How many military members actually see combat?

USMC Infantry BN's aren't just Infantry & Truck drivers (Our Medics are Navy Corpsmen). H&S Company is the largest Company of the 5 (Weapons, and 3 line companies). The largest 2 platoons are Comm (about 40-60 people), and Motor Transport (I want to say about 40~, but it's been years). The remainder is Admin, Intel, Log, Supply, the Ops Section (which is mostly Higher ranked Infantry).

That's just the Ground Combat Element of MEU. The Air Element and Logistics element have almost no Infantry, and make up 1/3-1/2 of the personnel.

What that means is that no MOS is immune to Combat. Whether you are a "Water Dog" or an "Infantryman" combat is equal opportunity if you are in a deploying unit.

As for Combat itself, that is a little trickier. I believe the last percentage I heard was about 10%~ of the current USMC has a Combat Action Ribbon. Keep in mind the fast turn over (4 year contract), so that doesn't mean 1 in 10 chance, just the current force. It's probably closer to 2 in 10 if not 3 in 10. But still not a majority.

Most people won't see Combat. They won't, however on the USMC side, there isn't really any safe MOS, as most can deploy at the MEU level, and since we join for the OccField vice specific MOS in most cases (Intelligence/Sigint vice Intelligence Analyst), it's impossible to make any kind of blanket statement.

I served in desert storm in an 8 in M110 battalion. Our section howitzer fired over 120 rounds at the Iraqis during the conflict. Although I was never in a firefight, I considered myself a combat veteran, because our mission was to put rounds on target.

Maybe you meant if you ARE NOT Infantry, Scout, Combat Engineer, Driver, EOD or Medic you are less likely to see combat? Somewhat true, but not entirely. Civil Affairs, Psy Ops, and Linguist leave bases all the time. And there are many other MOS's leave the wire as well (Water Purification and Mortuary Affairs come to mind). I'm sure there are others.

Take a long pause breath. The primary task of a Real Combat Medic is:
Make sure all the troops you are responsible are:
Up to date on all shots and other Meds
Make sure they have their minds in the right place
once on the battlefield:
Know where your troops are
Know where all adjacent units are
Is there a collecting point for Dust Off Know where it is
Ground evacuation know where and when
Know your NCO's location and your Officers,
Be with one of these so you will know where you are mast likely
to go to "work"
KNOW THIS ONE FACT: You do not need to be killed or wounded. If you are
wounded in action, or killed you are part of another Medic's workload
A Combat Medic has nerves of steel, has more knowledge. about Battle Field Medicine, then the MD's you are sending then too.
Be proud to be Combat Medicine.
Enjoy my daily release of energy that relives my PTSD.
Yes I am a Combat Medic 1sqdn 4th Cav 1St Inf Div
VN Dec 67 by the grace of God Dec 68.
George

Well sir, don't know who told you that but they are so far from the truth that they cannot even begin to see it. If you are in a theater of operations, especially one like we have today, i.e non linear, your chances of not facing an attack of some sort are pretty slim. How you define our current battle lines is, just stand anywhere and point in any direction and that sir is the front lines. There are many many convoys on the road at any given point in time and those trucks don't drive themselves, there routine patrols, recon patrols, etc. They all involve infantry, medics, truck drivers, military police, and if you are unlucky maybe even you, as a clerk or a cook if things are bad enough. The thing is in the Army and the Marines, everyone's basic job is rifleman when the shit hits the fan. So you can have any number of non specialized troops out there at any given time. Pretty much everyone leave the "base" FOB or whatever your at, at some point if even for a brief period of time. Hope this and the other fine answers here helps you see things as they are so you can be the honest person you sound like you are.

Depends upon unit assigned to and the mission orientation for the units assigned to bases/camps. I originally signed up for a support MOS, but soon found out that you go where the service and country needs you. As for combat, there are three levels that can break out at any time any where. Strategic combat which is all out war, theater combat which is in a localized area, and terror/guerrilla combat which can happen any moment. There are civilian evacuations by air and Naval forces which also has some combat actions. Believe me when I say that bullets/rockets/bombs can happen when you least expect them to happen. I worked as a recruiter for a while in an office with Navy recruiters and Marine recruiters. Our words to the potential recruit were, "war can happen at moments notice. It can happen anyplace at any time. Our job is to respond to the attackers and show them the error of their ways." Some will live peaceful careers/tours. Some will know the worst of times. Tell them what you experienced and what you believe. Give them the facts as you have them. That is all you can do. Semper Fidelis

Combat Medics, Infantry, Artillery, Combat Engineers, Armour (tanks), attack helicopters, FO, ( forward observers), all of your special forces operators, did I miss anybody? I’ve been retired 4 years now.

Adding to my previous comment if you sign for it you better know what you are getting into as you might end in a combat situation. Everybody that enters the service can see Combat at any given time as long there is a foe or war going on. During my time in Afghanistan, and Iraq I have in my FOB service members from all the services including Air Force and Navy, and trust we got hit almost every other night.

What, exactly, we're these truck drivers doing all day? Driving around the base? And did it ever occur to you that there is a reason they're called COMBAT medics? And then there is the asinine statement that Infantry doesn't see combat, when the sole purpose of the Infantry is to locate, engage with, and destroy the enemy. That, my friend is called COMBAT.
An old 11Bravo

I was in the Army as an aircraft mechanic and my recruiter said the same thing and I will tell you that it's not true. He put extra emphasis on the fact that I am a female and would never see the front lines. Well today's wars don't have front lines nor do they care if you are female. I graduated AIT, went to my unit and 3 months later was in Kuwait. When we landed at the airport we quickly loaded buses and were ordered not to look out the windows because there were snipers in the area. We stayed at a base in Kuwait for 2 weeks and several times we had to take cover and put on our NBC gear for hours at a time due to incoming missile attacks. Then we drove 300 miles in convoy to Tikrit, Iraq through an active war zone. The scenes they show on tv now of Baghdad burning, we drove through that and stayed the night while listening to gunfire and seeing tracer rounds light up the night sky. When we got to the Tikrit airbase it was just a field with some runways and blown up hangers. The engineers hadn't even arrived to secure the fence line. It took about a month for a dirt berm to be built around the perimeter. A sergeant and a private went missing during guard duty. They were found in Tikrit killed by locals. A fence was eventually put up. I did guard duty in a bunker we built along the perimeter called OP5 . Each OP was a mile apart and anyone could have just walked through without being seen. I left the base several times. We were ordered to shoot if anyone got too close to the perimeter. The first time I went on a mission into Tikrit, the airbase was about 10 miles away. We had 3 trucks, about 5 personnel per truck. Three of us were left to guard the truck and were approached several times by Iraqi people some who had Ak-47s. I went to Tikrit a second time by convoy to R&R at one of Saddam's Palaces. I also went by convoy to Balad a few times as well. These weren't day trips. We were told to be on guard and prepare for attack. I experienced mortar attacks in Tikrit, Balad, and Baghdad. I had to put on NBC gear in Tikrit because of a feared gas attack which turned out to only be an oil fire. I flew home in Baghdad for R&R and the plane had to take an almost vertical take off and spiral landing due to enemy fire. We convoyed home, in which I was the driver of a truck, and we received enemy fire several times as well as had to be rerouted because IEDs going off. Granted this was at the start of the Iraq War in 2003 as compared to now and I didn't get into any firefights but I did leave the base my unit was on and I did experience fear of the possibility of dying and saw several dead bodies and lost some of the people in my unit.