Harmon Rabb's date of birth, as established in a "dialog" he has with his missing father, is October 25th, 1963 and his service number is 989-548301. (His date of birth was previously incorrectly written at IMDB as October 23.)
The "truth serum" being given to Rabb is likely sodium thiopental or amobarbital, which are barbiturate-class sedatives that were once used for general anesthesia and are sometimes still used to treat seizures and used for lethal injections and euthanasia. When used while interrogating a person the drug does not literally force a person to tell the truth, it just makes it difficult for them to lie. A few of the effects of barbiturates are causing a relaxed state of euphoria, making a person more compliant, and suppression of higher cortical brain function; lying requires complex thought processes, with the drug suppressing higher cortical functions it makes it difficult for a person to concentrate on making up a lie, whereas telling the truth simply requires stating information already known and doesn't require higher cortical function. A lot of countries no longer rely on truth serums as most psychiatrists agree that the information extracted from a person in the highly suggestible state these drugs put them in is unreliable at best; in fact most countries justice systems, including the U.S., have deemed testimony based on drug induced interrogations to be coerced and not admissible in a court of law.
While talking to Krennick and Austin, Inspector Chang is wearing a service cover from The United States Military Academy at West Point. This is easily identifiable by the emblem on the cover.
The events of this episode may turn out to be somewhat prophetic, Lt. Commander Rabb is captured by the Chinese Army in an attempt to discover the United States' intentions of intervening if China were to take back Matsu and Quemoy. Matsu and Quemoy (Kinmen) are a series of islands in the East China Sea controlled by Taiwan, these islands fell under the control of Taiwan in the Chinese civil war of 1949, and a number of times over the years China has threatened to take the island back by force, the only thing that has stopped them is fear of intervention by NATO and the United States. In the spring of 2022 China declared certain channels near these islands, channels that are marked as either being in international waters or Taiwanese waters, to once again be Chinese territorial waters and that all vessels traveling through them are subject to inspection, and also any U.S. warship entering these channels would be making an act of aggression. One of the channels in this declaration is the Straight of Taiwan, a major shipping lane, as these waters rightly belong to Taiwan, and Taiwan has long been a close U.S. ally, the United States Navy called China's bluff and had the U.S.S. Benfold, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, sail through the straight on July 19 to show that the United States supported Taiwan and would not stand for China's aggression. In response the Chinese Navy has sent several guided missile destroyers into the area and has flown aircraft from their Air Force over Taiwan airspace a number of times. President Biden ordered Carrier Strike Group's One and Three to conduct operations near the South China Sea and the Philippians as a show of force, which consists of two Nimitz-class aircraft carriers: U.S.S. Carl Vinson (CVN-70) & U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), two Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruisers: USS Lake Champlain (CG-57) & USS Mobile Bay (CG-53), six Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers: USS Stockdale (DDG-106), USS Chafee (DDG-90), USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62), USS Gridley (DDG 101), USS Sampson (DDG-102) and USS Spruance (DDG-111) and several other support vessels. The Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force, the British Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy have also sent warships into the area as a show of force against China, making for a very tense and dangerous situation, the smallest mistake from either side could wind up starting a war.
Rabb mentions the Independence and the Nimitz being deployed to the waters off Taiwan. The U.S.S. Independence (CV-62) was a Forrestal-class supercarrier, which was the last of the conventional diesel-electric powered aircraft carriers, she was launched on June 6, 1958 and decommissioned on September 30, 1998, the Independence was the final ship of her class and therefore the last conventional powered carrier in the U.S. Navy. The U.S.S. Nimitz (CVN-68) is a Nimitz-class nuclear powered aircraft carrier, she is the lead boat of her class and the second nuclear powered aircraft carrier in the fleet following the U.S.S. Enterprise. Launched on May 13, 1972 and being 100,020 tons displacement and 1,092 feet in length the Nimitz is one the largest and longest serving warships in the world, with the decommissioning of the Enterprise in 2017, the Nimitz is the oldest serving aircraft carrier in both the U.S. Navy and the world.
Just like in this episode the Independence and the Nimitz, along with carrier strike groups 5 & 7, were deployed to the South China Sea in real life in March of 1996 and patrolled the waters off Taiwan in response to China firing cruise missiles into the waters of the Straight of Taiwan, which China claimed was a simple test of their missile systems, but in truth was believed to be an attempt to intimidate the officials running for office during the 1996 Taiwan Presidential Election.
Just like in this episode the Independence and the Nimitz, along with carrier strike groups 5 & 7, were deployed to the South China Sea in real life in March of 1996 and patrolled the waters off Taiwan in response to China firing cruise missiles into the waters of the Straight of Taiwan, which China claimed was a simple test of their missile systems, but in truth was believed to be an attempt to intimidate the officials running for office during the 1996 Taiwan Presidential Election.