Friendly fire question?

Question

During three years in the military in the 1960s the closest I ever came to getting killed, or injured were both friendly fire incidents.

1] Two groups of scared GIs, lousy leadership and lousy communications.

2] A sargeant of the guard going berserk, killing the OD, another NCO of the guard, [while everyone who could piled out doors and windows of guard hooch] and himself.

What percentage of the bodybags coming back from Iraq do you suppose are friendly fire casualties?

Answer 1

Friendly fire, or fracticide, has been a part of warfare for centuries. And the increasing lethality of modern weaponry has increased the occurences.

Pat Tillman is not even the most famous victim of friendly fire. General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, Italian Marshall Italo Balbo, General Leslie McNair, and Edward "Butch" O'Hare (for whom the airport in Chicago is named) were are killed by fracticide. Jackson was killed by a Confederate sentry in poor light. Balbo and O'Hare were killed onboard aircraft that were shot down at night. McNair was killed by American carpet bombing that fell short of the target in Normandy.

Answer 2

In the first Gulf War -most- casualties were friendly fire! In other words, we wounded killed more Americans (and allies) by accident than the enemy did on purpose!

In this war I would bet you anything that if the true facts were known friendly fire accidents are much more common than we are allowed to know. We have never had a war where the information coming back was so carefully monitored and filtered (and fabricated). Friendly fire deaths are demoralizing and cause people to lose faith in the war and the administration. I strongly suspect most of them are covered up.

I don't think it's Americans going crazy and shooting each other, and I don't think it's 'fragging' like in Vietnam. I think it's just troops who are worn out, frightened, can't tell the good guys from the bad guys, etc.

Answer 3

Iraq - both the official invasion and the continuing counterinsurgency - has probably the lowest friendly fire casualty rates in history.

Really. First, the disipline and training of our troops is really awesome. Second, the technology to find / identify targets combined with great commo gear presents an unprecidented 'picture' of the battlefield.

Answer 4

Friendly fire towards US soldiers is relatively low in Iraq, however towards Iraqi Army it's considerably high, exspecially in the North where close combat firefights and lightly trained IA end up shooting each other.

Answer 5

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Answer 6

U.S>Soldiers in Iraq are easier to Identify that what was in VietNam..

Answer 7

Very few. Friendly fire accidents have been greatly reduced since Viet Nam

http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-DfkctJU7dK5B7LcNROoyVQ--;_ylt=AvKCmn92W_FCk0ugZGetFgesAOJ3?cq=1

Answer 8

probably a lot fewer than in vietnam. remebver the drug use is not as high as it was in Vietnam . and this is an all volunteer army.