Amicicide: The Problem of Friendly Fire in Modern War

War is aften depicted in the textbooks as a wellorchestrated,
albeit violent, exercise in which opposing
units strive to achieve tactical and strategic objectives.
That each side will suffer casualties in the process is
taken for granted; they are the inevitable, if regretable,
consequence of such a deadly undertaking. That each side is
almost certain to suffer casualties inflicted by its own
forces is not generally taken for granted, Yet, in each of
America's wars, especially those of the twentieth century, a
significant number of soldiers have been killed or wounded
as the result of friendly fire. The fact that the
percentage of casualties resulting from friendly fire from
World War I through Vietnam has been extremely low does not
make the accidental killing or wounding of one's own troops
any less tragic or unpalatable. Nor does it offer much
consolation to the commander responsible for the lives of
his troops or to the soldier who runs the risk of falling
victim to the fire of his own forces. It may well be that
in the "fog of war" friendly fire casualties are inevitable,
but this solemn observation does not absolve the armed
forces from doing everything in their power to eliminate the
problem.
To be sure, each branch of the Army and each of the
Armed Services employ measures calculated to prevent
incidents of friendly fire. But such measures offer only
partial solutions, especially on the modern battlefield
where joint and combined forces operate under often obscure
conditions. A more comprehensive study of the causes and
consequences of friendly fire is needed. That one has not
yet appeared is attributable to several factors, foremost
among them being the nature of the evidence on which such a
study must rely. The required raw data are scattered
throughout a variety of primary and secondary, official and
unofficial sources. Before one can undertake a serious and
comprehensive analysis of friendly fire, these data must be
found and brought together in one place.
In Amicicide: The Problem of Friendly Fire in Modern
&, LTC Charles R. Shrader has taken a major step toward
the compilation of these data. From his survey of much of
the existing literature on World War I, World War II, the
Korean War, and the Vietnam War, he has extracted examples
of friendly fire involving U.S. ground forces and has
categorized them according to types of incidents. In his
well-informed narrative, he draws tentative conclusions
about the causes and effects of friendly fire and offers
recommendations for those who expect to study the subject
further. He has, in short, produced a superb reference book
and a springboard for a deeper and more comprehensive
analysis of this grim and complex problem. The Combat
Studies Institute is pleased to present this work as the
first in its series of Research Surveys.