LT McDonough has grown tremendously as a leader. He has adapted to his environment and led the platoon on many patrols to the best of his ability. In Chapter 21, LT Evans is 1st Platoon’s PL and was only on the job for a week. His naivety and over enthusiasm was almost reflective on LT McDonough’s first time being PL. Now, as far as LT Smalley, I was humbled by LT McDonough’s first reaction to seeing 3rd Platoon’s leader asleep and his RTO when they were trying to link up. He acted angry at first then calmly resolved his anger to make the next move accordingly. Though, I wasn’t surprised by this because when they first met it didn’t seem like he was the right person for a job like this. He felt unreliable. Nevertheless, the mission needed to be carried out. There were many ways to keep Command and Control in that situation but some of it falls on an individual responsibility to maintain that control. Particularly, the leaders of the link up sites. LT Smalley failed to maintain a level of command and control when executing his mission. Especially, when it comes to the possibility of friendly fire. Fortunately, that did not happen. I believe that LT McDonough did his best to help maintain the C and C but the LT Smalley failed to do so on his part. LT McDonough did the right thing to check on 3rd Platoon but risked the friendly fire to do so. Was it a necessary risk? I suppose the LT needed to consolidate the men to other areas in order to set up the ambush areas, but again, LT Smalley should have take point on that. Though, this all ties into experience difference between the two LT’s as I mentioned earlier.