As I am confident jmm99 can attest to, leaders stand to be at the highest risk of losing judgement and higher brain functions, especially when crappy sleep patterns are interrupted by those moments of sheer violence.
In the days leading up to the moment when I crossed into Iraq, I had a series of tactical problems, kinetic events, and the issue of a large caliber HE round landing 50m away from my vehicle ruin any sleep discipline I was hoping to maintain. When the embedded Fox News reporter ran footage of my passed out on the back of my vehicle, with a CVC helmet still connected, I was just that...passed out. No effort by anyne to rouse me would have worked, because I had been going for at least 72 hours with about the 1-2 hours of interrupted sleep mentioned so far. jmm99 likely witnessed that clip, but I had no idea he had followed out movements until just recently...small world.
I think the key distinguishing factor here revolves around the fight or flight reflex. When there is enough going on to retain a certain level of excitement and interest to one's mind, sleep can definitely be avoided with some degree of impairment. It's when you mix in the parasympathetic backlash from life-and-death events (I think this is the only thing I believe from Grossman) that you get the massive dumps of adrenaline which cause your body to short circuit and crash. That happened time and time during the invasion, leaving me half-asleep in the turret as we moved north. The exhaustion never really went away until we were outside Samarra, and watching elements of the 4th ID roll north.
The body and the brain can be condition to adjust to the lack of sleep, and would hazard a guess that at the time I was most adjusted, I could have gone 96 hours without too terrible impairment. Now, throw in a firefight or two, and that changed the calculus significantly.
Some of you may know CWO5 Timothy Gelinas. He was our battalion's Gunner, or Weapons Officer, during the invasion. A multiple-tour vet of Vietnam and Silver Star winner, Gunner Gelinas was some 55 years old IIRC when we crossed the border. He spoke to the mortarmen of my company a fe w months before the war, and when asked what could be done to do well in combat, he spoke highly of the notion of physical fitness. He was very clear in stating that a high state of physical fitness wil allow one's mind and body to withstand the rigors of combat.
I offer that if we are going to look for ways to beat back the body's reaction to fatigue and stress, functional fitness is where we should focus our effort.
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