Killed in action

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Militaries use the term killed in action (KIA) as a casualty classification. They generally use it to describe the homicides of their own forces by other hostile forces or by "friendly fire" during combat. U.S. front-line-ground-combat forces remain male only. However, U.S. naval, air, and support troops contain females, as well as other nations' forces, and militaries can consider them KIA. The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) says the KIA (man or woman) need not have fired his weapon but has received hostile attack. KIA do not come from accidents, such as accidental vehicle crashes, terrorism, or other "non-hostile" means. The deaths occur directly by other combatants from "hostile action" while in combat.

Someone KIA died on the battlefield whereas someone who died of [battle] wounds (DOW) survived to reach a medical treatment facility. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) also uses DWRIA rather than DOW for died of wounds received in action. However, historically militaries and historians have used the latter acronym. See various dictionaries in "External Links" below for further information.

Common sense indicates that the side with the most KIA loses the conflict. However, cases exist where the opposite happens. The American Civil War provides one example of where the victorious side had more KIA than the losing side. Abraham Lincoln's and the U.S. government's policy to reunite the country provided one major reason the victors had more battle dead in the American Civil War.

Likewise, a smaller force can sometimes beat a larger one; Cannae (216BC) provides a classic example. However, the idea that when you have less enemies to fight you have a greater chance to win provides one reason for a policy of maiming or killing enemy forces.

Modern-day societies view those KIA as heroes. They set aside days of remembrance for their militaries and combat dead, and they build memorials and cenotaphs in honor of their fallen. The families of those who die in combat, especially their next-of-kin, sometimes receive preferential treatment such as military honors, exemption from taxes, and financial awards. National militaries also distinguish those killed in action with ceremonies and awards.

One classic speech on KIA comes from Pericles' Funeral Oration (after 490 B.C.), which appears in Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War in which , Pericles honors the Athenian war dead from "one of the opening battles of the Peloponnesian War." (See Washington State University's reader for the text of the classic speech.) Plato also talks about KIA in his book, The Republic. For example, he has his character Socrates ask Adeimantus rhetorically, "[W]hen a man dies gloriously in war shall we not say, in the first place, that he is of the golden race?" (Book V, Ch. 468-469) Adeimantus replying in agreement says, "To be sure." See the entire text of The Republic here courtesy MIT.