February1, 2007:
Last year, the U.S. Army suffered 804 deaths, but only 72 percent of
them were from combat. The rest were from accidents. In 2006, 223 soldiers died
from accidents. What was remarkable about that was that it was 21 percent less
than the 262 accident deaths in 2005. Fatal accidents have always been a
fact-of-life in the military. The equipment is dangerous. Training with the
weapons and equipment is essential to reduce losses in wartime. So people get
killed. Most of the dead are because of vehicle accidents. Last year's accident
fatalities were about 37 per 100,000 troops on active duty. That's less than
half the rate of half a century ago. Accident reduction has been approached
somewhat obsessively since then. Last years reduction was exceptionally large,
but just part of a trend that has been going on for several generations.