What are your thoughts?
A squad leader pulled a newbie off a balcony
and positioned him behind "better cover",
shortly after that the newbie was "hit" by
.50 BMG fire.

If that 50 (was it a Browning machinegun?) had been a 7.62x39 AK, then that squad leader might have saved the kid's life.  Next time, it could be.  The squad leader did the right thing.

The narrator stated that it was a .50 caliber.
No flame intended. The mistakes made in training
were throughly discussed amongst the squad.
Sometimes the military likes to polish things up when the TV people are around and in this case it seemed they were very forthright.

IIRC, the guy went out on a hotel balcony.  The balcony had a solid cement railing (though not thick enough to stop a .50).  His superiors guided him back inside the room and in front of a hole in the wall or a window.  As soon as he got there he was lit up and became a casualty.

In real life, the guy would have been f'd either way.  The .50 would have punched right through the hand rail easy.

What surprised me was the age to Lt. Col.  The guy couldn't have been older than early to mid 30's.

Also, from what I could tell, those OPFOR people didn't seem to be trying real hard to kill the soldiers.  Or else the OPFOR really sucked.