the 5th season Trial episodes.) Supposedly, Morrison gave the Team orders to rob the Bank of Hanoi in an effort to help bring the war to an end. They succeeded, but Morrison's headquarter was destroyed that same night in an artillery barrage (along with Morrison, presumably) and no proof therefore remained that they were acting under orders. Smith, Baracus and Peck were sent to Fort Bragg, where they quickly escaped and began working as soldiers of fortune while on the run.

They tended to always take on the cause of the underdog: small businessmen & women being forced out of business by greedy developers/mafia-types. Often (especially in later 3rd and 4th season episodes), they tended to stumble into trouble situations more than being directly hired. Although their fees were generally quite high, it was more often than not the case that the Team took on jobs for free or expenses only, or ended up agreeing to a 10% cut on the profits of a business's future earnings. No wonder they all were busy with other jobs when not on a mission!

The A, or rather A-Team is a military term used to denote the first team in a miltary squad. The long version of it is Alpha Team. The second is Bravo Team. An instance of it's use in a simple squad ambush the A-team would be the assault element and the B-team would be the support element, covering the objective as the A-team assaults it.

The A-Team Van, is made by GMC truck. The model is a "G-Series" van made in 1983. They come in G-15 (half ton), G-25 (3/4 ton), and G-35 (one ton) configurations. Typically for a passenger use van, such as B.A.'s, a G-15 is used.

The license plates on BA's van were 2L83000 and 2E14859.

Face's 'Vette is clearly a 1984. This is evidenced by it's color and wheel style, and by the time at which it showed up in the series which aired on 11/01/83. 1984 was the first year for the current 'Vette body style. There was no 'Vette in 1983, and the 1982's and earlier were much different in appearance. Face's vette was always rented from an LA agency that had a sideline in movie cars. The vette was white and Cannell Productions applied the stripe every time it was used, so the red stripe was not a permanent paint job.

The license plate on Face's vette was IHJG851.

The A-Team used Ruger AC556s regularly...Hannibal carried a 7 shot 9mm pistol. The AC556 is the fully automatic version of the Ruger Mini-14, they also used M16A1s. Face carried a chromed .45