Almost three quarters of all deaths of American military personnel are not associated with participation in hostilities, writes The National Interest, citing data from the US Congressional Research Service.
So, an increase in the death toll has been observed since 2006 and in 93% of cases is recorded in the United States.
“Between 2006 and 2020, a total of 17,645 military personnel died while serving in the US military. At least 13,068 military personnel died in circumstances unrelated to emergency operations overseas”, – the report said.
Thus, about 913 American soldiers are killed each year.
According to the Research Service, about 31.8% of deaths were due to accidents, 24% were due to suicide, 17.5% were caused by illness and injury, and 3.2% were due to homicide. Another 2.9% of deaths occurred under unexplained circumstances. In turn, 20.5% of people died in the field of pain, during terrorist attacks and in captivity.
At the same time, the number of suicides in the ranks of the American army is also of serious concern, which is confirmed by the published Pentagon report, the material says.
“There were 156 suicide deaths in the fourth quarter of 2020, up 25% from 2019”, – the report said.
Jennifer Norris, a veteran US Air Force leader and head of Military Justice for All, notes that the main problem is the 1950 Feres Doctrine, which prohibits military personnel from recovering damages from the government for bodily harm in the line of duty. In her opinion, if so many people died in a private American company, she would be sued, and the situation would change significantly.