[CodeToad]

“If you think that’s a blunder, we’re really lucky that you never commanded anybody.”

Neither have you if you think it’s your job to put the vessel at risk.

[Chainmail]

I have commanded. And when my troops we unnecessarily put at risk, I got them out of it. In 1992, our battalion was sent to Washington to fight a monster forest fire (128,000 acres). We were given Forest Service guides to show us where the points of attack would be each morning and we climbed the mountains, cut down trees, carved fire breaks, started backfires.

One afternoon, I saw the fire "pluming" on a ridge above us and I knew that one of my teams was up there. The Forest Service guy told me that "everything's fine" but I knew from experience that the fire had the perfect conditions to trap my troops before they could escape - so I called them down from the mountain.

I replaced that Forest Service guy with another immediately. Those were my troops, not his. I didn't lose anybody and we put the damn fire out.