ANST - Re: History Repeats Itself

[Bob Dewart]

Sorry to pop a bubble, but during the battles there were several.  There was
at least one compound fracture of a thumb.  I'd also have to count the
compound exposed fractured leg in that catagory too.  I'm pretty sure of at
least one set of fractured ribs, but the guy had had fractured ribs before
and would not go get checked out.  There are many, more injuies than most
folks know about.  Most folks don't go to chirgeons or just suck it up.

Actually, at least two of those injuies, the arrow / bolt never made it to
the target.  Intervention by the target caused the problem.  One hit the
exact end of a spear at close range and bounce straight back, a one in a
million shot.  There other the fighter tried to knock a crossbow bolt away.
When the bolt was hit by the sword, the bolted pivoted around and entered
the helm.

It can be argued that an ABD might have keep the accidents from happening.
But, had they been using any of the personal eye protections, the accidents
wouldn't have happened at all.  Each one of those fighters had the option of
using eye protection, but decided not to.

To my knowledge these were the first archery related injuries at a Gulf War.
No, I'm not even going to count the one guy who fell into a quiever.  So
let's expand the scope of your example by , what 9 years. Hummmmm

Gilli
----- Original Message -----
From: "Greg Shetler" <mordockvonrugen at home.com>
To: <ansteorra at ansteorra.org>
Sent: Monday, April 16, 2001 8:51 PM
Subject: Re: ANST - Re: History Repeats Itself


> Let's revisit the apparent statistics being set up here.
>
> It's not the number of shafts loosed that should be considered - but
> rather the percentage that hit a person's body.
>
> At a guess, looking simply at the number of casualties, I'd say that
> perhaps 60-90 people in the fort battle were hit in the body by a
> missile weapon.  The open field battles had perhaps half that.  The
> resurrection battle, because of the increased duration, probably had 4
> times that.  So about 500-600 missile strikes.
>
> We had three reported incidents of clearly unsafe conditions.
>
> By comparison, there were (again, just based on looking at the number of
> folks who fell down) at least 5 (probably closer to 10) times as many
> rattan weapon blows that landed on bodies.  There were some complaints
> about weapons hitting too hard, and others regarding rules of
> engagement, and so forth (just as there were numerous complaints about
> crossbow bolts hitting way too hard).  But how many injuries did we have
> due to weapons?  As far as I know, none.
>
> Is the concern just a bit clearer, now?  This is not just a bunch of
> guys crying 'cause they don't want archery and see an excuse for getting
> it off the field.
>
> Dux


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