Wolfgang, I'm glad you got back to this site before I did. I suspect that you had to know that someone like me would come across this and after being under friendly fire on numerous occasions (Vietnam, and once under Israeli fire during the Gulf War, during a military/police visit to the northern territories near Lebanon) someone like me would note the central fallicy of the stats. The number of total casualties in each of the wars cited went down, so naturally "accidents" of any sort would become a higher percentage of the casualties. At present, runaway fork-lifts have accounted for 12.5% of our Afghan casualties; lets spend thousands of idiot hours wringing our hands over American fork-lift atrocities.

I do not have the time to layout the difficulties that artillery (or aircraft ordnance) undergo to place their weapons on target, but for example, naval gunnery has been likened to shooting at a flying duck while floating down stream in a canoe. Everything from the speed and angle of both the duck and the canoe, to the velocity and aim point of the gun, to the temperature and humidity of the air, plus the trigger pull and spot weld of the gunner come into play.

May I suggest a little quiz to those who claim some insight into these tragedies. Name or explain the following very basic terms used in artillery:

1. Gunner's Rule - hint: "LARS"

2. TOT

3. Enfillade fire

4. Plunging fire

5. Grazing fire (To those who know, more of a machine gunners term, but still useful in FSB defense)

6. Reverse slope defense

7. Gun-Target line

8. Pre-planned fire - hint: "Call points"

9. "Shoot the Bags"- hint: When You Care Enough to Send the Very Best...

10. FO

11. FAC

12. "Fire for Effect" - easy

13. "Box me In" or "Walk Me Out"

14. "Willie Peter"

I can't say that the commentors on the above thread need to know the above terms, but it should serve to separate the wheat from the sophists.

That's enough for now, but I will close by saying that artillery has saved many more marines than have been lost by FF, and "Cannon Cockers" are still a grunt's best friend.