how it came to be that we ended up in that situation
I'm guessing that the lack of numbers in the BG and the lack of SH means that the action was started with few if any additional and immediately deployable assets in reserve should things get sticky. They got very sticky, and they had to make do with what they had on the ground. They also knew that with Ford incapacitated they had little or no time to wait.
Armchair 20/20 is great in these situations of course.