Servicemen unloading the remains of a U.S soldier at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. (Photo by Steve Ruark/AP via NYTimes.com)

The New York Times reports that it took almost 7 years to reach 500 and the second 500 in fewer than two years.

A resurgent Taliban active in almost every province, a weak central government incapable of protecting its people and a larger number of American troops in harm’s way all contributed to the accelerating pace of death.

Also interesting and sad to note is the lowering average age of killed servicemen. From ’02 to ’08, the average age of killed service members was roughly 28. It dropped to 26 last year and in 2010, more than 125 troops killed in action averaged 25 years of age. Additionally, military records show that more are dying right after boot camp.

On top of that, in the last two years, improvised explosive devices (I.E.D.’s) have taken the highest number of American lives.

Understandably, the number of casualties is bound to rise with the troop surge in Afghanistan and increased Taliban activity. However, I believe the DoD should take note of how are troops are loosing their lives.

The most prevalent mode of engaging the enemy, as well as working with the civilian population, is for our troops to leave the safety of their posts and bases. This creates a “target-rich opportunity” as my comrades and I used to say in the Army. On the few shows and documentaries on combat troops in Afghanistan that I’ve seen, soldiers are on foot with bomb detectors, bomb-sniffing dogs or are using satellite and other surveillance methods of catching bomb-layers in action. All these are effective in their own right, but obviously not 100%.

I do hope that the Obama Administration, the DoD and military experts continue to look closely at how to fight the IED problem. With each major American conflict—Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq—IEDs continue to stymie many of our tactics.

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