The impact of this single training event is scarcely describable. Tough, realistic, and brutally difficult, the platoon evaluations brought every Soldier in the company to the brink of physical and psychological exhaustion, a point where further exertion seemed impossible. Yet throughout, despite the physical difficulty of the training, the men sustained one another. They carried one another’s loads, bandaged each other’s feet, shared their meals in dogged silence, and carried on. Having survived the ordeal, they realized with quiet satisfaction that they were elite, that they had achieved something together that individually none would have contemplated attempting. The experience of shared hardship united leaders and led in an indissoluble bond of trust. It was there, in March 2006, that Baker Company became the cohesive team that would fight and prevail on the battlegrounds of Iraq.”
HENRY KOTULA 