@edgarblythe,
That's my feeling. Some stories put the greater blame on Capt. Earnest Medina.
I didn't realize the connection till I looked over a gloss paper bound on the subject. Just leafing through it, some of the high school students interviewed later looked familiar. The front photograph of the high school looked very familiar, as did the principal. If some member of the platoon had raised serious objections, that member might have become kia.
We condemn everything even similar, but how many of us can be sure of what we would have done, considering the closeness I expect existed in an infantry platoon in combat and the age of the soldiers.