Quote Originally Posted by Greyhawk View Post
So... Company Commander A in village A engages local leaders, establishes rapport, gets through a tour pretty much unscratched. In fact, never fires a shot. Over in village B Company Commander B experiences constant kinetic activity, high casualty rates...

End of tour. You're the Btn Commander. Who went "above and beyond?" How do you recognize them for it?
Is this really a quandary? Again, five years ago, a platoon in my battalion caught heat... not for restraint, but for over-aggressiveness. I'm not kidding when I say this: they were put on "time-out" (the CO's exact words). They were stood down for three days to review their SOPs, do maintenance, and pull PB security. The PL never lived it down. It was a black mark. Once again, five years ago.

Who went "above and beyond"? Whomever got the best results, given the situation that they were handed. Kind of similar to what, in the financial world, they call "alpha".