Frag
is a term from the
Vietnam War, most commonly meaning to
assassinate an unpopular member of one's own fighting
unit by dropping a fragmentation
grenade into the victim's tent at night. A hand grenade
was used because it would not leave any fingerprints, and
because a ballistics test could not be done (as it could to
match a bullet with a firearm). A fragging victim could also
be killed by intentional
friendly fire during combat. In either case, the death
would be blamed on the enemy, and, due to the dead man's
unpopularity, no one would contradict the cover story. The
intended victim of a fragging was sometimes given warnings,
of which the first might be a grenade pin on the sheet of
the victim, and later on, a
tear gas grenade.
Fragging most often involved the killing of an unpopular, harsh, or inept commanding officer or a senior noncommissioned officer. If a C.O. was incompetent, fragging the officer was an extreme means to the end of self preservation for the men serving under him. Fragging might also occur if a commander freely took on dangerous or suicidal missions, especially if he was deemed to be seeking glory for himself. The nightmarish vision of fragging served as a warning to junior officers to avoid earning the ire of their enlisted men through recklessness, cowardice, or lack of leadership. (Wikipedia)
