How many military members actually see combat?

I spent 44 months on board the USS SACRAMENTO (AOE-1) a fast attack auxilary ship 82-86. Not a lick of combat service. I bet Momar Khadafi and some of his pals might differ. Point being that combat duty isn't the only dangerous duty in the military. I saw to many sailors get fucked up simply because of the dangerous duty theY performed. BM3 BIEGLER.

When I was active duty, my MOS was 0311. When we went to Kuwait and later to Iraq in March of 2003 we were “tip of the spear” and rolling hard to the Euphrates. Support elements in the meantime where getting lit up and seeing serious action on their own. I’m willing to bet a lot of the 4th FSSG where getting CARS left and right. On today’s modern battlefield, who the hell can really say? Hadji got smart and won’t meet us fave to face on massive World War Two style fronts. I gues it depends on how deployable you are in your unit and MOS.

For 21 years, from 1963 to 1984, I was a branch Chemical Officer. I served in tactical units, service schools, and R&D assignments on weapons and equipment. My tour in Vietnam as an Assistant Division Chemical Officer was characterized by almost daily missions in which I flew combat assault missions in support of division maneuver elements. My usual activities were the employment of CS munitions from UH-1 helicopters to soften enemy targets for assault by ground elements and to enhance the effects of artillery and air strikes for which I functioned as a forward observer or forward air controller. I also flew with our sniffer team of 2 OH-6 and 2 AH-1 helicopters employing the airborne personnel detector as well as flying bombing runs with CH-47 helicopters to drop massive fill munitions of CS on enemy trails and rally points for terrain restriction. Very often we took ground fire, and my door gunners were usually always provided with ample opportunities to engage enemy personnel, as were the crews of the AH-1 gunships. Fact is, the Division Commanding General sort of adopted the Division Chemical Section as his own rapid reaction force to take care of problems that arose in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. Considering the aforementioned examples of my duties, it is safe to say that almost every soldier assigned to the Division Chemical Section saw a fair amount of combat on a frequent basis.....an interesting contrast to what one might often consider the peaceful, relative safety of division staff assignments.

You must mean that those jobs are the ones that DO see combat. Truck drivers always getting blown up on the road and medic or infantry are sorta self explanatory.

But Navy see ground combat too. There were Navy combat engineers/EOD and certainly corpsmen out there with us. I'm sure other jobs too.

Sounds like you need to look up an fmf corpsman and listen to their stories

Not true. Depends what your mission is. As a truck driver 88M, we stayed at Camp Arifjan and then did local missions 1-2 days in Kuwait and 5-14 days into Iraq. I was Army. So we didn't just stay in one spot. The most dangerous area is the road. I do know someone who is a Marine who was so bent on getting deploying and wants to see action etc. Etc. Blah. Blah. Ended up a heavy mechanic in the fob. He was like one of those people who are so bent on getting deployed and then complain the whole time they are there.
What matters is you do the job you were asked to do. People should feel confident they did the job that was asked of them, regardless of setting. If you are in harms way or not.
No need to lie. Everyone enlisting should know the reality of the ultimate sacrifice. Everyone is trained to fight regardless of MOS.

As a Navy recruiter, I’m a bit concerned that you are recruiting Hospital Corpsmen and unable to give them straight information regarding their career choice. The Navy Hospital Corps has earned 23 Medals of Honor and 173 Navy Crosses. I can promise you your Fleet Marine Force Corpsmen assigned to Division leave the confines of the FOB. It’s a dangerous but rewarding career.

Just stick to what branch you are, US Navy. Don't use the statement about going outside the wire as that isn't the case in todays military and theaters of operations. Anyone no matter what their NEC or MOS can and do go outside the wire so keep it truthful. As a Hospital Corpsman we went out with our Marine units every time, you earn that title "Doc". If someone is wanting to get into combat then I would really be more concerned as to whether I really want them in the service at all, it hurts to get shot, blown up and wounded and once you kill someone, there is no reset button that brings them back to life. Trust me on this one. Thanks for your question in this matter. Last word of thought, just keep it real concerning the Navy, as that is what you are recruiting for. Doc Gilly.

Combat arms branches are more likely to see combat due to the very nature of their/our mission set. In today's linear battlefield, however, combat support and combat services support can also see some combat although theirs wouldn't be as a result of actively going after the enemy. So here is my advice. If the person you are recruiting wants to see combat by all means steer them towards the direct engagement MOS within the Navy.

I was stationed in Tikrit, Iraq at camp speicher 2005. Our brigade had a large trucking battalion the 50th MSB, main support battalion. They carried out missions outside the wire daily on Iraqi roads, yes they were killed by IED’s and small arms fire from insurgents. Why do you think they removed 160 machine guns as old as WWII on top as cruiser weapons, they searched the entire USA for 50 caliber machine guns that could go through concrete and stone walls. Heck people were killed by incoming rockets going to chow. The mess hall had huge blasting walls to protect soldiers and contractors. Truckers delivered rations and ammo to r3mote areas risking their lives daily. I swear to God shortages of personnel caused them to use US Air Force on convoy missions with the army. The Marines, no finder human being on earth were always outside the wire coming in for medical, vehicle maintenance, ammo, always in danger. It takes eight non-combatant mos soldiers to support every two grunts, but Iranian IEDs did not give a poop what their mos was. Only real difference with the Vietnam conflict modern medicine and machines kept those torn apart alive and send home without arms and legs. General Soleimani trained Shiites insurgents to kill our brothers and sister, he was a main supplier of IEDs to bad people in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The Sunnis ( up to 20,000 tp 50,000), went wacko under Isis radicals, beyond hope after the earlier years of the war, most of them are decent people they worked on the FOB under guard, they never stole, they refuse more money than the bargained for, deeply religious. It is no secret the Iranian Shiites want to annex Iraq and did so since the 1980’s. unfortunately, House Representatives label Trump a war criminal for killing a mass murderer of our service community. Their unfortunately absolutely nut jobs.