Editing Fragging (section)

==U.S. Forces in Vietnam==
{| align="right" class="wikitable" style="margin: 0.5em"
|+ Known U.S. fragging incidents using explosives in Vietnam<ref name="Lepre" />{{RP|45,47,57}}<ref name="Levy">{{cite book|last1=Levy|first1=Guenter|title=America in Vietnam|date=1978|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York}}</ref>{{RP|156}}
|-
! 
! 1969
! 1970
! 1971
! 1972
|-
! style="text-align: left" | Army
| 96
| 209
| 222
| 28
|-
! style="text-align: left" | Marine Corps
| 30+
| 50+
| 30+
| 5
|-
! style="text-align: left" | Suspected
| 30
| 62
| 111
| 31
|-
! style="text-align: left" | Total
| 156+
| 321+
| 363+
| 64
|-
! style="text-align: left" | Deaths
| 46
| 38
| 12
| 3 
|-
| colspan="5" | Note: Statistics were not kept before 1969. 
|}

According to author George Lepre, the total number of known and suspected fragging cases using explosives in Vietnam from 1969 to 1972 totalled nearly 900, with 99 deaths and many injuries. This total is incomplete, as some cases were not reported, nor were statistics kept before 1969 (although several incidents from 1966 to 1968 are known). Most of the victims or intended victims were [[Officer (armed forces)|officers]] or non-commissioned officers. The number of fraggings increased in 1970 and 1971 even though the U.S. military was withdrawing and the number of U.S. military personnel in Vietnam was declining.<ref name="Lepre" />{{RP|44-47}}<ref name="Levy" />{{RP|155}}

An earlier calculation by authors Richard A. Gabriel and Paul L. Savage, estimated that up to 1,017 fragging incidents may have taken place in Vietnam, causing 86 deaths and 714 injuries of U.S. military personnel, the majority officers and NCOs.<ref>Gabriel, Richard A. and Savage, Paul L. (1978), ''Crisis in Command'', New York: Hill & Wang, p. 183</ref>

By the end of the war, at least 450 officers were killed in fraggings; the U.S. military reported at least 600 U.S. soldiers killed in fragging incidents with another 1,400 dying under mysterious circumstances.<ref name="Zoroya2019">{{Cite news
|title=War-zone massacre an uncommon event |first1=Gregg |last1=Zoroya |first2=Alan |last2=Gomez |url=https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2009-05-11-camp-liberty-shooting-sidebar_N.htm |newspaper=USA Today |date=May 11, 2009 |accessdate=August 31, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.southcoasttoday.com/story/news/nation-world/2003/03/24/fragging-attack-on-101st/50363165007/ |last=Wehrman |first=Jessica |title='Fragging' attack on 101st Airborne echoes back to Vietnam |date=June 12, 2011 |work=SouthCoastToday}}</ref>

Fragging statistics include only incidents involving explosives, most commonly grenades. Several hundred murders of U.S. soldiers by firearms occurred in Vietnam but most were of enlisted men killing other enlisted men of nearly equal rank. Fewer than ten officers are known to have been murdered by firearms. However, rumors and claims abound of the deliberate killing of officers and non-commissioned officers by enlisted men under battlefield conditions. The frequency and number of these fraggings, indistinguishable from combat deaths, cannot be quantified.<ref name="Lepre" />{{RP|26,220-221}}

===Response===
The U.S. military's responses to fragging incidents included greater restrictions on access to weapons, especially grenades, for soldiers in non-combat units and post-fragging "[[lockdown]]s" in which a whole unit was isolated until after an investigation. For example, in May 1971, the U.S. Army in Vietnam temporarily halted the issuance of grenades to nearly all units and soldiers in Vietnam, inventoried stocks of weapons, and searched soldiers' quarters, confiscating weapons, ammunition, grenades, and knives. This, however, failed to reduce fragging incidents as soldiers could easily obtain weapons in a flourishing black market among nearby Vietnamese communities. The U.S. military also attempted to diminish adverse publicity concerning fragging and the security measures it was taking to reduce it.<ref name="Lepre" />{{RP|128-142}}

Only a few fraggers were identified and prosecuted. It was often difficult to distinguish between fragging and enemy action.  A grenade thrown into a foxhole or tent could be a fragging, or the action of an enemy infiltrator or saboteur. Enlisted men were often close-mouthed in fragging investigations, refusing to inform on their colleagues out of fear or solidarity. Sentences for fragging convictions were severe—but the few men convicted often served fairly brief prison sentences. Ten fraggers were convicted of murder and served sentences from ten months to forty years with a mean (average) prison time of about nine years.<ref name="Lepre" />{{RP|140-141,181-182,229}}{{Clarify|date=January 2025|reason=Mean and average aren't the same thing so which is it? }}

===Influence===
In the Vietnam War, the threat of fragging caused many officers and NCOs to go armed in rear areas and to change their sleeping arrangements as fragging often consisted of throwing a grenade into a tent where the target was sleeping. For fear of being fragged, some leaders turned a blind eye to drug use and other indiscipline among the men in their charge. Fragging, the threat of fragging, and investigations of fragging sometimes disrupted or delayed tactical combat operations. Officers were sometimes forced to negotiate with their enlisted men to obtain their consent before undertaking dangerous patrols.<ref name="Lepre" />{{RP|175-176}}

The breakdown of discipline, including fragging, was an important influence on the U.S. change to an all-volunteer military in place of conscription. The last conscript was inducted into the army in 1973.<ref name=bbmdst>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=rjoTAAAAIBAJ&pg=6104%2C3785258 |newspaper=The Bulletin |location=Bend, Ore |agency=UPI |title=Military draft system stopped |date=January 27, 1973 |page=1}}</ref><ref name=mdebld>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=_6ojAAAAIBAJ&pg=5837%2C1959488 |newspaper=The Times-News |location=Hendersonville, NC |agency=Associated Press |title=Military draft ended by Laird |date=January 27, 1973 |page=1 }}</ref> The volunteer military moderated some of the coercive methods of discipline previously used to maintain order in military ranks.<ref name="Lepre" />{{RP|183}}