[HiJinx]

Well, looks like I tapped into the motherload - The Center for Army Lessons Learned at Ft. Leavenworth. There's probably more information there relevant to this topic than I can digest in a month, let alone in the next few minutes. I don't know if they allow civilian access to their library, but it's worth looking for.

As a teaser, I found this in a text document after searching for 'Accidental Deaths' on their site. It was posted to the "News from the Field" Knowledge Center in the "News Articles" folder.

by Carlla E. Xxxxx
U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine

Unintended injuries and accidental deaths are serious problems in the United States. New laws have been enacted, and new technologies have been developed to make our lives and communities safer. Despite these advances, the numbers of injuries and deaths 'by accident' continue to remain at a high level.

In 2001, the National Safety Council recorded 51,500 deaths occurring in the home and community; 43,400 deaths occurring from automobile crashes; and 5,200 people dying while at work ('Injury Facts,' 2001 edition). These statistics underscore the importance of a safety-minded attitude.

That's over 100,000 accidental deaths in the US in the general population in one year. I'll see if I can find a a link into this on a non-secure server...

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

That's over 100,000 accidental deaths in the US in the general population in one year.

U.S. is a quagmire? Who knew!

[TheDon]

100,000 per year. As a ball park figure, if we know the US population and the military population, we can compute the number of accidental deaths in the military per year. Not the actual figure, but just a number to compare it to the general population and what is going on in Iraq and Afghanistan.