Another thought on the "contaminated oil" story. It might be difficult for the five ringleaders to convince all 19 members of the squad to disobey orders based on safety concerns, but it would be easier if they could be convinced they were actually doing the miltary a service by preventing contaminated oil from being used in helicopters.
I'll bet you're right - makes it sound like it was well planned out in advance.
How, or better yet, WHO contaminated the fuel?
The ringleaders is my guess.