CASUALTIES AND COMBAT PAY: EXAMINING COMBAT FATALITY RISK FOR NAVY SPECIAL WARFARE SEAL OPERATORS IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN
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Authors
Baffer, Brennan E.
Subjects
Naval Special Warfare; Special Operations Forces; combat pay; Imminent Danger Pay; Hostile Fire Pay; hardship duty pay; Combat Zone Tax Exclusion; casualty; risk; compensation; SEAL; Sea
Air
and Land
Air
and Land
Advisors
Sullivan, Ryan S.
Armey, Laura
Date of Issue
2020-12
Date
Publisher
Monterey, CA; Naval Postgraduate School
Language
Abstract
This research examined the effect of U.S. Navy Special Warfare Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan on casualties and combat-specific compensation. Data was collected from restricted SEAL personnel records obtained from the Defense Manpower Data Center and Social Security Administration to identify and profile all U.S. active duty enlisted Navy Special Warfare operators having served in Iraq or Afghanistan from 2007–2012. During those years, SEAL operators sustained a fatality rate in Iraq and Afghanistan that was nearly 9 times greater than that of the overall U.S. military. Additionally, the SEAL operators who deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan from 2007–2012 had a total likelihood of death of 800 per 100,000—250 times that of the national workplace average in 2012. Furthermore, deployed SEAL operators to Iraq or Afghanistan from 2007–2012 experienced an increased chance of death of 530 per 100,000 compared to the SEAL operators remaining stateside. This level of additional risk is 11 times greater than the additional risk all U.S. military service members sustained while deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan from 2001–2012. Finally, this thesis uses the incremental risk incurred by SEAL operators deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan to estimate an appropriate ex ante compensation level of $14,442 per month in comparison to the current level of combat pay equal to $225 per month for Imminent Danger Pay/Hostile Fire Pay.
Type
Thesis
Description
Series/Report No
Department
Graduate School of Defense Management (GSDM)
Organization
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NPS Report Number
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Funder
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Distribution Statement
Approved for public release. distribution is unlimited
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.