[CaptainCrunch]

I remember the training that I went through in basic and in infantry school and the work they did on two fronts to supposedly make it easier on you.

1) Its you or him, and he's willing to kill you.
2) Shooting a person is no different then shooting a target, if we work you every day at shooting that target when the time comes you'll just react
3) If you think about it, if you let your humanity enter the decision, then not only are you dead, but probably a bunch of your friends are dead to.

There was a certain vilification of the enemy as well. When I was in, our enemy was the Warsaw pact and more specifically the Soviets, we studied their war conduct during the second world war, their tactics, we talked about what they were willing to do to their own people. We thought that they were 10 feet tall, relentless and would not only want to kill us, but re-enact what they did in Berlin at the end of the second world war.

But the face of warfare has chanced a great deal, when your fighting a enemy that dresses in civillian clothes, buries IED's and scurries away like a rat, or charges or drives into you with a bomb vest or trucks filled with explosives, its (according to a 3 tour fried of mine,and a few others) you can't trust this situation, nor can you trust anyone that's not your buddy and if things get sticky f$$$ them.

I would expect that this Sergeant when the story is released is a multi term veteran, probably did a spin or two in Iraq, saw some close friends get blown away, and probably had something bad happen recently.

I'm not trying to excuse him, or force an understanding of him, but its important to know.