Feral Jundi

Monday, July 27, 2009

Industry Talk: Audit Finds Contractor Oversight Improving in Iraq

Filed under: Industry Talk,Iraq,Kaizen — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 11:18 PM

   Very cool. Now lets take these lessons learned on over to Afghanistan?  Better yet, let’s have a COR’s surge, seeing how we just love surges, and get some folks over there to monitor that effort so Afghanistan becomes a success story with contracting.  It can happen, but it takes real effort, and not a bunch of talk–so let’s get it done. –Matt

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Audit finds contractor oversight improving in Iraq

By LARA JAKES

July 28, 2009

WASHINGTON — The government has kept a closer eye on U.S. contractors in Iraq since a deadly 2007 shooting by Blackwater guards, but it still needs to do a better job tracking and investigating when private security guards fire their guns, two new Pentagon audits have found.

The reports were released Tuesday by the Pentagon’s special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. They looked at the oversight of at least 13 U.S. firms working for the Defense and State departments between May 2008 and February 2009.

In perhaps the most serious lapse of oversight, one of the audits concluded, contractor watchdogs did not properly report and track the May 2008 death of an Army Corps of Engineers employee who was caught in a gunfight between security guards and al-Qaida suspects near Bayji, in central Iraq.

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Sunday, July 26, 2009

Leadership: Amid Reviews, DynCorp Bolsters Ethics Practices

Filed under: Industry Talk,Leadership — Tags: , , , , , , — Matt @ 11:44 PM

     Glad to see DynCorp taking these steps and I hope they make good with their promise of ‘strengthening it’s ethics programs’.  But what DynCorp really needs to focus on, is insuring they hire the right folks into positions of management.  The quality of leadership out there is what will make or break your company out there.  Some ethics program manager posted in a nice comfortable office at headquarters will not be an effective tool for monitoring your management.

     It is a nice visual step, but the focus needs to be on the folks that will implement your ethics policies in the first place–the leaders.  And if your high paid managers suck, then get rid of them.  Matter of fact, get rid of the regional manager in charge of that guy as well, because obviously he didn’t care enough about company policy or doing things right to keep things in check. Remember the Sun Tzu and the 360 Concubines story I posted?  Well have the courage to do what is right, and get rid of your poor managers with authority.

    Send the message to your leadership that you demand excellence, and the rest will follow. You actually have to care about what is happening out in the field, dedicate the necessary resources to monitor what is going on out in the field, and correct things as quickly as possible.

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Afghanistan: Military Weighs Private Security on Front Lines

Filed under: Afghanistan,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , , , — Matt @ 2:50 AM

   Walter and the rest of the media is a little late to this party, but we can deal with that.  Although it would be nice for the Washington Post to add a little balance to their articles about such things.  Like mentioning a crucial quote that Defense Secretary Gates gave in regards to security contractors.  Here it is, and I posted the story below this one as the source.

     “As recently as February, however, Gates called the use of private security contractors in certain parts of Afghanistan “vital” to supporting U.S. bases. A contract for the work also creates job opportunities for Afghans, he said.”

   Also, the article mentions the dangers of these forward operating bases in Afghanistan, as if that is a new thing or something totally unreasonable for a private security company to handle.  Guess what, we have been protecting bases for awhile now.(TWISS, etc.)  I think what this article was trying to get at is that somehow contractors would not be up to the task of actually doing the job they are contracted to do.  As if somehow Afghanistan is ‘too much for them to handle’.  Pffft.

   And then Michael O’Hanlon enters into the discussion with his thoughts on the matter.

“We don’t want to waste scarce Afghan army and police, so we must be creative,” said Michael E. O’Hanlon, a senior fellow and military expert at the Brookings Institution.

But O’Hanlon also said he is concerned that if contractors were to take over security at forward operating bases, they would be the first to see hostile fire, and they — not soldiers — would have to decide whether to employ weapons against an enemy.

Instead of hiring a private firm, O’Hanlon said, the Americans and Afghans could create a local version of Iraq’s Facilities Protection Service, the modestly trained but government-paid guard force that was pulled together to provide protection for government ministries in Baghdad and the oil fields. “We should create a different branch of the Afghan security forces that has minimal training,” he said.”

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Saturday, July 25, 2009

Building Snowmobiles: A UN Army of Conscience and Practicality

Filed under: Building Snowmobiles,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , , , , — Matt @ 4:41 AM

   Ok, this is a good one, I promise.  What I have done is to present the point of views of four bloggers/journalists, break down the essence of their posts, and try to find some middle ground with their points of view. Then I will end it with my views about what the UN could do to create an ‘army of conscience and practicality’.

   The first article written by Gideon Rachman describes the necessity of creating a more professional and permanent UN Army.

     “Over the longer term, the growing demand for international peacekeeping forces means that it is time finally to bite the bullet and give the UN a permanent, standing military capacity”

   This is Gideon’s solution for making that happen.

     “All of this points to the need to create a proper UN force on permanent stand-by. Such a force need not be a conventional army, with its own barracks and personnel. It would be better to get countries to give the UN first call on a certain number of their troops, for a specific period of time. National sovereignty could still be respected by allowing countries to opt out of missions, if they inflame national sensitivities.”

   Gideon then mentions that conservatives in America would show horror at the idea of a UN standing army.  This is where he brings in the Reagan quote about the UN.

      “They might be surprised and enlightened to learn that the hero of the conservative movement, Ronald Reagan, once spoke approvingly of the idea of “a standing UN force – an army of conscience – that is fully equipped and prepared to carve out human sanctuaries through force”.

   The second article is by Max Boot and he makes the argument that conservatives on the far right might be a little miffed with a UN standing army, but that is only because the UN has a terrible track record of handling armies. Max does agree with Gideon about creating a more professional UN force, but they both disagree on the how.

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Thursday, July 23, 2009

Industry Talk: Fallen Xe Pilot an Inspiration to Many

Filed under: Industry Talk,Iraq — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 12:25 AM

   This was a bad week, with many air crashes within the contracting world.  Both in Afghanistan and in Iraq we had helicopter crashes, and it really didn’t get much of a mention in the media.  So here is a dedication to one of the fallen, a ‘Little Bird’ pilot named Sonny Hinchman that worked for Xe in Iraq.  Rest in peace. –Matt

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Sonny Hinchman, Xe Pilot

Fallen copter pilot called an inspiration to many

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

By Timberly Ferree

Sonny Hinchman was an inspiration. He always thought of others and doing the right thing was the law he lived by.

Those are a few of the words used by Kirk Hinchman to describe his youngest brother William F. “Sonny” Hinchman — who was killed in a helicopter crash in Iraq last Friday.

“You never heard him talk about himself,” Kirk said. “It was always how are you.”

Sonny left his hometown of Worthington after graduating mid-term in 1984 and joined the Army at the age of 17. He started in the Warrant Officer program and then entered flight school.

“At 17 he was flying,” Kirk said. “His passion was flying.”

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