The Ongoing Deaths and Mayhem at U.S. Military Bases
Unfortunately, what’s going on at U.S. military bases today makes the events of A Few Good Men look like a fun trip to Disneyland by comparison. It’s not exactly clear why, but droves of soldiers are dying at bases every year, and many of the deaths have yet to be explained. A fair number of them are suicides, others are violent attacks, they sometimes involve drugs, and some are just bizarre.
In one case at Fort Bragg, a young recruit’s decapitated head was discovered on a North Carolina beach not long after a night of camping with his fellow soldiers. Those soldiers are now facing court martials. In another terrible case, a soldier killed his pregnant wife just days before she was due to give birth, then shot himself. Even when foul play is admitted in these cases, it’s hard to tell what exactly happened or why soldiers seem to be killing each other or dying in such high numbers. At Fort Bragg, for instance, a recent report showed that at least 44 soldiers had died at the base in 2020 alone. At Fort Hood, meanwhile, 39 soldiers died or went missing during the same year, leading to a Congressional investigation and the dismissal of large portion of the base’s leadership. It’s not clear that’s had much of an impact, however.
