Dilbert_X wrote:
NeXuS wrote:
Dilbert_X wrote:
And how many people in 'the military' ever get close to combat.
Is it 1:100?
Hell (almost) everyone has the chance to see combat. You could be on a fob and get mortared and over run with taliban and most wouldnt think that it would happen on their fob. I just had a sgt tell me of an R&R fob that got over run by over 100 taliban. Their were 40 there at the time. So really it all depends on the circumstance.
I mean actually get close to it, not might possibly hypothetically.
Here's an article answering the question from 2005. Now extrapolate the progression for six more years and think about areas beyond Iraq and Afghanistan.
955,609 (about 36%) of our total Active Duty/Reserve/National Guard forces of 2,656,300 have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan during this period. 651,622 (24.5%) have one deployment during this period, and 303,987 (11.4%) have deployed more than once.
For active duty, 708,428 (48.2%) of the force has deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. 494,482 (33.6%) have deployed once, while 213.946 (14.6%) have deployed more than once.
For the National Guard and Reserves, 247,181 (20.8%) have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. 157,140 (13.3%) have one deployment and 90,041 (7.5%) have multiple deployments.
A Little Historical Perspective
DoD estimates that about 31 percent (about 1,790,000) active duty members served in the combat theator during the Korean War, from 1950 to 1953.
About 3,400,000 military members (about 39 percent of active duty) served in Soutyheast Asia during the Vietnam War, from 1955 to 1975.
Or, I can go ahead and do the math for you: in four years, roughly
half the active duty force had deployed, at one time or another, to Iraq or Afghanistan. Now move forward six years. What do you think the numbers are? Much, much higher than half. How many have been around at least (inbound) indirect fire? Pretty much every one of them.