Don't be silly. This guy is at a particular position and he's on alert and other folks are wandering about checking on him and others ~ so it's not like a whole platoon, or company, or battalion, or brigade, or division, or Army GROUP is at risk if he nods off.
It's mostly his butt that's at risk, and his buddy's butt too.
The potential for damage is limited through application of normal doctrines.
What I don't understand in this one is that someone thought using the techniques one might use to break a slave would improve self-discipline. Today it's recognized this sort of thing induces some pretty serious depression. I really doubt the guys doing this were taught in the military how this can be done.
“So, you’re in a combat situation and everybody but you is allowed to sleep ~ NOT!”
Not while he’s on post. This isn’t the post office. People die when people fall asleep on guard duty.
“Don’t be silly.”
Just shut up mail man, you know nothing of having your life depend on those around you. He risked lives because he was too lazy to stay awake. Its sad that he killed himself but to minimize it is ignorant.
“What I don’t understand in this one is that someone thought using the techniques one might use to break a slave would improve self-discipline. Today it’s recognized this sort of thing induces some pretty serious depression. I really doubt the guys doing this were taught in the military how this can be done.”
It isn’t hard. Your buddies impress on you the idea that you cannot afford to let them down. In every case I knew of, it resulted in a better person who grew up and became a part of the team.
What you don’t understand is a fairly given “blanket party” does wonders for self discipline.
Gents, a guard on the battlefield sleeping on duty is a very serious affair punishable by Court-Martial.
In Iraq, we had four snipers who came out of the field and waited at a road junction for pick up. The four snipers were tired after completing a mission and laid down to rest. As is required, they posted one of their team on guard duty while the others fail asleep. The Marine posted on guard duty fail asleep on post. The nearby insurgents were able to walk right up on the Marine snipers and kill them. Three Marines were killed on site while a fourth was captured, tortured, and then killed down the road.
For those of you who have never been in combat, it is easy to second-guess the leadership on why he was not removed. It might just be because they were in deep remote territory while conducting on-going combat missions. Transportation assets might not have been available at the time to pick up one Marine for an administrative run.
Remember, just as was the case of our Marine Snipers in Iraq, this Marine’s actions was a clear and present danger to all his Marines in the field with him. It is regretful the Marine choose this way to end his shame.