Haiti (Catch all)

[Tom Kratman]

If you believe that to be true, I'm quite happy that I never served in the same units in combat upon which you base that statement. Your generalization applies to very few people in my experience even if it is prevalent thought in a lot of war fiction. I'd also submit that any halfway decent combat experienced NCO -- or Officer -- (that's actual troop leading in combat experience and not just service in the Theater) can look at a roomful of people in peacetime and tell you with ≥90% accuracy which ones will bear watching in combat.

Yes, your generalization does apply to that <10%. Those are the ones who have commitment problems and who bear watching -- and mediocre and better units have fewer than that percentage because they purge them or place them where they cannot damage or infect others (sometimes legally, sometimes not...) -- and yes, there are occasional exceptions to my generalization as well .

I look at it differently, which is to say that an experienced leader can be about 90% certain of everybody, but there is room for doubt with anybody.

Addendum: If there's any source I drew on for that it's Ardant du Picq's Battle Studies, not fiction.