Fear of Cowardice

I'm reading A Life in a Year, by James Ebert. It is a very nicely done history of the common infantry soldier in Vietnam. The majority of the text consists of quotes from interviews of veterans, spliced together with the author's commentary and summary. Practically every page has some fresh perspective on some part of the war as experienced by the grunts. I had not realized how little I knew about the topic, but in truth, I probably know nearly nothing about the Vietnam War.

It's hard to figure out where to start commenting about the book. Everything about it is interesting. Currently one of the most interesting observations of the author, backed up by the interviewees, is that newbies and veterans of actual combat feared different things. Nearly universally, newbies feared that when they were thrown into combat they would turn out to be unable to perform due to cowardice. Newbies feared the prospect of cowardice more than the possibility of death or maiming, while veterans of combat feared crippling or death more than the prospect of cowardice.