the OTHER "dirty little secret"

[frogcycle]

I was doing some research on the cause of death of the 4539 names in my database, following up on those initially reported as "non-hostile" or "non-combat" with no further info and the cryptic "the incident is under investigation." I was basically trying to id the suicides (only a handful have been officially so disclosed. They tell the family and leave it to them as to whether to talk to the press).

I came away with a couple of revelations:

First, no matter how ominous they make it sound, in a lot of cases it turns out to have been a vehicle accident, drowning, electrocution, or some other tragic accident. They evidently don't want to say ANYTHING until they have the facts; I suppose in some cases something could have been made to appear to be an accident, and they want to verify.

Second, there are a LOT of deaths attributed to "a single gunshot to the head." But a not-insignificant number of those are further clarified by saying that another serviceman has been charged with homicide. THAT is the OTHER "dirty little secret" of this war.

There was one incident wherein a Marine was at Al Anbar waiting for the plane home - his tour was up; he was sitting there with his damned bags packed. He was killed by a single shot to the head. It was attributed to "sniper fire." But it is also listed as "non-hostile."
So just who was the "sniper?" Someone jealous that he got to leave? Someone with a beef against him?

There have been a couple of officers shot by soldiers under their command. Shades of "fragging" in VN.

Does the fact that the army and marines are now accepting people with criminal records, including manslaughter have anything to do with this?

Anyway, I read somewhere recently that the DoD had id'd 127 suicides; I have over twice that number left in my "unspecificed" category. Either there are more suicides, or a roughly equal number of homicides. Or an awful lot of accidents they don't see fit to explain as such.

[napoleon_in_rags]

1. Wow, good find. Did you ever see Jarhead?

Remember that intense scene where one of them was pointing a gun at the other guys? If that's an accurate picture (and I think that movie was) then I could easily see things like that happening.

[frogcycle]

2. also the recent movie In the Valley of Elah

with Tommy Lee Jones

It takes place after troops are back stateside, but is pertinent to this issue.