WAR by Sebastian Junger Part IV

Two more things soldiers uniquely expierience is a new sense of teamwork and with that, pressure.
Junger writes, "Errors were so catastrophic that every soldier had a kind of de facto authority to reprimand others...because combat can hinge on the most absurd details, there was virtually nothing in a soldier's daily routine that fell outside the group's purview. Whether you tied your shoes or cleaned your weapon or drank enough water or secured your night vision gear were all matters of public concern. If something happened the guy with the loose laces couldn't be counted on to keep his feet at a crucial moment. It was the other man's life he was risking, not just his own. There was no such thing as perosnal safety out there."
This shows the extreme form of teamwork and selflessness soldiers have. Soldiers learn to do things not for personal interest, but for the good of their squad. It's one of the many admirable qualities soldiers have. To the soldiers though, it's not about the morality of it. They often aquire these characteristics through the pressure of being a soldier in a combat unit.
Junger goes on to write, "The attention to detail at a base like Restrepo forced a kind of clarity on absolutely everything a soldier did until I came to think of it as a kind of Zen practice: the Zen of not fucking up. It required a high mindfullness because potentially everything has consequences."
At war, soldiers understand that when everything happens suddenly, there is no room for any margin of error. They need to be ready at all times because the last thing any soldier wants is blood on their hands. This type of pressure, that at any moment a firefight can break out and it's his duty to protect his squad, is what leads to the ongoing selfless mentality and teamwork. The metality of making sure one doens't mess up because it can literally kill others in his squad.
In Second Platoon, Junger takes note on a special sort of punishment that reinforces the importance of teamwork.
He writes, "The way to ensure no one fucked up was to inflict collective punishment on the entire squad, because that meant everybody would be watching everybody else." Junger then asks how the guys react to this form of punishment. The response, "There are no hard feelings after everyone gets smoked... they're more pissed that they all let each other down."
This punishment brings together the two quotes from above. It incorporates both the teamwork aspect and the pressure aspect. The punishment increases that feeling of pressure by showing the whole team is literally punished when one person messes up. Just like on the battlefield those can be punished by death from the actions of the fellow soldiers. On the contrary, one also has the power to save others through this level of teamwork that really has been implanted in these soldiers. The fact that they hold no hard feelings shows what great character exists within this squad, and probably many others too.