The baggage of planning

I'm glad that an outraged Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has weighed in on a photo of Lance Corporal Joshua Bernard, who was mortally wounded in an ambush in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

I'm not including the photo (if you want to see it that badly, you'll be able to find it) but this is from the memorial service for LCpl Bernard.

Seeing the photo, though, reminded me of the basic fact that in my previous work, I had a part in bringing him to where he died.

I was reminded, as an aside, of a brief passage from the the film The Lost Battalion:

CPT McMurtry: We lost over 60 men to our own fire today. We have less than 200 able troops left. I don't know how they keep doing it.
MAJ Whittlesey: Don't sell them short, Captain. Two days ago we had a Chinese working our field-phone, an American Indian for a runner; they're both dead now but that's not the point. These Italians, Irish, Jews, and Poles, they'd never hire me as an attorney; we wouldn't be seen at the same events. But we will never, in our lives, enjoy the company of finer soldiers or better men then we do tonight.