I'm not sure about this, Dwayne. I used to be big on this story, but it doesn't seem to check out like it ought to.
To start with, it seems that for every GI evacuated for being wounded, 5 are evacuated for reasons of illness. I'm still not positive why this is be the case, but there seems a fair amount of confirmation that it is the case.
That pretty much accounts for the size of the 9,000 figure: 1500 wounded, and 7500 ill. And 1500 wounded is pretty much in line with the general estimate of 5-10 wounded a day.
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This is an excellent point.
I must admit that I almost totally missed the wounded / illness distinction.
Still, 7500 ill (seriously enough to require evac from Iraq) seems to be a remarkably large figure though it may be statistically normal for a large population (what is it, nearly 200 thousand?) of personel experiencing all sorts of environmental stresses.
Unfortunately, as you said, this information will probably fail to awake many people from their slumber.
DRM