2010 marks deadliest year for U.S. troops in Afghanistan

During the past three years, Indiana has seen three deaths in Afghanistan each year. But with three months still remaining in 2010, 11 Indiana residents have already died.

This number is the highest the state has seen since troops were sent there in 2001, according to icasualties.org, a website that tracks the number of deaths in Afghanistan.

The total number of U.S. deaths has also reached a record high this year, with 335 military men and women losing their lives in Afghanistan, according to the website.

The number continues to grow everyday. As of press time, nine U.S. military members have died in Afghanistan within the past week. The most recent Indiana death was Sept. 8.

None of the residents have been from Bloomington, but there was a man from Indianapolis that died while on duty with the U.S. Army in August and two men from Columbus, Ind., that lost their lives this year.

The website reports that Indiana had three military members die in 2009, 2008 and 2007, two in 2006 and six in 2005. There was no Indiana resident deaths recorded from 2001 to 2004 in Afghanistan. There have been 1,282 American troop deaths total since 2001, with 28 of those people being Indiana residents.

Despite this recent jump in causalities from Indiana, with the highest numbers coming from the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps, the military isn’t having trouble recruiting men and women to join the service.

Mary Auer, chief of advertising and public affairs for the Army, said they are doing very well in terms of recruiting.

“The Army has been meeting their recruiting goals,” she said. “There could be a variety of explanations for that, but whatever is happening in Afghanistan doesn’t seem to be affecting recruiting.”

The recruiting goal for the Bloomington office for the current fiscal year, that started on Oct. 1 and will end Sept. 30, was to enlist 90 men and women. The Army beat that goal and has enlisted 103 people so far.

This was also true last year, with a goal of 110 enlistments, and a total of 119 new recruits signed up.

The Reserve Officer Training Corps on campus helps recruit people for the Army and has also seen record numbers throughout the past few years.

Lt. Michael Ogden said IU’s ROTC program currently has more than 100 cadets. He explained that students who continue with the program after sophomore year automatically join the Army after graduation.

Ogden joined the program about two months ago and said he was surprised to see such a high number of students enrolling.

“I would have assumed after coming from active duty that we would have fewer cadets wanting to enroll,” he said. “I made the assumption that I may have difficulty trying to get cadets to join the program. But it’s just the opposite. We’re continuing to grow to numbers we haven’t seen in many years.”