Surprise?

This is coolbert:

Here thanks to the ANZAC.org web site we have some interesting figures - - Australian dead from the Vietnam War, a tabulation of causes - - the "means of death", NOT always as folks think when they read about deaths and losses in wartime.

"Here are approximate figures for the means of death of 499 of the 519 deaths recorded in the Vietnam Memorial":

* "Direct enemy contact - 258. This includes being shot by snipers or in ambushes or other contacts, being hit by rockets or grenades, being in helicopters that were shot down."

* "Mines - 109. This includes setting off enemy mines."

* "Murder (by other Australian troops or in fights with Vietnamese) - 6."

* "'Friendly fire' (by artillery falling short, or soldiers mistaking their comrades for enemy) - 33."

* "Accident (including drowning, struck by lighting, traffic accidents, falling from helicopters, fainting and hitting a concrete floor) - 29."

* "Illness/disease (including heart attacks, strokes, suspected alcohol poisoning, typhus) - 28."

* "Shooting or explosives accidents (including weapons, mines or grenades going off accidentally) - 36."

* "So about one in four of all deaths were not caused by the enemy."

And NONE of this is unusual. NONE of this should be surprising. The military is a place where duty, even when not in combat, can be hazardous to your health. All those military drills, disciplinary routines, rote exercises, set ritual, medical prophylactics, immediate actions, etc., all have a function to keep the individual troop alive by minimizing danger to the greatest extent possible. NOT always successfully, regrettably so, but nonetheless, the effort is made, even if on occasion the will, self-discipline and leadership is lacking.

[As a side note, the Soviet Union in Afghan suffered about 5,000 dead in combat, 15,000 wounded in combat, and about 300,000 NON-BATTLEFIELD CASUALTIES! That latter group I would suspect mostly hepatitis infection from drinking bad water. Medical care was lacking, perhaps even non-existent or even totally ignored!]

coolbert.