Last year, at least 430 employees of American contractors were reported killed in Afghanistan: 386 working for the Defense Department, 43 for the United States Agency for International Development and one for the State Department, according to data provided by the American Embassy in Kabul and publicly available in part from the United States Department of Labor.
By comparison, 418 American soldiers died in Afghanistan last year, according to Defense Department statistics compiled by icasualties.org, an independent organization that monitors war deaths.
Notice where the reporter collected this information? DoL for contractor deaths and icasualties.org for soldier deaths. Which is exactly why I put the DoL statistics at the top of the list on my page. I also agree with the article that there are probably more deaths that have not been reported. Especially the local national companies that are working in the war zones either directly or indirectly for DoD. For American contractor deaths, I think the DoL stats are the best, even though there are Americans that have worked for companies that did not register through DBA. Especially in the early days of the war.
The other thing mentioned in this article that is significant is that there are more contractors in Afghanistan than soldiers. I posted the latest CENTCOM AOR numbers and the reporter referenced the same report.
There were 113,491 employees of defense contractors in Afghanistan as of January 2012, compared with about 90,000 American soldiers, according to Defense Department statistics. Of those, 25,287, or about 22 percent of the employees, were American citizens, with 47 percent Afghans and 31 percent from other countries.
Finally, they discussed the companies and contractor types that have seen the most losses. L 3 Communications has seen an amazing amount of losses. Most of those deaths were interpreters that worked in Iraq or Afghanistan. But 370 killed and 1,789 wounded is an immense sacrifice for a company and it’s subsidiaries.
The biggest contractor in terms of war zone deaths is apparently the defense giant L-3 Communications. If L-3 were a country, it would have the third highest loss of life in Afghanistan as well as in Iraq; only the United States and Britain would exceed it in fatalities.
Over the past 10 years, L-3 and its subsidiaries, including Titan Corporation and MPRI Inc., had at least 370 workers killed and 1,789 seriously wounded or injured through the end of 2011 in Iraq and Afghanistan, records show. In a statement, a spokeswoman for L-3, Jennifer Barton, said: “L-3 is proud to have the opportunity to support the U.S. and coalition efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. We mourn the loss of life of these dedicated men and women.”
So I guess my final commentary is that contractors deserve more respect and recognition for their contribution and sacrifice in this war than we have been given–which is none. And yet the media and public largely ignored this contribution and sacrifice? Will there be monuments or holidays to remember this sacrifice one day, or do we only give such honors for soldiers?
Either way, we will remember them here and their sacrifice will never be forgotten….. –Matt
Risks of Afghan War Shift From Soldiers to Contractors
By ROD NORDLAND
February 11, 2012
Even dying is being outsourced here.
This is a war where traditional military jobs, from mess hall cooks to base guards and convoy drivers, have increasingly been shifted to the private sector. Many American generals and diplomats have private contractors for their personal bodyguards. And along with the risks have come the consequences: More civilian contractors working for American companies than American soldiers died in Afghanistan last year for the first time during the war.
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