General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDoes Ken Burns' "Vietnam War" discuss the fragging of officers? I haven't noticed
it yet.
arthritisR_US
(7,288 posts)Va Lefty
(6,252 posts)raccoon
(31,111 posts)BigmanPigman
(51,611 posts)that they don't like for whatever reasons. They haven't shown that yet though.
arthritisR_US
(7,288 posts)first I've ever heard of it. Was it a big issue during that war?
Not Ruth
(3,613 posts)Friendly fire killed a lot more, and you barely hear of that
left-of-center2012
(34,195 posts)a 'misadventure'.
A high school friend was killed in one.
His squad was in an area where they were not supposed to be;
they had drifted off from the main unit to take cover under some trees,
and they were bombed by U.S. air support who thought they were V.C.
It was originally listed as 'friendly fire', but more recently filed as a 'misadventure',
maybe to lower the number of 'friendly fires'.
He was "in country" four weeks.
Not Ruth
(3,613 posts)Supposedly he was yelling the following at his guys, while they were shooting him, as he died.
"I'm Pat Effing Tillman"
Pat Tillman, a former professional American football player, was shot and killed by American fire on 22 April 2004. An Army Special Operations Command investigation was conducted by Brigadier General Jones and the U.S. Department of Defense concluded that Tillman's death was due to friendly fire aggravated by the intensity of the firefight. A more thorough investigation concluded that no hostile forces were involved in the firefight and that two allied groups fired on each other in confusion after a nearby improvised explosive device was detonated.
NobodyHere
(2,810 posts)left-of-center2012
(34,195 posts)When an experienced infantryman gets rid of an inexperienced officer who is thought to endanger the enlisted men,
typically by tossing a grenade in the officer's tent or area of battle..
GP6971
(31,168 posts)term comes from using a fragmentation (frag) grenade.
tblue37
(65,408 posts)exposed them to unreasonable risk in combat (for the officer's own ego or career advancement).
BigmanPigman
(51,611 posts)Last edited Wed Sep 27, 2017, 01:44 AM - Edit history (1)
on this episode. They said that it often happened due to race, women and drugs as well as new officers coming in wanting larger body counts.
SeattleVet
(5,477 posts)Tossing a fragmentation grenade into the tent while they were sleeping, or making sure that it fell near them during combat operations to make it look like an accident or result of combat.
There were estimated to be around 900 of these incidents in Vietnam between 1969 and 1972.
Good article with some background:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragging
arthritisR_US
(7,288 posts)FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)Always seemed like more myth than reality.
My dad served in Vietnam and said he never heard of it.
MineralMan
(146,317 posts)It happened. Probably more than was reported, actually.
The_Casual_Observer
(27,742 posts)It was one of the factors that ended the draft.
former9thward
(32,025 posts)There were 46 deaths out of 58,000 U.S. deaths in Vietnam. That was not a factor in the draft. How many "fraggings" were there in WW II when nobody paid attention to that stuff?
The_Casual_Observer
(27,742 posts)Jesus, look it up yourself.
former9thward
(32,025 posts)Which if someone did not look it up would assume deaths and you know that.
The_Casual_Observer
(27,742 posts)unc70
(6,115 posts)I wasnt there, but from what I was told by people who were and what Ive read, there were many hundreds of cases.
shanti
(21,675 posts)Although I cannot remember the episode. I watched all of them on the PBS app.
Tommy_Carcetti
(43,182 posts)Nevernose
(13,081 posts)That's something almost always skipped entirely, if not given a very glossy sheen. Did they connect it to similar CIA programs in Nicaragua and Afghanistan? Probably not.
dalton99a
(81,516 posts)At least 800 cases reported