No list of dangerous jobs can be complete without talking about the United States military.

Engaged in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. service members face perils that would leave most of us crying for mom. They do it voluntarily. And sometimes they pay a terrible price.

On Jan. 15, the Sun Journal reported on the relative dangers of jobs in the state. Truck drivers topped the list. The exclusion of military jobs was not a slight to the service they perform. Instead, it has to do with the way job injuries are collected and categorized. Soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors aren’t tracked by the Maine Department of Labor. And they probably shouldn’t be.

The jobs military men and women do don’t always translate into the broad categories of labor statistics. Every Marine is a rifleman first. That’s not the case for school janitors or grocery baggers, professions in Maine that tend to be injury prone.

Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, more than 2,200 members of the U.S. military have been killed, 11 of them with Maine ties. More than 16,000 have been injured. Since 2001, 259 have been killed in Afghanistan, and 676 have been wounded.

From 1995 to 2004, 54 truck drivers died on the job in Maine and more than 3,500 were injured – a stiff toll, no doubt. Nobody, however, was actively trying to kill them. That hazard is reserved for only a few professions, foremost of which is a soldier during a time of war.

Given the dangers of the job and the ongoing nature of U.S. commitments in Afghanistan and Iraq, it’s no wonder that military recruiters in Maine and around the country are having a difficult time meeting their goals.

According to The Associated Press, the Army missed its recruitment goals in 2005 by 6,600.

“If there was no war, guaranteed, the Army would be overflowed,” Staff Sgt. James Gilbert told the AP. “But now the marks have hit 1,000, 1,500, 2,000, 2,100 dead. It’s just common sense that no one wants to join the military these days.”

No one is an exaggeration – the Army enlisted more than 70,000 people last year – but it becomes a tougher sell for young people who have plenty of options that don’t involve duty in a war zone.

That’s why recruitment bonuses and other financial incentives are being offered to entice more men and women to sign up, the age for new recruits has been raised from 34 to 42 and acceptable aptitude scores have been lowered. In some cases, the bonuses are hefty. A new enlistee could qualify for $40,000 for active duty or $20,000 for reserve duty. For re-enlistment, the top bonus is $90,000.

The incentives look great on paper. Who among us couldn’t use $20,000 or $40,000?

But relatively few sign up. Because the job is deadly dangerous. Because it takes you away from family and friends. Because it’s hard physically and emotionally.

The ones who do, they’re volunteering for one of the country’s most dangerous jobs – and most important, too.