I was reading through Michelle Malkin’s blog again today and followed a link to Smash, The Indepundit. Smash has a blog entry about the tactics of those trying to block military recruiters from schools. There are many comments, from both sides, but it was a person writing in support of the military that caught my attention.

The individual goes by the name Trantor and is definitely someone I would have trouble being nice to in a face to face conversation. In the course of arguing that the military doesn’t prey on uneducated individuals, Trantor made the following comments.

I disagree that less education will place you in combat. It depends on a lot of variables. Certainly, in the Air Force less education will exclude you from combat because only the officers fight. The enlisted guys stay back on base. The most educated guys are the only ones who fight in the Air Force.

I was struck back by such an arrogant and ignorant statement. Luckily it wasn’t left uncontested, but Trantor’s reply was seriously lacking.

Point taken, Billy Hank. You’re right, there are enlisted who fight in the USAF though the bulk of the warriors are officers.

I’ve love to know how Trantor defines “warrior”. The officers whom he is referring to are most likely pilots. I don’t mean to downplay the risks of being a military pilot, but currently pilots have a fairly low risk of receiving hostile fire. Most instances where a pilot is injured or killed are due to some sort of mechanical or human error. The enlisted aircrews are exposed to those risks as well. When it comes down to it, the numbers don’t back up Trantor’s statements.

The Military Casualty Information website has several reports that can quickly dispel the myth. The first I would like to point out the Wounded In Action Report, dated from March 19th 2003 to June 4th 2005. This lists only hostile action in Operation Iraqi Freedom. No accidents, suicides or homicides are included in these figures. During this time period, 12 officers and 153 enlisted were wounded. Think about that. Just under 93% of Air Force Wounded In Action are enlisted.

Now let’s look at the Military Deaths Report for the same time period. There were 6 officers and 13 enlisted military deaths in Operation Iraqi Freedom. 63% of the total Air Force personnel killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom were enlisted.

I’d love to see Trantor try to tell some enlisted Air Force personnel stationed in Iraqi that they aren’t warriors. Airbases are routinely attacked. Some bases were mortared on a daily basis. Enlisted make up the vast majority of personnel designated to defend airbases. It’s also commonplace for Air Force Security Forces to participate in patrols and assist Iraqi Police. There’s also Air Force Special Forces which are primarily enlisted. While most enlisted jobs in the Air Force are considered non-combat, if their base or convoy is attacked and they’re killed, injured or fight back, then they are warriors. Also, pilots aren’t much use if the enlisted aren’t building the bombs and fixing the aircraft. It’s the enlisted that get the jets in the air, not the pilots.