What Are You Worth? The Value of a Human Life and Its Impact on Personnel Recovery.

摘要

This work explores core motivations and beliefs regarding the value of human life and then applies them to the future of personnel recovery, specifically for the United States. It briefly explores the historical roots and core documents of personnel recovery before crossing into an examination of value of life discussions in fields such as bioethics and actuarial science. The study then explores the impact of value of life on three key decisions: the decision to acquire PR capability, the decision to use it, and the decision to eliminate that capability. The study examines the impact of rescue on the will of the force and the will of the public and posits that the rescue decisions can vary across national, service, and temporal lines. Chapter Three contains case studies of the costly personnel recovery missions for Lt Col Iceal Gene Hambleton, Captain Roger Locher, and Captain William Andrews and examines their cost in terms of lives, material, and battlefield initiative, as well as examining the multi-faceted impact of the rescue. The next chapter shows the need for options other than the cultural and historical practice of costly rescue missions and provides possible alternatives for the future of personnel recovery. By altering preconceived notions about the future of PR, the DoD can influence what people expect or, more interestingly, what they do not expect.