The author most likely included this paragraph to

Read the paragraph from The Hot Zone.

Jerry Jaax was going to be the first man in, the point man. He had decided to take with him one of his officers, Captain Mark Haines, a former Green Beret. He was a short, intense man with a whipcord body who had been through the Green Berets' scuba-diving school. He had jumped out of airplanes at night into the open sea, wearing scuba gear. ("I'll tell you one thing," Haines once said to me. "I don't do scuba diving for fun as a civilian. The majority of my diving has been in the Middle East.") Captain Haines was not a man who would get claustrophobia and go into a panic in a space suit. Furthermore, Captain Haines was a veterinarian. He understood monkeys.

persuade the reader that Captain Mark Haines was highly qualified to assist.

explain why Jerry Jaax chose Captain Mark Haines to accompany him inside.

create a vivid image of the men who are entering the hazardous building.

inform the reader that Jerry Jaax is a man who carefully considers his options.