Flag Officers.

This is coolbert:

"Nothing is so good for the morale of the troops as occasionally to see a dead general". - - Bill Slim.

Thanks to the wiki.answers web site we have a list of American flag officers [generals and admirals both] killed during the Vietnam War, in-country, ground, air, and sea, the list MUCH MORE EXTENSIVE THAN WHAT I HAD REALIZED!! HIGH RANKING OFFICERS WILLING TO TAKE RISKS AND IN THOSE CASES NOTED, KILLED-IN-ACTION [KIA] AS A RESULT OF ENEMY FIRE, THAT ADVERSARY SHOOTING AT THEM!!

"Vietnam War casualties-US Generals/Admirals"

US Army:

1. GEN Keith L. Ware (Sep '68)  KIA.

2. GEN John A. B. Dillard (May '70)  KIA.

3. GEN William R. Bond (Apr '70)  KIA.

4. GEN George W. Casey (Jul '70)

5. GEN A. J. F. Moody (Mar '67)

6. GEN C. Edward Adams Jr. (May '70)

7. GEN Charles J. Girard (Jan '70)

8. GEN Richard J. Tallman (Jul '72)  KIA.

US Air Force:

9. GEN William J. Crumm (Jul '67)

10. GEN Robert F. Worley (Jul '68)  KIA.

11. GEN Edward B. Burdett (Nov '67)  KIA.

US Marine Corps:

12. GEN Bruno Hockmuth (Nov '67)

US Navy:

13. ADM Rembrandt C. Robinson (May '72)

Comments:

* LOTS of helicopter crashes or shoot-downs!

* The various European powers during the Great War [WW1] NOT allowing general officers to EVEN approach the front, much less participate in combat. The thought being that a general officer represented an investment in time, money, and having important education and experience such a person not expendable. This of course post-war [WW1] creating a lot of animosity and even during the war toward the ruling elites.

* Less than half a dozen American ground force commanders of flag rank lost during the Second World War [WW2], Simon Bolivar Buckner, killed by a stray Japanese artillery round being the most prominent.

* Since the end of the Second Indo-China conflict, to include Grenada, First and Second Gulf War, and the war in Afghan, NO American flag officers have been killed in combat or died while in the war zone? What does that say if anything?

* That comment of Bill Slim right on the money too? The lower ranking troops seeing a general officer risking his life and even from time to time dying on the battlefield a morale booster?

coolbert.