I just saw a banner creeping across the screen on MSNBC regarding Army Training Accident Kills Paratrooper. Since Birdie is in charge of weapons and EIB training for the Regiment, I made a quick call. His wife answered the phone. “He got in about eight this morning. Do you want me to wake him up?”
No. Let the young man sleep.
One 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper was killed and 25 were injured Thursday in a truck accident at Fort Bragg, the Army post said in a statement.
You know, something like this concerns me more than the entire time he was in Afghanistan and Iraq. For all the wailing and gnashing of teeth in the media about combat deaths, they care little about those lives lost frequently in training situations. As the leader for training (the other NCOs call him “Sergeant Major Junior”), Birdie was on the scene all night.
Sleep well, son.
If anyone has done any significant fact-checks, they would actually see that there were, throughout the DoD, roughly the same number of deaths the two years prior to the war in training and auto accidents as there have been during the war.
Something you never really hear about, though. I think it is because it would put into perspective how well we have really fought this war.
Anyone who knows anything about urban warfare can tell you that it is absolutely astonishing that we have loss less than 1000 people so far. With places like Fullajah and Najaf where there was block-to-block fighting, there should have been a lot more. It shows that we did learn something from Vietnam, where places like Hue took a lot of our soldiers and Marines, and have applied it here. This is a success story.
Comment by Slice — August 27, 2004 @ 12:58 pm
No doubt.
Now you be careful on your way home in two weeks and 5 days!
Comment by Bunker — August 27, 2004 @ 1:06 pm
The driver was going to fast for the turn, and flipped the 2 and a half ton truck 3 times. All of the Troopers were inside of the truck, that was only supposed to hold 18, they had 28 in it.
Comment by Birdie — August 27, 2004 @ 3:39 pm
How many soldiers fit in the back of a truck?
One more…
Comment by Slice — August 27, 2004 @ 4:30 pm
Slice,
“Anyone who knows anything about urban warfare can tell you that it is absolutely astonishing that we have loss less than 1000 people so far.”
I don’t know anything about urban warfare & I was just an infant during Vietnam, but I do realize how astonishing it is to have loss number of 1000. The loss of life is terrible. No doubt. But when I hear people around me calling this war “the next Vietnam” I’m convinced of the damage that the Hollywood elite, biased media and extremists have done to regular people.
As Bunker said, please be safe and thank you for your service. It is deeply appreciated.
Comment by Lorie — August 27, 2004 @ 5:21 pm