[Robert A Cook PE]

Pretty minor distinction:

If 1 in 4 planes crash in peacetime, in "normal" military flight, THAT is imminent danger: Most often, ejection itsef severely wounds the pilot: broken bones, tears, internal injuries.


Here, we see by his own words that Kerry was only superficially wounded: And his Silver Star was (partially) earned by shooting a wounded VC in the back who was running away.

Quit picking on trivia.

[TankerKC]

Pretty minor distinction:

No. The difference between crashing and dying is huge.

Besides, you are overstating this. 112 of 340 F-106 aircraft were lost in crashes or ground fires over a 29 years span. Do you know how many successful flights that is? I don't know the answer, but I can tell you that the aircraft could easily have had as many as 200 flights per year…that is a very conservative estimate. That would be 70800 total flights per year. Or, 2053200 flights over the 29 years. Even if you counted all 112 mishaps (some were ground fires) that is a 0.0055% accident rate. The fatality rate would be much lower that that.