The breakdown isn't new, but with the 50th anniversary of the Korean War raising the issue in the national consciousness, Pentagon officials thought it prudent to clarify the numbers. That figure of 17,730 other deaths caught reporters' attention. The 1950s tally averages nearly 6,000 deaths a year, not counting any of the thousands that were dying in Korea. Compare that to the 813 service members who died in 1998. Quigley attributed the dramatic drop to the commitment of the services to take care of their troops.
Safety is the watchword of modern military operations.
We have made incredible strides in reducing the number of non-combat accidental deaths, training deaths, and things of that sort in recent years.