Casualties and Combat Pay: Examining Combat Fatality Risk for Navy Special Warfare Seal Operators in Iraq and Afghanistan

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Casualties and Combat Pay: Examining Combat Fatality Risk for Navy Special Warfare Seal Operators in Iraq and Afghanistan

B. E. Baffer

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 20072012. 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.