Get the feeling it was sort of a "last minute" operation?
That might explain using improperly trained troops, but some of the decisions were affirmatively bad. The general who canceled the order for appropriate clothing, for example, should have been left in the Alaska wilderness a few weeks in winter in his desert attire. "Some of the GIs who had spent the night on the floor of Massacre Valley were later found frozen stiff, having burned the stocks of their rifles in a futile attempt to keep warm."
I expect the Lt. who ignored the warning got his punishment at the hands of the Japanese. The colonel who got himself shot on the front lines may have had more guts than brains, or he may have been sent up there by the same general who made the clothing decision.
I do note that the troops began to make good progress when the general in charge was replaced. It may have been a coincidence of timing, but the change of command may have had an impact, both substantively and in terms of morale.
Here's another one for the list of bad decisions: "The Americans, who had been ordered a few minutes earlier to leave their positions and have a hot meal at a regimental kitchen, were caught totally off guard. "
The Chaplain sounds like he was a theological liberal who should have spent more time reading the Old Testament.