Combat!

Cordial-but-aloof Private Rob Lawson, a "soldier who fights like a whole squad," is assigned to Hanley's platoon...just as they're ordered to take the forest where King Company's 3rd Platoon was wiped out. A German sniper attacks Caje and Saunders while they're searching the underbrush for land mines. Lawson notices an opening, charges and kills the sniper. Hanley is furious because Lawson acted without orders, endangering them all by running across the unchecked mine field. Lawson is unrepentant, since they were in danger one way or the other.

Hanley and his men find corpses from "Checkmate King 3" surrounding an apparently-abandoned barn. Saunders and Hanley try to draw fire and discover where the enemy is hiding, but Lawson takes advantage of another opening; he rushes into the barn alone and destroys two machine gun nests. Afterward, Saunders reads him the riot act about "fundamentals of squad tactics." Lawson pays close attention but seems unimpressed.

Kirby conspires with the rest of the squad to get Lawson transferred before this "superman" gets everybody killed. When Hanley refuses, the squad surrounds Lawson and threatens him while Saunders quietly looks on. But Lawson isn't frightened by the enemy, nor by his fellow soldiers. He is certain that nobody will get killed because of him, and equally certain that he is not going home. His mother told him so. Lawson's father and grandfather both died, respectively in the Spanish-American and First World Wars. Devastated by the losses of her father and husband, Lawson's mother is sure she will lose her son...which has convinced him of his destiny. In view of all this, Saunders unexpectedly takes Lawson's side; his frustration with the private is replaced by concern for him.

A day later, Saunders takes Kirby and Littlejohn and (much to Hanley's surprise) Lawson to destroy two German recon vehicles...and, hopefully, to cure Lawson of his suicidal tendencies. Arriving at the road, Saunders' patrol discovers armored half-tracks, not recon trucks. Saunders devises a plan to knock out both "wagons," but its success requires Lawson to work as part of their team; if they don't time this just right, none of them will make it back. Sure enough, Lawson co-operates...waiting until he hears the gunfire and subsequent explosion of the second half-track. Unfortunately, the first half-track (Lawson's) hears this as well; even worse, Lawson's grenade fails to go off as planned. The half-track corners him against the riverbank.

Saunders knows that Lawson is probably deciding on how he can turn the situation to his advantage...although any such attempt would be futile this time, even for a "one-man death-squad" like him. Saunders pleads with Lawson to stay where he is and not try anything, because nobody has to die here; if Lawson plays along with Saunders' men, they can save his life. He does, and they do.