The first time I read this, I didn't understand how serious striking a superior officer during war was, but I could tell Hendricks was a fool. The officers blaming themselves for letting him break the rule stuck with me, though.

I'm half a decade out from it so my memory's rusty, but this was the sort of thing we picked up in the Education program and teaching jobs I had. It's all about managing and leading the 30+ kids you have. The good teachers, their classes would run like clockwork. The students would know what to do, wouldn't (usually) act out.. when something happened the teacher would step in and make a decisive decision. If a classroom was chaotic and crazy it'd definitely be the teacher's fault because there are all sorts of little things they either did or didn't do that contributed to the complete loss of leadership and control.

Saw this first hand, myself. When I was doing my internship I could pick out the precise moment I lost leadership with that group of students and I wasn't able to get it back. It's definitely a skill.