Montel Williams (Lt. Rivers) served in both the United States Marine Corps and Navy in real life, he was a "mustang", which is an enlisted service member who becomes an officer. After graduating from high school he enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1974, upon being promoted to Lance Corporal his CO recognized he had potential and recommended him for officer candidate training. He was accepted into the four-year officer training program at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1975, the first black Marine to be accepted. Williams graduated in 1980 with a degree in engineering and a minor in international security and was commissioned in the Navy as an ensign. He completed Navy cryptology training, was promoted to Lieutenant J.G. and stationed in Guam as a cryptology officer for Naval Intelligence. In 1983 he was promoted to Lieutenant and was made a supervising cryptologic officer with the Naval Security Fleet Support Division and worked with the NSA on Operation Urgent Fury, the U.S. invasion of Guam. Following Urgent Fury he worked with Naval Intelligence to secure the release of U.S. citizens, usually military personnel, who were captured on foreign soil. After 17 years of active service he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Commander and transferred to the Naval Reserve where he served for another five years. He retired in 1996 and was honorably discharged from the Navy after 22 years of service, over his career he was awarded two Meritorious Service Medals, two Navy Commendation Medals, the National Defense Service Medal, the Navy Achievement Medal, two Navy Expeditionary Medals, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal and two Humanitarian Service Medals.
Lt. Rivers is rude and indignant when questioned by Commander Rabb and Major MacKenize, he acts as if they are conducting this investigation because he is black. However when someone in the military is nominated for the Congressional Medal of Honor an investigation is standard procedure, it is always done regardless of who the nominee is. There are strict criteria for being awarded the Medal of Honor, since it is the highest military honor. The requirement is "Conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty" and the action must be witnessed by at least two people who can verify the events and actions. The nominee's background is investigated some as well, while there are no specific requirements if their past conduct can reflect negatively on the military that can affect the outcome of the investigator's report.
CPO Williams states that his SEAL team was there to do special recon and a Ranger Team (likely 75th Ranger Squad) was to be the team to go in and rescue the Ambassador. While SEAL's and Rangers do work together on missions from time to time, typically reconnaissance for a mission like this is done by Marine Force Recon and the hostage rescue is done by a SEAL team. The Marine Corps is part of the Navy, typically a Navy Special Warfare Group working to either rescue or kill a high value target consists of a Force Recon team that goes in first and scouts the area making note of area layout, guard locations and patrol route, weapon and defensive measure placements and whatnot. Then once Force Recon has the lay of the land a SEAL team comes in to carry out the rescue/kill mission, they head into the area while the Recon team sets a defensive perimeter and provides the SEAL team with covering fire if needed upon extraction. But as stated while this is typical of a hostage rescue or high value target mission it is not always done so, extremely dangerous and high value target missions are carried out by the U.S. military's tier one special mission units, which consist of the Air Force's 24th Special Tactics Squadron, the Army's 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (Delta Force) and the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (SEAL Team Six). These units work together on the most dangerous and critical special warfare missions, for example Delta Force and SEAL Team Six were the units that located and assaulted the compound where Osama Bin-Laden was hiding out in.