How is it a "good thing" if a soldier abandons his post during duty to save himself from danger?

If abandoning his post was a logical way to reduce danger to himself and there wasn't a more logical choice which would have protected others or served a higher purpose, then abandoning his post potentially preserved life - his own.

His survival is obviously preferred (all things being equal), but his survival can also serve a practical purpose - a surviving soldier is more useful than a dead one.

The case I outlined above may be an edge case.

Imagine that a cold war soldier in the early 1950's was told to guard the gate of his base. His job is to make sure the enemy doesn't come through, but it's a pretty mundane job. The base commander has been clear that he is never to be outside of his post during his watch at the gate. Excuses aren't acceptable.

One morning he is at the gate and he happens to see an enemy bomber in the sky. He doesn't have access to an alarm signal from his post or in running distance, but a bomb shelter is.

He abandons his post and makes to the shelter just in time and the base is destroyed. Later, people congratulate him on his quick thinking - no one says "but you left the gate unguarded!" because that's ridiculous.

He couldn't help anyone else and his job didn't matter when he saw the bomber. He did a good thing because now a soldier is left to carry on.

/r/AskReddit Thread