Night Falls....

I will always place the mission first
I will never accept defeat
I will never quit
I will never leave a fallen comrade

I will Always place the Mission First: Right away in this section it was evident that Moore's men followed this etho well. On pg 147 of my book, Moore talks about how they were going on their second night of no sleep. They were all pretty tired, but choose to stay a wake so that their mission would not be ruined by the Vietnamese attacking them. Many of them kept up a high motivation to defeat the Vietnamese. on pg 150 of my book, Specialist 4 Vincent Cantu recalled how he treated the night just like the day and had every intention to stay completely alert that evening.

I felt that Savage was a great example of a soldier who followed the Warrior Ethos. He took his platoon out at night and was determined to bring fire down on the NV when ever he heard them (pg 153). even at 3:15 am he was still out their with his men ready to fire whenever needed.

Moving into Chapter 12 the use of warrior ethos started to become entangled with one another. In the beginning of the chapter Moore says they all need to go on a recon to find Savage and his men (never leave a fallen comrade). While they are on their way to find Savage, they are attacked by the Vietnamese. Right away they have to put aside finding Savage to battle the Vietnamese.

A great example of never leaving a fallen comrade is at the end of chapter 12. Cantu had been drafted into the Army and only had a week left in Vietnam until he could go home. While he was hiding behind a tree he saw some one in camouflage taking photos of what was happening. Cantu was interested in seeing who this was and all of the sudden realized it was Joe Galloway who was a former friend from high school. Cantu quickly ran over to Joe and reminded him who he was and gave Joe mental support to get him through the battle.

Warrior ethos are a great way to keep soldiers minds on what needs to be done. I think that the first three one, I will always place the mission first, i will never accept defeat, i will never quit, all go together. If a soldier quits, he is not placing the mission first and is accepting defeat. if he doesn't place the mission first, he is basically quitting and accepting defeat. I think it's good that in the Warrior ethos we have I will never leave a fallen comrade. Many times in a high strung situation we tend to think of just ourselves. But having this etho, we are reminded that we need to look out for our buddy. If one of us goes down, we all go down, that's how a team works!