Armored vehicle crew casualties.

The use of armored vehicles since the First World War has created a subset of casualties with a different epidemiology than infantry soldier casualties. The preponderance of armored fighting vehicles (AFVs) in the world's armies make their use in a future war likely. The purpose of this paper is to review the nature of possible injuries to crewmembers of these vehicles by historical and experimental data. Injuries to armored vehicle crewmembers are characterized by a large number of burn casualties, a larger percentage of fractures and traumatic amputations with extremity wounds, and a higher mortality when compared with infantry footsoldier combat casualty statistics.