Escape and Evade: James Young

Reading these three chapters was some what hard for me. What i grasped from them was just a lot of incidents of soldiers from the 7th Calvary being injured. It was actually quite sad to here how many people were getting injured. A story which stuck out to me though was about Specialist 4 James Young. I thought he was very brave to handle being on his own for a few days while on Enemy territory. His decisions when he was behind the NVA was very smart when he choose to throw the grenade at them since they were focusing there attention the other way. He was very lucky though to have found a hiding spot and convinced the teenage NVA to not shoot him. I was happy though when he was found and taken to the hospital in the US. It was even nicer to hear that he was able to see his family for Christmas.

Even though Young was just a specialist, i thought he had growing leadership qualities in him. I think the personal courage he showed was very apparent. He did not just chicken out right away, he thought of ways that he could help his Company while he was in a dangerous area. He also did not let his guard down and while in his hiding spot, there were a few times the NVA walked past him and he kept his cool so that they would not find him.

Albany

These chapters spoke out to me loud and clear one main thing, Confusion. To begin with i felt that the concept of who was in command or control was not noticeable. While reading the section there were times when subordinates were not following orders. Rather they would choose to goof off in the back of the formation or start laughing. There were also times when the battalion would split up. An important thing to do when your battalion splits up is to make sure every one knows where they need to be. Just like in ROTC they needed to make sure to hold each other accountable. For Lab or pt, we all check to make sure our team members or battle buddy know exactly when and where they need to be and for what. This was not as enforced while the battalion split up. Another issue that the Battalion had was objectives. While planning a mission may seem pretty easy, the execution is at least 10 times harder. On a piece of paper, one situation happens, but in the real life there are so many more situations that could happen while trying to complete a mission. The lack of communication on what needed to exactly be done with specific over done details ended up hurting the Battalion.

The lost Platoon

Reading through these three chapters, it was apparent that The Principle Maneuver was evident. Very often when LT. General Moore was talking about a battle they were in or a mission they were on, he emphasized their techniques/movements they used to succeed. Along with their different ways of approaching the enemy, Moore and the other leaders were very good at talking to one another about the location of the NVA. With their knowledge they gained through one another, they were very good at deciding the best way to approach the enemy with an advantage.

I truly believe that Maneuver was a very important principle to enforce at all times in this story. In such a dangerous area and enemy with a high morale, if Moore and his men had not applied this principle, outcomes would have been a lot different. Maneuver is highly important for any one because I believe that it sets the out come of a mission/battle. Which ever side has the advantage has that better chance of winning instead of working extra hard to get out of a disadvantage.