How many military members actually see combat?

As a 12 year Seabee vet with 18 months in Vietnam, I gotta ask; WTF?

I feel this is a service dependent question. I also think that depending on what MOS you have the actual combat comment might be different. I was told when i graduated basic that 1:64 soldiers in the Army are in a actual combat MOS of those there is fraction that are able to look at themselves in a mirror with no one around and say "I have experience killing someone."

And in the military machine now its even less that it would have been in the early 2000's

Cheers

A truck driver may go from base to base either by convoy, a small two or three truck run or a single vehicle. If truck become inoperable the driver and crew become infantry!

I was a mechanic but for the front lines. 3rd Brigade was the first over the border to Iraq. The first night of the war I was in mopp 4 all night because we could see the scuds they were shooting at us. And our fearless leader told us there was WMDs. Then when we got to Baghdad and sat forever Our flaming bush said mission accomplished and as I was Literally reading this I could see tracer rounds going off and we were still getting mortared. We were lucky enough to only lose one person and that was negligence as he wasn’t wearing his seatbelt and fell out of his humvee and got ran over by it. So no, sometimes we were in direct contact with enemy combatants and sometimes we were engaged by guerrilla warfare and sometimes it was the horse flys eating you alive in a giant literal shit hole and you’re slowly losing your mind and you don’t have orders because the civi’s can’t decide what to do and you have to resort to stealing to survive because the nasty girls and the army reserve-retards are afraid to resupply us. And you become disenchanted with your lifelong dream of serving your country and you start hating it because you are powerless over it and then you get stop loss/ stop movement, because you have skills they want but you don’t want to play soldier anymore and your new first sgt is a piece of shit and you plan on fragging him if they send you back for a third tour.
So tell them this: army gear is designed to stop 5.56 mm bullets, the enemy fires 7.62 mm. Friendly fire is more accurate and a lot more likely than enemy fire.

as for the army I can speak as an 88M convoy ops on deployment is intense. 88M is constantly leaving off the base depending on what the mission is on deployment.

No,far way from the real truth,Vietnam ´68-69 5 ton dump truck driver,I would say WE spent a majority of our time building Bridges,or working at the rock-quarry"Wolly-Bully"

There are many debates over this point you bring up. Even those who are "in the rear with the gear" must face attacks by the enemy. While the combat arms branch of the services actively engage in seeking out and destroying the enemy, it does not mean that everyone else is safe. I have been in two combat zones, Vietnam and Iraq. In both cases, I worked on base. My job in Vietnam was in communications and most of the time everything was fine. We all had to endure our share of rocket and mortar attacks. Not direct combat, but life endangering just the same. I was with the 1st Marine Air Wing. The Danang Air Base was a constant target for rocket/mortar attacks along with sappers. Many men in both the Marines and Air Force were in danger and many, if fact, lost their lives. Near us was FASU, the Navy Supply depot. While they were not the object of direct attack, they too were subject to being hit. In addition, those in my unit were constantly being sent out on courier missions and made the trip through some rough areas. Again, we did not go out and actively engage the enemy.

When I was in Iraq, I belonged to a gun truck security unit that escorted supply trucks from FOB to FOB. While we did not directly seek engagements with the enemy, IEDs were very common and many on these missions were wounded. Our FOB, Camp Taji, was relatively safe when you were on the FOB, but we were hit with a rocket attack one day and the only casualty was a civilian worker at the food court.

My point is that when fighting in a war, you have to look at the totality of what is going on and not get wrapped up in "combat arms" vs everyone else. Depending on where you are and what the enemy decides to do, any military member might be in harms way.

When you recruit people for the military services, virtually everyone could be harms way at some point in their enlistment.

Some of you might remember in 2007 when a Black Hawk was shot down just after taking off from Camp Taji. 12 soldiers were killed including the top SgtMaj of the Iowa National Guard. She was on an inspection tour. My unit was the last that was visited by the inspection team that day and after we said our good-byes, our driver took them to the air strip. A little bit later news came back that they were dead. They did not come to engage the enemy, but they were killed and received a Purple Heart. Get my point? Being on the ground and engaging the enemy is not the only definition of combat duty.

Well children of my era Veterans. In Vietnam during 1968 as an infantryman we very rarely saw our base camps. Every five or six weeks we might get a one or sometimes two day stand down, and when that happened most of us had to stand bunker watch so the REMF's could get some rest.

We must remember it takes maybe 8-10 military people to support one combat troop . Most of my combat time as a member for the 5th SFG was not planed and came when we did not expect it . I do not think we will see large units like regiments fighting against other large numbers . Not to say we quit training for that fight but most have been more of squad size fights .
And my last statement is be careful for what you wish for .

Are you kidding?!? Sure, there may be some who never see combat, BUT you better be ready! I joined the Navy because I was an EMT on the streets. I went to Navy Hospital Corpsman A school in San Diego, Aerospace Med C school in Pensacola, Then was transferred to the USMC side of the house and went to Feild Medical Service C school at Lejeune, and stationed at El Toro in CA. I was out doing combat training, traveling with different squadrons for war games around the world, and finished on the front lines of Desert Shield/Storm. Be more honest!