I agree, leaders ought to be able to handle these hard questions and still inspire. I'd expand your "answer" to include

"We know this is a tough mission which why we train hard. As leaders it's all of ours goal to get as many of you home alive as possible."

Believe it or not, they do train with techniques to (for example) charge machine gun positions without losing anyone; grenades, covering fire, and leap frogging. Unfortunately people will die, but a well trained team can do a lot.