Good news from 2016!

[fsn]

Good News!

The Armed Forces have marked their first year in nearly five decades without a soldier, sailor or airman being killed on operations.

Ministry of Defence figures show that 2016 was the first year without the death of a serviceman on operations since 1968.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/01/forces-have-first-year-since-1968-no-one-killed-operations/

[fred.]

While on a personal level it is clearly good news - when you read beyond the headline it feels a bit more of fluke occurrence, coupled with a political reluctance to commit troops.

It seems that 1968 and 2016 were the only years since WWII that saw no deaths on active service. The headline kind of indicates that pre-1968 there weren't deaths on active service. And if those numbers are since 1945, then clearly 1939 to 1945 saw many deaths, and I would expect that much of the 20s and 30s saw deaths due to Empire police actions, then there was WWI, and before that the Boer War. So perhaps we are only looking at a couple of years without deaths on active service in a over a century.

Which really goes to show what a debt of gratitude we owe to those who choose to serve in the armed forces.

[fsn]

Indeed so.

I hope 2017 will be year number 3.

[paulr]

A wish we all share

[FierceKitty]

Hear, hear. You chaps have a very good reason to stop stooging for the Yanks for a while.