Fragging
Frag is a term from the Vietnam War, most commonly meaning to assassinate an unpopular officer of one's own fighting unit, often by means of a fragmentation grenade (hence the term). A hand grenade was often used because it would not leave any fingerprints, and because a ballistics test could not be done (as it could to match a bullet with a firearm). 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, it was assumed no one would contradict the story.
Fragging most often involved the murder of a commanding officer or a senior noncommissioned officer perceived as unpopular, harsh, or inept. If a C.O. was incompetent, fragging the officer was considered a 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 very idea of fragging served to warn junior officers to avoid the ire of their enlisted men through recklessness, cowardice, or lack of leadership. Junior officers in turn could arrange the murder of senior officers when finding them incompetent or wasting their men's lives needlessly.
During the Vietnam War, fragging was reportedly common. There are documented cases of at least 230 American officers killed by their own troops, and as many as 1,400 other officers' deaths could not be explained.[1] Incidents of fragging have been recorded as far back as the Battle of Blenheim.
Notable incidents
- 1704 – Battle of Blenheim: An unpopular major of the 15th Foot Regiment was shot in the head by his own men after the battle had been won.[2]
- 1815 – Battle of Quatre Bras: The commander of the 92nd Foot, Colonel Cameron of Fassfern, was shot and killed by a man whom he had recently flogged.[2]
- World War I: An unpopular sergeant was killed when one of his men came up behind him and dropped an unpinned hand grenade down his trousers.[3]
- 2003 invasion of Iraq:
- Hasan Akbar, a Muslim African-American soldier, threw grenades into a tent and then shot with a machine gun into the resulting chaos; two officers were killed, 14 soldiers wounded. As of 2007, Akbar was sentenced to death.
- Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez allegedly used an anti-personnel mine and grenades to kill two officers. As of 2007, he has yet to be court-martialed.[4]
Fragging in popular culture
- The movie Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), includes a section where some soldiers are overheard discussing "fragging Niedermeyer", which is itself a reference to the film Animal House where an ROTC cadet officer also named Niedermeyer is stated in the epilogue as being killed by his own troops in Vietnam.
- A few episodes of Tour of Duty, a TV drama set in the Vietnam War, involved fragging of hated officers and NCOs.
- In the last episode of the mini-series Over There, Lieutenant Alexander "Underpants" Hunter was shot down by friendly fire while defending the convoy from attacking Iraqi insurgents. It is possible that Private Frank "Dim" Dumphy, one of the main characters, could had shot Hunter down intentionally, but viewers were left to speculate on that.
- Nathan Algren, Tom Cruise's character in The Last Samurai, threatened to kill Colonel Bagley, his superior officer, over an incident in which he was ordered to commit an atrocity against an Native American village at Sandy Creek.
- Toward the end of the first half of Full Metal Jacket, Gunnery Sergeant Hartmann was gunned down by Leonard "Gomer Pyle" Lawrence, shortly after the Marines had completed their training.
- In Windtalkers, Private Ben Yahzee, the US Marine Navajo codetalker, was about to kill his friend and commanding officer, Sergeant Joe Enders, after learning that Enders had killed Private Charlie Whitehorse, Yahzee's friend and fellow Navajo, to prevent his capture by the Japanese. Only another fellow Marine prevented Yahzee from pulling the trigger.
- In Aliens, Colonial Marine Smartgunner Vasquez intended on killing Lieutenant Gorman, who she felt responsible for her friend and fellow Smartgunner's death due to his reluctance to rescue the Marines that were ambushed by the Xenomorphs. Ironically, Vasquez and Gorman committed suicide together with a frag grenade, when they were about to be overran by the aliens.
- Fragging also occurs in some servers of CounterStrike, usually when players enter the wrong team during a "scrimm" or were when they are found wanting (bad behavior, for example). The frequency of fragging varies from server to server, and it is sometimes discouraged as it is automatically counted as "team-killing", which warrants some form of punishment (ranging from losing a turn in one round to being kicked off the server).
- In Oliver Stone's 1986 Vietnam War film Platoon, Private Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) shoots and kills Staff Sergeant Robert Barnes (Tom Berenger), in retaliation for the latter's murder of Staff Sergeant Elias K. Grodin (Willem Dafoe).
- At the end of Rambo: First Blood Part II, Rambo was about to kill Murdock, the man who is in overall command of the operation to search for Vietnam War POWs, for abandoning him and the POWs. However, as it turned out, Rambo was merely giving Murdock a warning: "Find them, or I'll find you".
See also
External links
- "Fragging" and "Combat Refusals" in Vietnam - provides year by year estimates of fragging incidents.
- 1961-1973: GI resistance in the Vietnam War - Overview of the widespread mutiny of US troops during the war in Vietnam.
References
- ^ Hedges, Chris. What Every Person Should Know About War. Free Press. 2003. ISBN 0-7432-5512-7.
- ^ a b Regan, G. (2004). More Military Blunders. Carlton Books.
- ^ Regan, G. Backfire: a history of friendly fire from ancient warfare to the present day. Robson Books, 2002.
- ^ "U.S. Investigator Recommends GI's Court Martial in Murder Case". Associated Press/Fox News. 2005-11-01. Retrieved 2007-05-24.
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