This veteran author never saw combat. He writes to comprehend this experience

Describing combat reminds me of the story of a group of people being blindfolded and led to an elephant. After feeling the beast all over, each is asked to describe it, and their reports are vastly different. Trained as an infantry officer, the needs of the service dictated that I remain at a division headquarters and work as an adjutant, first reporting and processing casualties and later investigating, documenting, and processing awards and decorations. It was while speaking with witnesses to acts above and beyond that I came to see the wisdom in the story of the elephant. An infantryman's view of combat is limited to a field of fire extending from point blank range out to a couple hundred meters. The field of battle can vary enormously from one person's view to another's. While one is shooting another may be reloading or simply ducking for cover, and thus a moment seen by one is lost to all others. Fear is processed according to a complex arrangement of millions of neural pathways, all leading to different conclusions. This is why eye witness accounts of crime are suspect. As for authors describing events they've never experienced, I would have to withhold judgment until seeing the product of their imagination. I too have written scenes of combat though my experience is limited to a few brief forays into the field and as an intimate spectator. Others have judged my efforts successful. I can imagine others succeeding if they have put in the work...

My description of combat as I’ve stated on RP previously is like being in a car crash (been in few of those too) you are going about your business day by day then one day Wham! Your entire world turns upside down there’s noise,confusion a bunch of guys screaming,you literally don’t know whether to run,drop to the ground or look for a place to hide,in the first chaotic moments,all your senses have been overwhelmed, then each individual makes his own decision, you can only hope yours is the right one.

Is it even possible to comprehend combat ?

To myself, It is an experience that transcends the limits of emotions to levels a person would not think possible. From a total feeling of self preservation, to then exposing yourself to a possible immediate death by leaving cover or drawing fire. Spending the time to override the cotton mouth, bowel clenching fear to re-focusing on eliminating or at least lessening the immediate danger. From the temptation to not raise your head after targeted by an RPG or gunner and your ears are ringing and sounds are muffled, but you need to eliminate the enemy gunner from another attempt that might succeed, to knowing you must lay down fire and expose yourself so you must override human nature which is screaming inside you to curl up in a ball for a perception of safety that just doesn't exist in a firefight.

Adrenaline is a wondrous chemical, it slows down real time perceptions and you see tracers that seem to be slowly sometimes seemingly idly wafting your way and you don't duck for cover seeming to think you could beat their arrival, to running from cover to cover laughing insanely as the dust puffs from enemy fire dance around you and you reach cover unbelievably unscathed and are able to return fire screaming at the enemy gunners.

Then at the end, the quiet, the moaning of the wounded, the muted muffled shouts of squadmembers checking on status and position of each other and the body seems to waver between hot and chilled as the adrenaline leaves.
I don't remember ever comprehending in detail what happened, only that after one was over, another was possibly around the next corner or next bush and it starts all over again.

As CPT Durish described, If you asked 2 guys in adjoining positions about the firefight, you would think there were 2 completely different battles for them as their description would differ widely as the focused tunnel vision seems to not let the brain view the periphery.
Case in point ... troops caught out in the open, totally exposed facing a dug in numerically superior force. Do you sprint towards and into the fire with your brain screaming at you to not run into certain death for cover, zigzagging and firing as you go to suppress fire or do you drop and scramble for cover in the open? A picture of my company by a brigade photog caught on a paddy shows what the drop and cover gets you, an undefensible position. The 2 platoons that advanced and made it to the edge of the paddy found good cover and was able to lay down suppressive fire so the rearmost platoons could move up.
This was a classic example of even a small unit of 90 guys that ended up having completely different experiences of a single fight and widely differing views of what happened in those wild moments. I was never aware of the guys pinned down and stuck 200 yards behind me as to me all the action was to my immediate front.

Just my take anyway, rambling and long winded, just as I recall that day LOL.