Quote Originally Posted by JMA View Post
These are horrifying stats. Do you have an idea of the breakdown of motivations behind these actions?
Obviously it depended on the time frame and who you asked, but a reasonable number were either race- or drug-related. Fragging became a recognized issue after mid-1968 or so, and accelerated after 1969. It's also worth nothing that fragging was quite often a rear area phenomenon...and that wasn't helped by the practice of combat units "dumping" their problem children on the rear areas (be it battalion, brigade, or some other echelon). In some cases a fragging could be traced to a reaction to a "hard-line" career NCO or officer, but there were other cases where it was drug dealer retaliation or a more random event when some stoned trooper tossed a grenade in the general direction of someone who pissed him off.

Vietnam is also complex in that such things weren't necessarily tracked in previous wars, and that combined with the fallout from social changes in the US created an interesting situation. Fragging wasn't common in front line units, though, leading to speculation that lack of mission focus and clear purpose in the rear areas accelerated the incidence of fragging.