There are a lot of deaths that don’t come from enemy action. The equipment is inherently dangerous and there are frequent accidents. I have been told by my son and his Marine friends and stepbrothers about training accidents they have witnessed that either resulted in deaths or could have done. A Marine colonel I dated told me that some of our few losses during the first Iraq war were of young men who got killed in vehicle accidents, not from enemy fire.
I don’t believe one single thing this administration says—if the White House announced that the sun comes up in the East, I’d question it. But I can believe that a boy might be killed without enemy involvement.
Their job is so dangerous. And so many die while on leave at home on motorcycles.