The captain told chef to call the air strike if he isnt back in certain time. We see the chef call the strike. Next thing we see is the beheaded head of the chef next to the captain. But the call was clearly received by someone on the radio. So what was that? The air strike never came.
shareChief was making a radio check to make sure he had good communications with base, but he did not call in an air strike.
The air strike did come. After Willard and the surfer leave, napalm is being dropped on the camp during the credits
shareActually that wasn't an air strike. That footage has an interesting history. The Philippine government required that the Kurtz compound set be removed. Coppola decided to blow it up and film it since it had to be destroyed anyway.
When the film was originally released it was distributed in both 35mm and 70mm. The 70mm version did not include end credits. The audiences were given printed programs that contained the credits. The 35mm version did contain end credits and Coppola decided to run them over the destruction of the set footage. When he heard that people were interpreting that as an airstrike on the compound he had it removed from subsequent releases. The early VHS released did include it as the credit roll, but most DVD versions do not, although it is available as an extra on them.
The version I have was taped off Cinemax in the 1980's. Quite a while ago! I do remember the Redux did not have anything over the credits.
And the movie had some ridiculously strange credits for 1979. No studio logo, title, nothing until the very end!
They didn't want to include the title in the film at all, but the copyright law of the time required the title to be shown in the film at some point.
shareI saw it in the theaters with the destruction of the component. You do see a flare pop before the explosions begin suggesting an air strike.
My VHS also shows the above.
DVD does not.