When first reading up to the part where LT McDonough initially developed the idea of sending his soldiers to the beach for a bit of “rehab”, I initially thought, yeah, that’s a great idea! As the chapter unfolded, and he turned his idea into a plan, and his plan into a mission, something stuck out to me that was off. The fact that he had to talk a few soldiers into going was an immediate red flag, and ironically, those two men wound up dead.

LT McDonough’s heart was in the right place in my opinion. He knew his men were suffering from hygiene issues, and he saw this as an opportunity to better that. What he could have done to make this mission less of a disaster was join the small group, rather than staying back with the platoon. This would have given him better oversight of everything that happened, and he may have even been able to prevent the casualties. I was on the other hand shocked that there were no repercussions as a result of the incident. He lost a few of his soldiers, because of a mission he authorized, but no corrective action was taken upon him. In a way, losing his men was probably enough of a punishment as it is.

-Will