During this section, LT McDonough sent his men to the beach in hopes of curing their skin infections and bug bites. Although I thought that the intent behind this decision was a good one, I do not think that he should have gave the order. Although Sergeant James did not follow the PL’s order to allow only two men into the water at a time, and instead allowed four to do so, I believe that the Lieutenant is to blame. From the way I understood what happened, the soldiers were pulled out to see rather quickly, and there wasn’t much that they could do. It seemed like a freak accident, but one that could have been avoided. Retrospectively, I think that he could have asked his Vietnamese peers/allies how strong the waves really were on the beach, and whether or not it was a good idea to use the salt water to help with the skin infections. Even if LT McDonough was at the beach, I still believe that someone had the possibility of drowning. I am surprised that LT McDonough did not receive any backlash or consequence for this decision. Firstly. losing two people out of an already small platoon would effectively put the element at more of a risk, let alone losing them to an avoidable death.

Another aspect of the chapters that stood out to me was when LT McDonough didn’t train the rest of his soldiers on how to operate the 60-millimeter mortar. When the Platoon was attacked one night, the lack of training that Spangler received almost proved to be costly. This was interesting because only the LT and the PSG had thoroughly practiced firing the mortar, and up to this point in the book, LT McDonough had made sure to maintain a high level of readiness for his platoon.