Infantry: Avoiding Accidental Self-Destruction

Avoiding Accidental Self-Destruction

September 5, 2006: During the last three years in Iraq, 21 soldiers have been killed accidentally by other soldiers. That's about one percent of all deaths, which is two-thirds the rate of the Vietnam war. These "accidental homicides" occur when troops fire their weapons, or set off explosives, by accident. This happens a lot in combat. While the rate of such deaths is lower than the 1.5 percent of the Vietnam war, the army and marines continue to seek ways to make the dangerous business of working with weapons day and night, less dangerous.

The army came up with a novel idea. They now issue rifles, and blank ammo, to new recruits three days after they start training. Moreover, the troops take these weapons with them everywhere. Just as they will when they get to Iraq or Afghanistan. In the past, troops, of course, had their weapons with them when in a combat zone. But when not in a combat zone, troops rarely handled their weapons. The rifles and such were locked safely away in the "arms room," and, for most troops, only taken out every week or so for cleaning, and once or twice a year for a trip to the rifle range. Combat troops would take their weapons out of the arms room when they trained, but the rifles and machine-guns still spent most of their time in the arms room.

But now, recruits spend their first three months in the army carrying around an M-16, and ammunition (OK, blanks, but if one is fired, it sounds close enough to the real thing.) It seemed to work. Initially, each company of trainers would experience several accidental rifle firings a day. But after a few weeks, you might go one or more days without one.

In combat zones, the troops tend to become casual about all those rifles, pistols and explosives (especially hand grenades). Accidental firings are rather common, but most do not result in death (or even wounds.) Grenades and other explosives were another matter. During Vietnam, Korea and World War II, for every hundred "accidental homicides," there were about 110 cases of "accidental self-destruction" (a soldier killed by mishandling a weapon, often a grenade). But in the last year, the U.S. Army has lowered these accident rates by over a third compared to previous wars.

It was believed that having an all-volunteer force would contribute to a lower rate, but it turned out it was more a matter of training and experience. So now, when troops come out of their basic training, they already have several months of experience living with weapons every day. NCOs have noticed the difference, that the new guys are more at ease, and more safety conscious, with their weapons when they arrive in a combat zone.