<span style=”color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, ‘Times New Roman’, Times, serif; font-size: 12px;”>LT McDonough was a man who always seemed to stand out as a natural born leader. He had high potential from the first introduction of him in the book. When he was at West Point he was very engaged and seemed to thrive among his peers. LT McDonough represents himself as the typical Army cadet which was very relateable when reading. It was exciting to get such an insight look at someone’s emotions going through officer training. That being said, no amount of training can fully prepare you for combat. ROTC is great but I believe even West Point can not teach cadets what to expect and how to prepare for war/emotions/death/fear/ balancing these things with being a leader, being the one others look up to, always having a plan, staying calm, and being that leader you have read about and dreamed of. For LT McDonough was not fully prepared for combat, but he met people who reminded him how not to be, and learning from example/from others is a great way to assist yourself. For when he met </span><span style=”color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, ‘Times New Roman’, Times, serif;”><span style=”font-size: 12px;”>Tom Rolfe he learned how not to act. Tom Rolfe did not care about his men and he made this very clear. It seemed that he believed his own life was more important than those of the soldiers he was supposed to be leading. I think that maybe if you can imagine the worst ways you could react during combat, and the ways you would hate for a leader of yours to react, then you can start to discover how you may be able to avoid these manners. You can try to work through it in your head, that if I begin to think this way, then I will have to focus on X instead. No matter how many examples you think of though, you can never fully prepare. However if you keep imagining how a heroic leader you admire would react to a situation and you try your best to lead in a way you would want to be led, you will be some pretty positive results. However, putting your men and the mission before yourself should not be forgotten.  You should genuinely care about each of these and treat them with respect. </span></span>