What do you think the relative safest division of the Armed Servies would be nowadays:
Army- That is never safe since you are always in there
Marines- Ditto
Air Force - Still a good chance of being shot down by surface to air missiles…everyone and their mother seems to have those nowadays
Navy - Not too many countries nowadays that have a capability of sinking an air craft carrier. At least nobody in Iraq could. I realize the Navy has pilots, but I am primarily just talking about the ships etc…
Did I miss any? I don’t know everything about the US military.
I’d say navy or air force unless you’re a pilot. AF ground crew jobs are fairly safe and sea warfare is quiet these days. The army is that last place to go to be safe.
Actually I was watching the news and I believe quite a few of the CG are over in Iraq. Don’t they tend to use them for Supply trucks and what not. That is likely one of the most dangerous of the jobs. I could be mistaken though
5280, is correct in noting that the USCG is one of the “Armed Forces.” He gets a Gold Star for that. Since it is not in the Department of Defense, that fact is often overlooked. My dad is a retired Coast Guard Captain. In WW II, it is claimed the USCG had the highest “per capita” casualty rate. They did North Atlantic convoy escorts and also coxswained landing craft for Marines.
I’d say the USAF would be the “safest” per capita right now. You can’t just focus on combat deaths. There are a lot of accidental deaths. Ships are pretty dangerous places. It is not widely reported, but about 20% (roughly) of US troop deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan have been due to accidents.
“Safe” is one word I have never associated with any and all branches of the armed forces. Same goes for PD and FD. That’s why we use words like “brave” and “courageous” in describing these men and women.
No disrespect intended to anyone involved in this thread (sincerely).
Seems like all memebers of those branches sign up knowing they have a chance of staring death in the eyes.
“Safe” is one word I have never associated with any and all branches of the armed forces.
Bingo.
While I’m sure one could compile statistics showing comparitive injury and death rates among the services, asking which one is “safest” is a bit of a non sequitor. The armed services are all involved in a host of inherently dangerous practices, even in peace time.
Besides which, those statistics might be misleading. The military goes to great lengths to carry out those inherently dangerous practices as “safely” as possible, but they’re still dangerous. For example, I think Navy SEALs have a pretty low rate of combat deaths compared to regular forces, historically, but I wouldn’t say that being a SEAL is “safer” than being in the infantry.
“A ship in harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are for.”
“In WW II, it is claimed the USCG had the highest “per capita” casualty rate.”
Does the Merchant Marine count?
As for the Coast Guard, they are in the Middle East. Lots of force protection duties. They regularly get their asses shot off and do not get nearly the respect they deserve. (My dad was USCG)
Merchant Marine had a very high death rate in WW II, but I don’t believe they were ever considered one of the Armed Forces. But, their contributions and sacrifices are often overlooked and they deserve more recognition than they get.
Farming is also much more dangerous than the military. I think it is in the top 2 or 3, up there with commercial fishermen. Ever watch any of those shows about those Alaskan King Crab fishermen? Yeesh!
I think the question isn’t about which occupation loses more people to injury or death, but which job is more inherently dangerous. Maybe commercial fishermen lose more people per capita because they take worse care of their gear and don’t use proper safety procedures, for instance. It’s more dangerous to be an Army infantryman than it is to be an AF Air traffic controller, in general. However, it’s more dangerous to be an AF pilot than it is to be an Army logistician. The comparison isn’t really fair, and if you do it by Service, it’s too general to really mean much.
(By the way, that was just an example, not a knock on commercial fisherman)
I Have worked with ( on and around ) commercial fishing boats. I would say poor gear , third world crews , remote locations add to the danger. None of that OSHA crap applies in most work on deck, 2% safer for an 88% slow down in operations. Any major, internal bleeding, limb crush, your gone. The coast guard will have some paramedics jump in from a C130, If the weather is good, rare cases.
Some Korean boats, come in ,looking at the crews list and it shows they are two men short , where are they ? ( mostly immigration questions) the captain says “ah they were kill in an accident, they didn’t make it” over the side.
Remember that for every one “combat” troop there are 11 “support” personnel or “REMF’s” (Rear Echelon Manly Fellows… or something similar to that).
At least that’s what they told us to keep us pumped up. Bascially it means that for every one guy sleeping in wet clothes with little or no food, bad water, no toilet paper and no shower for 25 days there are 11 people who’s primary threat is coffee spillage.