The multi-cultural nature of the United States has once again been revealed by the outbreak of serious disease in an immigrant population. The good thing is that these diseases are treatable and curable. The bad thing is that this is a population that will tend to be non-compliant with treatment.
In 1986, a compact was created [...]

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The Democrat & Chronicle examines the aging of our educators in the Rochester, N.Y. / Monroe County region. The article also looks at the aging issue in higher education, though here I would expect the problem to be less since it is not uncommon for college professors to teach well into their seventies while nearly [...]

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This chart represents data from March 19, 2003 to December 8, 2007. DoD link [PDF file]
Losses to non-hostile causes account for 18.6% of the deaths in Operation Iraqi Freedom, OIF. The accident category would include motor vehicle accidents, and aircraft crashes that are not due to combat. Of the 718 losses in this data, 34 [...]

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I found a source for the medal numbers for the Army. Here’s a summary derived from their records.
US Army

Afghanistan
Iraq
Totals

Medal of Honor
0
1
1

Distinguished Service Cross
1
5
6

Silver Star
95
347
442

Legion of Merit
7
31
38

Distinguished Flying Cross
58
84
142

Soldier’s Medal
25
82
107

Meritorious Service Medal
2,522
11,456
13,978

Bronze Star Medal for Valor
696
1,686
2,382

Bronze Star Medal svc/ach
13,556
51,340
64,896

Purple Heart
1,691
5,468
7,159

Air Medal for Valor
348
9,367
9,715

Air Medal svc/ach
3,605
4,955
8,560

ARCOM for valor
467
147,612
148,079

ARCOM svc/ach
21,558
14,019
35,577

Army Achievement Medal
5,246
12,762
18,008

Combat Infantryman Badge
11,564
28,538
40,102

Combat Medical Badge
1,772
10,401
12,173

Combat Action Badge
6,200
37,785
43,985

69,411
335,939
405,350

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Here is my regular summary of American losses in Iraq and those suffered by our enemies. U.S. losses are those as reported by the ICCC. Terrorist losses are those reported by MNF-I, except for November’s, which are my compilation pending confirmation by the military.
American losses are due to combat. Deaths from non-hostile causes are not [...]

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The downward trend continues. One reminder: With these few Americans being killed, one incident where four or five are killed can make a big difference in the graph. A spike does not necessarily mean disaster, just that so few are being KIA that a small incident can have a great effect.

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In June, the Congressional Research Service produced a document for Congress that has gone almost unnoticed. It is titled American War and Military Operations Casualties: Lists and Statistics

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The blogs and the media are full of this news, but you already knew it because I’ve been talking about it for a couple of months. Our losses are down, way down.

The only mistake most of the blogs and the media are making is to include non-hostile deaths in their totals. I don’t.

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OK, Shuster ambushes a Republican Congresswoman about the name of the last soldier from her district to die in Iraq. Initial research suggests he was actually from another district.
Media Blog reports that MediaBistro quotes the Memphis Commercial Appeal that the young man’s home town was in her district.
Gotcha!
DoD press release:
The Department of Defense announced today [...]

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