Charlie: What do you think soldiers thought of their leadership at this point in the war? Why?

As many have pointed out, I believe the important issue to discuss is the disconnect between BN/BDE leadership and CO/PLT leadership. Company and platoon leadership traditionally have a tough time looking up at higher leadership and viewing in a positive way.  Add into the already complex mix of factors and emotions a brutal winter.  Now the BN leadership has an even harder job of leading their battalion to success, because they first must maintain the respect of the men they are leading. That is a tough job when most of the leaderships job takes place in a TOC, separated from the lower men that are suffering/freezing/dying at your command. On top of that, when you consider that silver stars were handed out almost randomly, that only furthers the disdain and removes possible future motivation to perform well. So overall, at least at this stage of the war where momentum had come to a halt and terrible winter conditions set in, I do not think the soldiers viewed their BN level leadership very highly.