Is it not true that only a small minority of service personnel ever find themselves in a combat situation? That most service personnel sit behind a desk with some safe support staff job?
Not everyone who wore a military uniform is a hero or served in a risky situation.
“Not everyone who wore a military uniform is a hero or served in a risky situation.”
There’s no easy answer to this.
To comment on this I would like to point out a single conflict...Afghanistan. The US Defense depart admits to 832,000 American soldiers that served in Afghanistan. And if you can display a safe place there, then you’re well ahead of the DOD. There was a constant concern over bombs and RPG’s.
There were 2,402 United States military deaths in the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021). 1,921 of these deaths were the result of direct hostile action. 20,713 American servicemembers were also wounded in action during the war. In addition, 18 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operatives also died in Afghanistan. I don’t use these numbers to point out those that gave the ultimate. I am trying to point out that everyone sent over there knew they could be one of those numbers at any time and anywhere. This is why one of the leading deaths of the military is suicide. Fear does a lot of things to a person.
They even tried to kill us when we were leaving by their rules. One explosive device detonation caused the death of 13 U.S. troops in an attack during the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan, according to U.S. Central Command officials.
They shot us in the back. Sound safe to you?
And that doesn’t include the incidents here in the US where most of those desk jobs exist. Some of those were killed in training accidents over the years. And they have to train. All service members across all branches of the United States military, including the National Guard and reserve forces, may deploy at some point in their military career. Everyone is eligible to play at that game or they are released. the biggest numbers are the Medical Evaluation Board (MEB) (medical retirement) or just not allowed to re-enlist because of behavior. Tack that on to the number of security problems daily on bases/posts stateside, and there is a good reason it is made difficult to get on to one of them. And it still happens.
At least 937,000 people have been killed by direct war violence in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, and Pakistan. The number of people who have been wounded or have fallen ill as a result of the conflicts is far higher, as is the number of civilians who have died indirectly as a result of the destruction of hospitals and infrastructure and environmental contamination, among other war-related problems.
Thousands of United States service members have died in combat, as have thousands of civilian contractors. Many have died later on from injuries and illnesses sustained in the war zones. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and contractors have been wounded and are living with disabilities and war-related illnesses.
Know any? I do. I’m one of them from two different conflict areas over 20 years apart. And someone ask me if there should be a dollar limit on our military members. My retort was, “Can you put a price on someone that was willing to step in front of a bullet for about a third of their lives to maintain your lifestyle?”
wy69