Frag (military)

From Free net encyclopedia

Frag is a term from the Vietnam War, most commonly meaning to assassinate an unpopular member of one's own fighting unit by dropping a fragmentation grenade into the victim's tent at night. A fragging victim could also be killed by intentional friendly fire during combat. In either case, the death would be blamed on the enemy, and, due to the dead man's unpopularity, no one would contradict the cover story. The intended victim of a fragging was sometimes given warnings, of which the first might be a grenade pin on the sheet of the victim, and later on, a tear gas grenade.

Fragging most often involved the killing of an unpopular, harsh, or inept commanding officer or a senior noncommissioned officer. If a C.O. was incompetent, fragging the officer was an extreme means to the end of self preservation for the men serving under him. Fragging might also occur if a commander freely took on dangerous or suicidal missions, especially if he was deemed to be seeking glory for himself. The nightmarish vision of fragging served as a warning to junior officers to avoid earning the ire of their enlisted men through recklessness, cowardice, or lack of leadership.

During the Vietnam War, fragging was surprisingly common. At least 600 American officers were murdered by their own troops in documented cases, and as many as 1,400 other officers' deaths could not be explainedTemplate:Ref. As many as 25% of all officer casualties during the war were due to fragging.

The term frag (video gaming) has been revived by modern-day first person shooter gamers.

External links

• Walden Bello, "With the US Army on Trial, Can "Fragging" be far behind?", FocusWeb, May 16, 2004.
• "Fragging" and "Combat Refusals" in Vietnam - provides year by year estimates of fragging incidents.
• Sir, No Sir! - Documentary Film About GI Resistance During Vietnam

References

|    author = Template:NoteHedges, Chris
|      year = 2003
|     title = What Every Peson Should Know About War
| publisher = Free Press
|        id = ISBN 0743255127
}}