Howard Gordon was inspired to write this episode after watching a 60 Minutes (1968) special about CIA agents left abandoned in Vietnam after the war had ended.
Due to legal reasons, the Vietnam Memorial replica had fake names created by the sister of art assistant Kristina Lyne. These included names of the cast and crew. In addition, two of them, "Jesse R. Ellison" and "Harlan L. Hahn", an in-joke regarding noted writer Harlan Ellison and model Jessica Hahn.
This is also based the lingering Vietnam War POW/MIA issue, that living American prisoners-of-war were knowingly abandoned in the hands of the Vietnamese for nefarious ends while the US government either denies their existence or declares them killed-in-action, body-not-recovered. Through the 70s and 80s the Issue was a major topic both politically and in Hollywood with movies like Missing in Action (1984) and Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985). There were even those that capitalized on the tragedy. Former US Army Special Forces Bo Gritz, and former Air Force officer, Lt. Colonel Jack Bailey even attempted to 'rescue' said prisoners based on evidence they gathered. No prisoners were ever recovered. Former US Marine and Vietnam POW, PFC Robert Garwood stated that, before he left Vietnam in 1979, that he saw other living American POWs.
The invisibility angle in the storyline came about after writer Howard Gordon had been talking with his brother who happens to be an ophthalmologist and who told him about blind spots.
Larry Musser (Denny Markham) played Sheriff Oaks in Die Hand Die Verletzt (1995) and Detective Manners in Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space' (1996).