Do you agree or disagree with LT McDonough’s decision to send members of his Platoon to the beach? Should he have gone with them? Would it have made a difference? Are you surprised by the lack of consequences for his actions?

I disagree with him sending them without looking at all the risks associated with it. He said something along the lines on how it was good intentions. I heard the road to hell is paved on good intentions and it reminded me of that when I read he had good intentions. I looked up that proverb and it means it actually means you can’t just mean to do well you have to act accordingly. He wanted to give them a break, help heal them physically and emotionally. He did not act accordingly in the sense that he only thought of some of the possible risks and ignored to consider other possibilities. He thought about the soldier who couldn’t swim and figured he would send a strong swimmer but that doesn’t balance out the risk. He didn’t take into account how strong the tides could be and how worthless the strongest swimmer could be in that situation.

He could have gone with them, but would he have stopped them from getting in the water and reduce the risk of being pulled by the tide? I’m not surprised by the lack of response from what happened. I know that the army has changed a lot because of situations like that but there was really nothing that said what he did was terribly it was just a freak accident. Now they have risk assessment with any movement you make and they have specific sections that make you consider all possible risks and if you can’t answer it then well you can’t take that risk.

It was unfortunate that yes he did mean well by his men, it ended terribly.