When Bud and Harriett tell the Admiral they're naming their son after him. The Admiral reveals that A.J. stands for Albert Jethro.
The episode plot deals with NATO peacekeepers being taken hostage by Serbian forces. This was during the Kosovo War which lasted from February 1998 until June of 1999 and was fought between the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a rebel group that consisted of Albanians living in Kosovo. At the time Kosovo was controlled by Yugoslavia and Albanians living there were heavily persecuted by the Serbs from Yugoslavia, which is what lead to the uprising by the KLA. At first the UN and NATO considered it to be an internal civil war, however when Serbian forces began killing Albanians in a planned ethnic cleansing NATO decided to intervene, without UN approval. In March of 1999 NATO forces began an aerial bombardment of Serbian military bases, one of the Serbian responses to the NATO bombing was to capture NATO and UN peacekeepers and use them as human shields, they held them in military installations to try and prevent them from being bombed. Serb forces advised NATO that a peacekeeper would be executed for every bombing. Special Forces teams from the US and UK rescued some of those taken hostage, but estimates were around 70 UN and NATO civilian workers were killed by Serbian forces. NATO's bombing campaign was quickly successful and the war ended on June 9, 1999 when Serb forces agreed to withdraw from Kosovo and allow NATO forces to enter the country. There was a NATO presence in Kosovo until the country declared its independence from Serbia on February 18, 2008.
Admiral Chegwidden has the same middle name as that of a leader in another Donald P. Bellisario TV series, and a spin-off of this one, NCIS (2003): Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs.
During a conversation with Bud, Harriet, and others, about a name for the Roberts baby boy, someone suggests "David", and Harm agrees that "David" is good. "David" is the first name of the actor, David James Elliott, who portrays Harm.