Feral Jundi

Friday, January 15, 2010

Jobs: Personal Security Detail And Medical Personnel, Haiti

Filed under: Haiti,Jobs,Medical — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 4:10 AM

   I hope to post more of these jobs, and definitely get the word out on this.  I am not the point of contact or recruiter, and please go through the application process below.  NEK is a solid PMC and I wish you luck. –Matt

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NEK

Category:

Title: Personal Security Detail Personnel

Post Date: 1/14/2010

Description:

NEK is seeking qualified Personnel Security Detail personnel for an immediate OCONUS requirement. Applicants should have an extensive background in Department of Defense, State Department, Special Operations or Law Enforcement that depicts a very high level of maturity and experience that relates to PSD or similar requirements. Applicants should expect a quick deployment turnaround from notification of actual employment and should have in their possession current medical records/immunization records and passport on hand. Employment will encompass working in both hazardous environments and conditions with primitive living conditions. Resumes should reflect clear and concise past work history with full and current point of contact information, (email address/telephone numbers), for any references that are listed.

Based upon the high level of maturity, medical experience and the hazardous conditions that may be involved, NEK will offer high limit accident insurance. If qualified and interested, please send resumes to doc.melvin@nekasg.com and apply online at www.nekasg.com for consideration.

NEK Advanced Securities Group, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

*****

Category:

Title: Special Operations Medics

Post Date: 1/14/2010

Description:

NEK is seeking qualified Special Operations Qualified Medics in support of Personal Security Detail and Disaster Relief Operations for an immediate OCONUS requirement. Applicants should have an extensive background in Special Operations Medicine and display a high level of experience and maturity. Experience in PSD assignments or equivalent is a plus. Applicants must be a graduate of either the Special Forces Medical Sergeants Course (SFMS, MOS 18D) or the Advanced Special Operations Combat Medic Course (ADSOCM). Applicants should expect a quick deployment turnaround from notification of employment and should have in their possession current medical records/immunization records and passport on hand. Employment will encompass working in both hazardous environments and conditions with primitive living conditions. Resumes should reflect clear and concise past work history with full and current point of contact information, (email address/telephone numbers), for any references that are listed.

Based upon the high level of maturity, medical experience and the hazardous conditions that may be involved, NEK will offer high limit accident insurance.

If qualified and interested, please send resumes to doc.melvin@nekasg.com and apply online at www.nekasg.com for consideration.

NEK Advanced Securities Group, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

Apply here.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Podcasts: NPR Interviews T. Christian Miller, ‘Wounded In Wars, Civilians Face Care Battle At Home’

Filed under: Medical,Podcasts — Tags: , , , — Matt @ 1:44 PM

  Thanks to Steve for bringing this to my attention. Miller has been running these stories at ProPublica for awhile now and he has certainly been on the front end towards bringing attention to wounded contractors in this war.  Check it out. –Matt

 

Wounded In Wars, Civilians Face Care Battle At Home

January 11, 2010

T. Christian Miller doesn’t shy away from trouble. He has reported on conflicts in Kosovo, Israel and Iraq, among others, and the Web site he founded, ProPublica, is dedicated to covering stories with “moral force” — providing in-depth coverage of environmental, defense, and human rights issues.

One story Miller has been following closely, in a series of articles titled “Disposable Army,” is the fate of employees who worked for private military contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of them went abroad without insurance, were wounded — some seriously — and are now fighting to get medical treatment.

Listen to podcast here.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Military News: 30% of South African National Defense Force is Infected With the AIDS Virus

Filed under: Medical,Military News,South Africa — Tags: , , , — Matt @ 7:32 AM

   Boy, I would not want to be in a military where 30% of it’s soldiers had AIDS.  These men and women could potentially infect others, both through sexual activity, but also through the gruesomeness of warfare. An IED will take one man’s fluids, and inject them into another’s body, through the means of an explosion.  Bone, blood, body parts, fragments with blood and body parts on it, will be part of the fragmentation of a weapon system like a mine or IED, and everyone within that blast radius could be infected.  That is why you must have healthy troops in your forces, because disease or a virus like this, only adds more complexity to an already complex environment like warfare.

   Now I realize that maybe there are recruitment issues in the forces there, but to actually allow these infected troops to intermingle with the healthy troops, and not expect unintended infections, is pretty stupid.  I also understand there might be a bit of a political component to this as well.  If your populations are all infected, they actually might have some sympathy for a policy in their military that allows AIDS infected troops to serve.  Who knows, but to me, this just doesn’t make sense from a war fighter’s point of view, and I fear for the lives of the healthy troops that have to serve alongside these folks.-Matt

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South African troops with HIV win biggest battle

December 1, 2009

By Karen Allen

BBC News, Durban

On a blustery beach in South Africa’s coastal city of Durban, Dumisani Gumbi is going through a tough fitness programme. He is a platoon sergeant with the South African army. He also has the Aids virus.

Since 2001 when he was first diagnosed with the disease, his career prospects and chances of being sent overseas have floundered.

For years tens of thousands of HIV-positive military men and women like him have faced a blanket ban.

