Does Ken Burns' "Vietnam War" discuss the fragging of officers? I haven't noticed

[raccoon]

it yet.

[arthritisR_US]

1. What's fragging?

[Va Lefty]

2. Killing or attempted killing by a soldier of a fellow soldier, usually a superior officer or non-com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragging

[raccoon]

3. Soldiers deliberately killing officers. nt

[BigmanPigman]

4. I think it is when an officer kills or harms another officer

that they don't like for whatever reasons. They haven't shown that yet though.

[arthritisR_US]

7. Thanks everyone. I'm totally blown over by this, it's the

first I've ever heard of it. Was it a big issue during that war?

[Not Ruth]

10. Urban legend

Friendly fire killed a lot more, and you barely hear of that

[left-of-center2012]

14. Some 'friendly fire' has been re-categorized as ...

a 'misadventure'.

A high school friend was killed in one.
His squad was in an area where they were not supposed to be;
they had drifted off from the main unit to take cover under some trees,
and they were bombed by U.S. air support who thought they were V.C.

It was originally listed as 'friendly fire', but more recently filed as a 'misadventure',
maybe to lower the number of 'friendly fires'.

He was "in country" four weeks.

[Not Ruth]

16. Pat Tillman is the most famous instance of US friendly fire

Supposedly he was yelling the following at his guys, while they were shooting him, as he died.

"I'm Pat Effing Tillman"

Pat Tillman, a former professional American football player, was shot and killed by American fire on 22 April 2004. An Army Special Operations Command investigation was conducted by Brigadier General Jones and the U.S. Department of Defense concluded that Tillman's death was due to friendly fire aggravated by the intensity of the firefight. A more thorough investigation concluded that no hostile forces were involved in the firefight and that two allied groups fired on each other in confusion after a nearby improvised explosive device was detonated.

[NobodyHere]

31. I'm still surprised FOX let this skit run

[left-of-center2012]

15. Nope

When an experienced infantryman gets rid of an inexperienced officer who is thought to endanger the enlisted men,
typically by tossing a grenade in the officer's tent or area of battle..

[GP6971]

26. It was enlisted soldiers trying to kill their officers

term comes from using a fragmentation (frag) grenade.

[tblue37]

28. No, usually it was enlisted men killing officers who abused them or who deliberately

exposed them to unreasonable risk in combat (for the officer's own ego or career advancement).

[BigmanPigman]

32. I am watching Vietnam now...they are discussing "fragging"

Last edited Wed Sep 27, 2017, 01:44 AM - Edit history (1)

on this episode. They said that it often happened due to race, women and drugs as well as new officers coming in wanting larger body counts.

[SeattleVet]

6. A sort of way of removing an officer from your chain of command.

Tossing a fragmentation grenade into the tent while they were sleeping, or making sure that it fell near them during combat operations to make it look like an accident or result of combat.

There were estimated to be around 900 of these incidents in Vietnam between 1969 and 1972.

Good article with some background:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragging

[arthritisR_US]

23. Thanks!

[FLPanhandle]

5. Was that really that common in Vietnam?

Always seemed like more myth than reality.

My dad served in Vietnam and said he never heard of it.

[MineralMan]

8. See the post above yours.

It happened. Probably more than was reported, actually.

[The_Casual_Observer]

11. There were about 1000 confirmed case in Vietnam.

It was one of the factors that ended the draft.

[former9thward]

18. No, there were not.

There were 46 deaths out of 58,000 U.S. deaths in Vietnam. That was not a factor in the draft. How many "fraggings" were there in WW II when nobody paid attention to that stuff?

[The_Casual_Observer]

19. Did I say DEATHS?

Jesus, look it up yourself.

[former9thward]

21. No, you said "confirmed cases".

Which if someone did not look it up would assume deaths and you know that.

[The_Casual_Observer]

22. Ah bullshit.

[unc70]

13. Relatively common many hundreds of cases

I wasn’t there, but from what I was told by people who were and what I’ve read, there were many hundreds of cases.

[shanti]

9. Yes, they did, briefly

Although I cannot remember the episode. I watched all of them on the PBS app.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

12. No, but it did mention the Phoenix Program.

Ugh.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Program

[Nevernose]

20. That's really surprising

That's something almost always skipped entirely, if not given a very glossy sheen. Did they connect it to similar CIA programs in Nicaragua and Afghanistan? Probably not.

[dalton99a]

17. Yes, in tonight's episode

At least 800 cases reported

[uponit7771]

24. Yes, this documentary is gripping

[dalton99a]

25. It is a masterpiece.

[muntrv]

27. They're talking about fragging now.

[we can do it]

29. Yes, just now.

[Trust Buster]

30. They covered fragging a few minutes ago on tonight's episode.