God, the fake crying the entire time he's trying to justify his cowardice is unbearable.

...But required in order to try and salvage a shred of his dignity.

The word "cowardice" gets thrown around a lot by people who've never been shot/attacked at before... I remember that awful Republican Congresswoman who sternly informed John Murtha "cowards run, Marines never do" when the old combat vet was demanding an Iraq pullout.
The first time my unit ever took fire, in Baqubah, Iraq, I jumped liked a landed fish, even though the fighting was going on a quarter mile up the road, at the head of our convoy. I hit the dirt and tried to burrow into it. Suddenly, things became very real, and I didn't want to die. I got yelled at by an experienced NCO, got my shit together, and did my best to follow orders. It was only later, with experience, that I could calmly and accurately return fire. After a while, the whole thing became almost automatic; time would slow, and it was like being in a dream state- see the twinkle of the enemy's muzzle flash, shoot at it. No big deal. But yeah, the first time I dealt with it, I was what some of you would call a coward. If that had been it for me, the only firefight of my combat tour, I would never have lived down the shame. As it stands, I had the opportunity to go on to earn some nifty little pieces of tin.
Point being, you never know how you're gonna react when everything goes to shit. Self-preservation is a powerful force, one with huge genetic and upbringing-related components. If this guy had been prepared, or had gone through something similar before, his reaction might have been very different indeed. If he could As it is, he gets to spend the rest of his life suffering the shame of a moment he can never take back. That's pretty horrible.

Which piece of shit assholes? Which profession? Theater employees???