Keanu Reeves was injured during a friendly game of hockey with his friends during spare time. His lip was split, requiring six stitches. In his next scheduled scene, a love scene with Debra Messing, he was quoted as saying to her: "please don't hurt me."
By the patch on his left shoulder, you see that he served in the 7th Infantry Division.
The two top medals on Keanu Reeves' character's uniform include the Bronze Star with a V for valor and the Purple Heart.
The blue and silver-colored badge that Sergeant Sutton wears on the top of his rows of ribbons (they represent the medals and decorations he earned during the war), on his uniform jacket, is the Combat Infantryman Badge. The U.S. Army began to award this badge by an act of Congress in 1943 to infantry soldiers who had it can be documented had come under fire by the enemy. Awardees are authorized to wear the C.I.B., and granted a monthly stipend of ten dollars in addition to their other pay factors during World War II. Its design consists of a Kentucky rifle on a blue field. By wearing the C.I.B., the filmmakers communicate that Sergeant Sutton is indeed a combat veteran - thus, his nightmares of battle, and, presumably, his affliction of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.