[TheDon]

100,000 per year. As a ball park figure, if we know the US population and the military population, we can compute the number of accidental deaths in the military per year. Not the actual figure, but just a number to compare it to the general population and what is going on in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[HiJinx]

I believe the former is approx. 285 million, and the latter is 1.5 million men and women in uniform (active and reserve).

So: 100,000/285,000,000 gives us a per capita rate of 1 per 285 or 3.5 Accidental Deaths per 1000 residents in the general population.

For the military to have a 3.5 per thousand rate, we would have to lose 5,250 uniformed personnel in a year.

(Norm 1.5 mil to a thousand - 1500000 / 1000 = 1500. Multiply the Norm factor by the civilian rate of 3.5 to get the actual number of deaths - 1500 * 3.5 = 5250)