Pop Quiz, Hotshot

Ok, break out your imagination berets, kiddies. Moral dilemma-a-coming up.

You are an army officer, and it is wartime. You have been disconnected from any of your men, superior or subordinate. You are lost in the battlefield with no contact, radio or otherwise, with any friendly combatants. However, in your struggles to survive, you have managed to meet up with and stick with five or six other soldiers, all standard privates or corporals, with very little to no training in navigation or leadership whatsoever. They were stranded, hiding out in a mismatch of foxholes and dugouts, with no idea what to do or where to go. You know none of this ragtag bunch of troops, but being the highest in rank, you are now their leader. Their ticket to survival. As you trek across the wartorn landscape, your motley crew comes under assault. Shouting out quick orders, you pull your newfound buddies into a large crater, one that must've been made by a piece of artillery. It is deep, with a high lip towards your attackers: perfect cover. Your troops hit the side and begin to return fire. Hanging back a little from the firing line, you gauge the action in order to be able to make the best use of the soldiers under your command; you want to win this engagement, but most of all, you want to survive. All of a sudden, there is major problem.

A grenade has been tossed right into your position. Your men miss it, but you see it fly in. From your training, you know it is close enough to render all inhabitants of the crater dead or dying upon explosion. You have less than a second to act. You have three options.
1. Die, along with all your troops.
2. Throw yourself upon the grenade. Your training has also taught you that if the explosion is muffled by a human body, there is an extremely high likelihood that any others within a normal "dead zone" proximity will survive.
3. Grab the nearest soldier, whoever he or she may be, and throw them on the grenade, sacrificing them for the others.

If you choose option 1, you are all dead. If you choose option 2, you are dead, and this bunch of soldiers who were relying on you to survive are left all alone, nobody to lead them. They will likely be either killed or captured without a competent officer to lead them. Lost, confused and with no idea, you may have only spared their lives temporarily. If you choose 3, you are able to lead the soldiers onwards, possibly to survival, but at the expense of one of the group. His or her blood will be on your hands: for good or bad, you ended their life. This soldier, who you knew nothing about, will have their life, their dreams, their hopes, their loves all ended with your action of leadership.

What do you do? For my Christian friends out there, take into account your faith. What do you think God would have you do?

-Sean-