GIs Surviving War But Dying on America's Roads

NewsMax ^ | May 3, 2005 | Carl Limbacher

[Kaslin]

Sad but true

[oh8eleven]

I’m 20 years old. I’ve lived through firefights. Nothing can touch me.
When I checked into Camp Lejeune in 1968 I had to take an 8 hour driver's safety course.
One of the comments the instructor made to the class was, "You survived Vietnam, don't kill yourself in Jacksonville."
 

[konaice]

80 of them?

Seems to me that far more than that die every month in traffic accidents in that age group given the same sample size.

[StarCMC]

Be careful out there. We love you guys!

[LibWhacker]

"The kids come back and they want to live life to its fullest, to its wildest. They get a little bit of time to let their hair down, and they let their hair all the way down and do everything to excess. They drink to excess. They eat to excess. They party to excess."

Why, I'll bet there are Vietnam-era vets who were never in Vietnam who are still living it up like this.

[Stonewall Jackson]

To warn soldiers of the dangers they face on the road, the Army erected billboards outside the entrance to Fort Hood in Texas. On the billboard, lights flash red or amber if a soldier has died in a vehicle accident and green if there have been no fatalities in 30 days.

The green lights haven’t flashed since January.

At Fort Knox they have a car on display in front of the Commissary that had been involved in a drunk-driving accident. It's so torn up you can hardly tell it's a car, much less what type.

[Kaslin]

It says 80 % (percent)

[Ramius]

Since then, crashes have claimed the lives of another 80 soldiers in seven months, up 23 percent over the same period a year earlier, and 80 percent were veterans of Iraq or Afghanistan.

Well... a year earlier, ~more~ of them were in Afghanistan and Iraq and they weren't back here driving around in cars.

[TADSLOS]

"He thought that nothing could hurt him now."

See it every week at Fort Hood. It's not a new phenomenon, though, just a sad and tragic one.

[leadpenny]

Not sure what your point is?

[alloysteel]

This apparently disproportionate loss of life through traffic accidents, has affected soldiers from the time of the Second World War. Often weary, but determined to make the most of any furlough time they had, GIs would drive straight through, 24 hours and more at a stretch.

Sometimes they got through unscathed.

But when the problem is compounded with the use of alcohol, the traffic accidents rise exponentially.

[leadpenny]

31W. Do they still call it "The Dixie Dieway?"

[LibWhacker]

Only that it's an old story. GIs do this stuff. They did it during Vietnam and they're still doing it today. Doesn't mean I don't feel sympathy for them. Just that it's an old, old story.

[SVTCobra03]

You think that is sad. I know a woman at work whose son just got out of the Marine Corps after seven months in Iraq and has signed up with a security company to go back to Iraq for six months for $100k. His mom is about to lose her mind.

[leadpenny]

Yes, it is an old, old story.

It's only going to get worse. The Army missed their recruiting goal by another 6000 in April.

[Jack Deth]

The simplest solution would be to place a Multi-Service Out Processing Center in Germany or England.

When soldiers rotate out, they are off-loaded at the Out Processing Center and given a week to vent anger and de-compress while attending familiarization classes and checking off blocks in their paperwork. Families could even fly "Space A" to the Center(s) on the taxpayers' dime.

Considering the money invested in these troops and their potential for future re-utilization. I'm surprised that something like this isn't already in effect.

Jack.

[GreyFriar]

This isn't news to me. Two high school classmates went to Vietnam (infantrymen) and came back safe, sound, and un-wounded. They were both dead within a year from auto accidents. Actually one car, the other motorcycle. Both were on the receiving end of the accident.

Its going to happen again as it has happened before.

[Elsiejay]

Approx. 25 plus percent of military fatalities in Iraq are due to non-combat causes, accidents, et cetera; an accident-related fatality RATE on a per capita basis probably not unlike the accident-related fatality rate among milpers stationed in the States, in training status of whatever.

[miele man]

Not news to me either. Had a friend make it through his tour in Nam where he survived several heavy firefights. We both came back to the same base. A month later while on leave and while booking it on his new motorcycle, he tried to pass a car on the right side of the road. He ran into a bridge and was killed. A horrible waste of a life.