A staggering 30% of South African soldiers are infected with the Aids virus. This reality plus a recent test case have forced the South African government to review its policy.

“When we are fighting or when we are doing peacekeeping work, we are not biting the people. We’re just being peacekeepers like anyone else,” Mr Gumbi argues, dismissing fears that deploying soldiers with HIV is likely to increase the spread of the disease.

(more…)

Monday, November 2, 2009

Medical: Resiliency As Positive Deviance–Rethinking Counseling and the Military, by Angela Benedict

Filed under: Industry Talk,Medical,Military News — Tags: , , , , , , , — Matt @ 1:10 PM

   This is a treat.  Angela has been an active reader of FJ and of PMH, and definitely has done a lot of work on PTSD issues at her Military Healing Center. She is one of the few out there in her industry that actually care about the mental health of not only soldiers in the war, but of contractors as well. So it is a pleasure to showcase some of her work as a guest author on FJ.

   You can see the theme with today’s posts, and we really need to be thinking about the mental health aspects of this industry.  In order to continue doing this kind of work, you need to arm yourself with the mental tools for longevity. Angela is a great person to talk to, if you want to assemble that mental tool kit. –Matt

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RESILIENCY AS POSITIVE DEVIANCE: Rethinking Counseling and the Military

By Angela Benedict

We live in a world that functions in a myriad of negative deviances. Child abuse and sexual trafficking, domestic violence and condoned incest, corruption and extortion, rewarded dishonesty and extreme poverty, torture of war criminals and sexual partners, embedded violence and jealousy, materialism and isolation.    We live in fear of our neighbours, foreigners, family members and ourselves.  We are on guard, awaiting the next attack from our boss, our co-worker, our spouse, to be projected at us by the news, the internet.  We often see power misused.  Most of us feel powerless.

It is not surprising that over the last 30 years there has been a steep incline in the cases of mental illness.  Depression is ranked highest followed by spikes in schizophrenia, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and other psychotic illness.  Stress is cited as the cause.

Out of this incline another trend has appeared, that of the trauma counselor.  Trauma has begun to define us.  We are not our accomplishments as much as we are a society identified by our ailments.  We are a depressed society living in disastrous times where our expectations are that things will only get worse.  This is a tough perception.

Currently, the field of trauma counseling is receiving harsh criticism from within the ranks of psychology where it is being viewed as a reinforcement to not only illness, but to negative deviant behaviours.  Given the high stakes of the epidemic status of post traumatic stress, a solution must be found soon. Resiliency training can become the counter to the negative and be used to reinforce positive deviance.

(more…)

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Industry Talk: ‘They Are The Unappreciated Patriots’, by T. Christian Miller

Filed under: Afghanistan,Industry Talk,Iraq,Medical — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 9:15 AM

 

     This series is just heart wrenching to read, and it certainly cuts to the bone.  Contractors are the unappreciated patriots, and we have certainly sacrificed in this war.  T. Christian Miller has done a fantastic job of showing that sacrifice, and informing the public on what exactly is going on with our injured contractors/patriots.

  He is also showing some courage by actually calling us ‘unappreciated patriots’. To most journalists out there, we are less than human and less than a patriot, and their opinions scream throughout their reportage. I am sure his peers are thumbing their nose at him.

     This particular story is also a reminder about what is at stake when you enter this profession.  Everyone thinks about these types of injuries from time to time, but when you read through this story, you put a picture to the ‘what if’s’ of this job.  That is good though, because it is these gut checks that actually snap folks into the mindset of doing things right.(you would think…) Because if you do get it wrong, you stand to lose a lot….

     Hell, fate has it’s own plan, and you could do everything right and still lose a lot.  That is the job and that is war. Anyhoo, check out the story and at the end of this post, there is a link to a audio slide show of what Grizzly went through. –Matt

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‘They are the unappreciated patriots’

In Iraq and Afghanistan, contractors like Reggie Lane often face the same dangers as U.S. troops. And make the same terrible sacrifices.

By T. Christian Miller

October 6, 2009

Reporting from Central Point, Ore.

A nurse rocked him awake as pale dawn light crept into the room. “C’mon now, c’mon,” the nurse murmured. “Time to get up.”Reggie Lane was once a hulking man of 260 pounds. Friends called him “Big Dad.” Now, he weighed less than 200 pounds and his brain was severely damaged. He groaned angry, wordless cries.The nurse moved fast. Two bursts of deodorant spray under each useless arm. Then he dressed Lane and used a mechanical arm to hoist him into a wheelchair.He wheeled Big Dad down a hallway and parked the chair in a beige dining room, in front of a picture window. Outside stretched a green valley of pear trees filled with white blossoms.Lane’s head fell forward, his chin buried in his chest. His legs crossed and uncrossed involuntarily. His left index finger was rigid and pointed, as if frozen in permanent accusation.In 2004, Lane was driving a fuel truck in Iraq for a defense contractor when insurgents attacked his convoy with rocket-propelled grenades. For most of the five years since, Lane, now 60, has spent his days in silence — a reminder of the hidden costs of relying on civilian contract workers to support the U.S. war effort. (more…)

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