[VOYAGER]

Strange, we have not lost a single helicopter, Fighter, B52, B-1(as far as we know at this time)or a Grunt(ours) to direct enemy action.

It seems we have all the trouble we need shooting or bombing ourselves.

I don't care how many sorties we put in the air or on the ground it is inexcusable for us to kill our own people.

If we say that a certain percentage of casualities is to be expected due to enemy action, is this also true as a result of friendly fire?

This is unacceptable with the technology we possess!!

[Tree of Liberty]

Look, as bad as friendly fire is, it happens. No matter how much we try to avoid it, it will happen. And just for comparison, we lost about 130 people to friendly fire in the Gulf War. So far, I believe we've lost 3 due to friendly fire (the errant JDAM last week), and I think 10 overall in the campaign (presuming the B-1 crew is lost).

[Jerry_M]

I would guess that you have never served in the military or around complicated equipment.

Heck, the 3rd ACR wasn't able to train at McGreggor Range during peace time without killing a couple of troopers each time when they were stationed at Ft. Bliss.

My military career was cut short by an M-60 tank accident at Ft. Hood that broke my back and hospitalized me for six weeks, so I know just a little bit about what I am talking about.

Military service is all about "killing people and breaking things". You can't do this without subjecting your troops to some risk of death and injury.

[Vets_Husband_and_Wife]

I respect and appreciate your service during WWII, but do NOT blame our servicemen and women for "friendly" fire incidents. (per your comments **to shooting ourselves, or bombing ourselves***). The modern military knows those things will happen. The technology we possess is NOT perfect.

Incidents like the ones you mentioned are EXTREMELY rare. Considering all the flights, all the actions we are involved in, I'd say our military is doing a pretty damn good job.

Right now, lets not point fingers, but support our commrades in arms?

I'm hoping that your just reacting emotionally (as we all are) to the news that some of our service members are in trouble. Perhaps they have even just given the ultimate sacrifice. So let us respect the moment and not write things like that. It doesn't serve them very well. Historically, even in WWII, we took friendly fire. The stats are much less these days then they were during other conflicts. So with all due respect, lets not go there?

[SamAdams76]

No need to get hysterical. Accidents happen even in peacetime. They are unavoidable. We have thousands of people killed each year just driving automobiles. I could probably walk out my front door and get killed by a falling icicle tomorrow morning. It is impossible to conduct a full scale war and obtain zero casualties.

I think that all considered, our casualties so far in this war have been astonishingly low.

[BreitbartSentMe]

Unfortunately, there are a certain number of service people each year killed, even in peace time. My husband served on an aircraft carrier in the 80's, and there were 5-10 men who lost their lives on each cruise, due to different accidents.

It's a dangerous business to be in, serving in the military, but unless there is a war or other 'military action' going on, the press NEVER reports on these deaths.

[AndrewC]

This is unacceptable with the technology we possess!!

We lose more than 40,000 people/year to auto accidents. BTW the B-1B uses 1970's technology. Your basic IBM PC running DOS with 640K memory is more up to date and has more memory than the computer that does the bombing on the B-1B.