Military trips have some particularly interesting leadership issues.
In the 80s i was on a 4 day airforce training trip in the Richmond Ranges. It was winter, and the party comprised a dozen airman, one officer, one sergeant. Various of us were given leadership roles for a day at a time. This particular day, we were ascending Mt Richmond in windy whiteout conditions, from the west, headed to Mt Fell Hut.
When we hit the summit, we were all cold, but the airman who was the days assigned leader and his navigator sat down and calculated a bearing off the summit, it being critical to locate the broad interconnecting ridge to Mt Fell. The heading they got tallied with mine, but it made no sense because it felt like it was back the way we had came. Unbeknown to us we had fallen into the classic trap of following the sun as we ascended in the mist. The navigator and i got into a discussion on the matter where doubts about our compasses surfaced, them not having being used for a good while.
Meanwhile the officer, a flight lieutenant, who was actually in charge, abruptly took back command and said look we cant stay here forever, come on, follow me. Whereupon he took off, in what most of us intuitively felt was the right direction, but which disagreed from the calculated heading by 90 degrees or so. I and the navigator protested, to no effect.
While it was good to be moving again, i worried quietly, until we eventually reached a sufficient altitude that it was clear to us that we had missed the spur. The trip was starting to feel unhinged, and the weaker members of the party were starting to get tired and dispirited. Then light drizzle started. At this point we sought shelter in some rocks and brewed some soup. Then returned to the summit, followed the correct heading, located the ridge, and arrived several hours late.
There was a post mortem analysis of the trip, where i was interviewed, but, the officer wriggled out of it saying he had done it deliberately to see what we were made of. And to our knowledge that was the last of it.
Me, i never distrusted my compass again.