Anyone have stats on Iraq casualties: officers vs. enlisted men?

I know someone on the religious right who is very well off and very well educated and has one son serving in Iraq and is helping his other son fill out an application to go to West Point.

It dawned on me that possibly there is a class of people who don't mind their kids being in the military because they know they will be officers and will not be in combat.

Is this the case? Are the casualty rates much lower for officers than for enlisted men? Sorry for my ignorance of the mechanics of war.

http://icasualties.org/oif/ has a lot of the statistics on coalition deaths. good site

1960 total US casualties as of today

the average is about 2.7 a day this month.

Especially as I looked on CNN's casualty website. There are many more enlisted casualties, but there are also many more of them relative to officers. And of course, you aren't going to have officers who are higher-up on the chain of command patrolling the streets. However, even when coming from a military academy, you start at the bottom and work your way up. I'd certainly imagine a huge risk for anybody joining as an officer at this point.

sergeants are fairly common on the list.

The numbers vary between the services, but that is the average.

It is a good question you ask. You might be able to pull the info out of this site http://icasualties.org/oif/ by using the statistics feature, but you would have to enter every commissioned rank and do the addition yourself, as I do not see a feature to select all of the ranks and then do a tabulation.

http://www.dior.whs.mil/mmid/casualty/castop.htm


This report in Acrobat format includes a breakout between officers and enlisted personnel.
http://www.dior.whs.mil/mmid/casualty/OIF-Deaths-After.pdf

On 09/17/2005 the US government had reported 1,756 deaths in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Here's the breakout by rank:

Officer - 171
E-5 to E-9 - 557
E-1 to E-4 - 1,028

Here's a website for the military ranks:
http://www.ecsu.ctstateu.edu/personal/faculty/pocock/ranks.htm
"http://ecsu.ctstateu.edu/personal/faculty/pocock/ranks.htm"

Seriously. When you say the "very well off", it reminds me that the real brains and ability comes from the middle and lower classes, not the upper classes. Especially those second and further generations, the very privileged, they just...really aren't that bright. They don't have to be, and the end result, just like with people who are "pretty", is that they just aren't as mentally challenged, and they literally aren't as smart. Some may be better educated, but more education does not necessarily equate to better use of brain. Witness dear Paris Hilton; little brains and less emotional content. She got rid of her little dog because it got too fat. Too fat. Can you imagine? I can't. They can.

So, that's what I think, when you find it odd that those folks don't mind their kids going in the military. On top of what everyone said about them being in less danger, I think they don't really get what it means to go, and quite a few are dangerously emotionally detached. They're willing to let their kid go over and find out what it's all about. Becauuuuuuuuuse...it's good for them? Yeah. Like I said, not that bright. Never had to fight for anything, never having to worry where the next meal is coming from or how to pay for an expensive medical test at the same time as going to a family reunion and then there's the busted windshield on the car. HUman problems, not their thing. Not very well acquainted with the full human experience, making them uninformed. And uninformed = dumb. It's a trend, I swear, it really is. Dumbness. They know money. They don't know people. And a lot of them are on meds that help them remain detached. I dont know if this applies at all to the people you know or not, but even if it isn't them, I imagine they hear all manner of insanely detached commentary from their peers. Brainwashing of a sort.

Many of them are going to be torn apart by what this is going to do to their young adult kids. And later, those adult kids won't be there very well to take care of them in their old age. See what I mean? Dumb.

Reserves? It seems to me the Reserves and Guard have sustained the biggest losses.

of a comment I threw at someone before the war got good and going, I can't remember if it was before or shortly after. I got into argument after argument about the war and the soldiers in it.

At one point, I threw out one short comment to one of the brightest of the bright, the one with a vocabulary that has forgotten more words than I'll ever know, real genius type. In fact, interesting to the point that he was difficult not to like. But, still a shill.

I asked him basically, "P", I said "Hey P...how many reserve and guard soldiers do we have available??" It was a one line post. One flat question.

I never got an answer. That was then. Now, after some of them they didn't worry about are on their third tour, I wonder if I'm the only one that saw it coming. And how can that possibly be?? Lord knows, the braniacs blew me off completely. At that point, I realized actual brain power has little to do with politics. My fine Mr P had no answer then, and probably still doesn't. It's a shame. I knew they were going to use and abuse the one's that said they'd answer the call for an emergency. NO one took me seriously. The laughed at a draft possibility too, though I have children that might be affected, it was still too daft of me to worry about.

I got called out for being a mommy. Did you all realize being a mother is now something to be ashamed of? Gee, if I'd only known...

You should have heard what they said about the torture. Frankly, I don't even give a damn what they're saying now, after that. I imagine still making excuses.

You'd have all been proud of how I went after them, ineffective as it might have been. I'm nice here. Those mf's got earfuls about the war and both barrels over the torture issue. In the end, I don't know if I convinced anyone at all. Very frustrating.

Just like Robin Williams in the Aladdin movie, what was it, the genie said, "All the power and in the world...teeny tiny living space." All the brainpower in the world...teeny tiny morals.

:(

But for most, it's just too damaging to the egos to consider women as being brave, heroric or to honor the female fallen dead. They'll never care. It's just a feminist agenda to them, just us being "selfish" in seeking undue, undeserved recognition, because everyone knows, women don't really fight, not really. We don't deserve praise for dying, and never have, in any war, not the nurses, no women anywhere, no place for them in war. That's just how it is.