An interesting Question

[mikeo80]

I was reading through severl of the threads and posts, and a question came to mind.... (Yeah, I know, what mind??!!?? )

BUt it seemed a plausible problem.

Scenario setup....

Small American unit with a couple of vets and the rest are green kids who managed to end up with this unit...Somehow....

The kids have "never seen the elephant".

The sound of Russian machine gun fire echoes from over the next hill. The crusty, old Staff Sergeant orders the kids to set up a defensive position.

The kids start to dig in, set up fire lanes, etc


Except for Joe.....

He is curled up in a ball, crying, with wet pants, (and, yes, I can see a brown stain on the BACK of the pants.) And Joe will NOT move...he is literally paralized with fear.

So, to the members of the group, how would YOU play this one out?

[copeab]

I'm sure Major Po would shoot him

[Canadian Army]

Leave him, he will either snap out when Russians arrive or get killed quick. Problem solved!

[Legbreaker]

I think that most would still function up until they actually saw the enemy or rounds started to impact around them.
The person in the scenario above is obviously an aberration and should never have been sent to the front in the first place. Provided there is still a support network, an immediate call on the radio to the medics is in order followed by medical discharge (if possible) or reassignment to a rear area job.
Leaving him with the unit in that condition will negatively effect the morale of remaining personnel and potentially place lives at risk as somebody else will need to be removed from the combat to watch over them.

[kota1342000]

I did quite a bit of this kind of scenario with a short game scenario I ran at a convention called "Take it easy" where the newly formed 10th Armored Division is tasked to clear the I40 corridor from Winslow AZ to Gallup NM.

Part of the weight of making everyone keep up is a peer pressure effect, especially since our veteran player ran a character with only one arm. Quite a bit of fun.

[pmulcahy11b]

It reminds me of a scene in WEB Griffin's The Lieutenants (or it may have been The Captains) where one of the main characters had that happen to him. After some encouraging words from the Turk commander about how this happens to everyone, he gathered his nuts and did a good job the rest of the battle. And they quietly cleaned his underwear and pants afterwards and put them back in his hootch. He never did it again.

Maybe the new guy just needs some encouraging words. Then again, maybe he needs some harsh ones and being dragged up to the line. "Shoot them or I'll shoot you!"