Most war casualties white, report says

The majority of soldiers and Marines killed or wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan were young, white, enlisted personnel from active-duty units, according to a study released Friday by the federal Government Accountability Office.

The demographic study involved 1,841 service personnel who were killed and 12,658 who were wounded, as of May 28.

Whites, who constitute 67 percent of the active-duty and reserve forces, accounted for 71 percent of the fatalities. Blacks are 17 percent of the overall force and were 9 percent of the fatalities. Hispanics are 9 percent of the force and were 10 percent of the fatalities.

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are 3 percent of the force and were 3 percent of the fatalities. American Indian/Alaskan Natives are 1 percent in each category. The race of the remaining fatalities was listed as "multiple or unknown."

For whites, the percentage of deaths was the lowest since the Defense Department began keeping such statistics. In Korea, 80 percent of fatalities were white, in Vietnam, 86 percent, and in the Persian Gulf War, 76 percent.

The statistical report was requested by Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri, ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, and Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.

Skelton and Rangel wanted the report to further discussion of the nation's all-volunteer approach to military service. Rangel has suggested the nation may need to return to a draft so that the burden of wartime military service is equally shared.

The report appears to support the contention that service in the military reserves is most attractive to young men living in low- or medium-income families in rural communities.

Of the 482 reservists who had died in Iraq and Afghanistan as of May 28, most were from low- or middle-income communities.

More than 80 percent were from rural and urban communities, whereas 18 percent were from the suburbs. The report warns that issues of ethnicity and socioeconomic status can be difficult to determine without strict definitions to ensure they are uniformly applied.