Attrition: Replacing The Casualties

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March 18,2008: As they have for nearly every month since September 11, 2001, the U.S. military met their recruiting goals in February. The army brought in 15,472 recruits (60 percent of them for reserve units.) That's more than all the other services combined, which is somewhat understandable when you consider that soldiers comprise 36 percent of active duty personnel, and 65 percent of reservists. The army is also suffering most of the casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. Last year over 3,000 soldiers had to be replaced because of combat deaths, or soldiers retired because of wounds, sickness or combat fatigue. Similar losses for the other services totaled less than a thousand troops. All the services have people in the combat zone, but army and marine personnel are doing most of the dangerous jobs.

 

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