More soldiers surviving or not?

Front page of the New York Times this morning: "...the survival rate of Americans hurt in Iraq is higher than in any previous war  - seven to eight survivors for every death, compared with just two per death in World War II." Here's the link (registration needed). The article is about soldiers recovering from grievous injuries, of which there is a higher incidence because the solders are both better protected and because medical technologies can save more soldiers from dying so that more are surviving worse wounds.

Go to the SundayBusiness section of the same edition of the same paper: "A Pentagon study, first reported by The  New York Times this month, said that 80 percent of the Marines who died in Iraq from upper-body wounds might have survived if they had had body armor covering more of their torsos." Here's the link (registration still needed). This article was about the small company that supplies body armor for soldiers in Iraq and their financial results, as well as the personal compensation of the primary owner of the parent company.

Which one is true: More soldiers are surviving in Iraq because of better armor and medicine or more soldiers are being unnecessarily killed because of bad design or construction of body armor?

Comments

[Joshua Lee Freeman]

The entire concept of oil use needs to be rethought. With magnetic engine systems available, basing the US currency on oil and then the credit and insurance of this credit all based on oil use for outdated oil-based engine technology and plastics technology is backwards thought process in this transistor-magnetics technology base we have been in since at least the 1940's. Gearing up medical systems to save soldiers lives is very important and money should be invested in this, yes, but on another note, spirit and morale development is very important and the overall education of the world population towards the beneficial use of technology and enforcing laws against those who use technology for malevolent purposes needs to be addressed.

[jim Forbes]

I'd be willing to bet that the USMC KIAs who died from wounds to the upper torso did not have their flack (personal body armor)jackets, closed all the way. When it's hot and you're sweating one of the first things you want to do is unzip your flack jacket. It can also be the last thing you do. Body armor works. i was hit by artillery and grenade fragments several times while on the hills outside of the Khe Sanh Combat Base. Each and everytime, my body armor worked as promised. When I became an NCO I would have to constantly order other marines under my command to "Button up." It wasn't that I was an asshole sergeant. it was that I really didn't want to carry some asshole to a medevac chopper through a hot LZ because he wasn't "buttoned up" and took a hit.
Also, most combat woulnds are to the extremities, not the torso.

Best
Jim Forbes