Warning, this story is a positive story about security contractors. So if you are one of those ‘contractor-hater’ types, stop reading right now. If you are actually interested in what it is we do in the war, or interested in the motivations of actual security contractors, then read on.
Overall, this was a pretty basic human interest story, and showed EODT and it’s employees in a non-biased way. Good stuff, and thanks to the Star Tribune for having the courage to actually approach this story devoid of any pre-tense or subjectiveness. –Matt
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As troops draw down, more contractors hired
By MARK BRUNSWICK, Star Tribune
October 2, 2009
Their unit was a target almost every time it went off-base. Friends from high school died in front of them, and they were hit by rocket attacks while trying to retrieve fallen comrades on the desolate roadways of Iraq’s Anbar Province.
Just as they were starting to pack to leave in 2007, they learned that they were part of a group of 2,500 Minnesota National Guard troops whose deployments had been extended an additional four months as part of President George W. Bush’s “surge.”
So where did two veterans from Detroit Lakes end up after coming home? Back in Iraq.
Dustin Heard and Dan Wilson, who were in the same unit in Iraq during a 15-month tour with the Guard, are now working as private security contractors at a base near the Baghdad International Airport.
“This time is a lot different,” said Heard, who was hired to supervise security at the base’s high-occupancy areas such as the dining hall and the gym.
“Stuff has calmed down. It doesn’t seem like the same place.”
As it draws down its combat forces in Iraq, the United States is contracting with more private security companies to protect its installations.
In June, there were more than 13,000 security contractors in Iraq and services for security represented 11 percent of all contractors, a 19 percent increase from the three previous months. In the coming years, the costs of these contracts could exceed $1 billion.
The jobs have changed
The actions of some contractors, such as the former Blackwater, have given security firms something of a Wild West aura and raised questions about their proper role in wartime. There is no doubt that the work can be dangerous — former St. Louis Park police officer Paul Johnson-Reuben was one of five contractors killed in 2008 after being kidnapped near the Kuwait border.
But the largest number of Americans now performing security work are like Wilson and Heard — in managerial roles protecting bases and property, a term known as “static security.” It is less about machine guns and makeshift armored trucks than it is about paperwork.
“In this line of work, the object is not to go out and win the war, it’s not to confront the enemy,” said Doug Brooks, president and founder of industry group International Peace Operations Association, which promotes standards and a code of ethics for private contractors.
In many cases, contractor firms such as the one that hired Heard and Wilson are doing the same jobs as the soldiers they replaced. At Camp Taji, a significant distribution base north of Baghdad, 900 private contractors replaced 400 soldiers to address deficiencies in security. When a group of Republic of Georgia soldiers were redeployed unexpectedly, private security contractors were brought in to maintain a secure compound at a base near the Iran border.
A recent report on security contracts from the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction warned that the contracts will be “even more vulnerable to waste and abuse” as the need for private security increases. While their work may raise policy questions, the opportunities the companies offer has quickly made its way around the small communities where Guard members have returned home. Wilson, who was working in roofing, told Heard about the job after learning about it himself from a man whose children are in day care with Wilson’s wife in Detroit Lakes.
In Iraq, the two Minnesotans say life is much easier as civilians than it was as soldiers.
“The reason why I took this job is because I didn’t have to go outside the wire. I don’t like getting blown up,” Heard said. “I went through a lot physically and mentally the last time. But this is a job. I can leave.”
And the wages are attractive. With bonuses, income can surpass $95,000 a year. The first $84,000 is nontaxable for contractors who agree not to return to the United States within the first 11 months of the contract. What’s more, food and shelter are free.
“It’s better than the average American makes back in the states,” said Wilson, who left a wife and three children for a two-year contract with EOD Technology, one of five private companies awarded $450 million in contracts to provide base security throughout Iraq.
Wilson relays information provided by the military about potential threats to private third-country nationals — mostly Ugandans — who staff the guard towers around the base.
An easier time of it
“The military makes the calls, and I do whatever is necessary to keep the threat level down,” Wilson said.
“It’s easier, because I know what the military is about and how they work.”
Heard was working in a machine shop in Fargo, N.D., after returning from his deployment but found his qualifications well-suited to EOD’s needs. One of the company’s positions advertises for people who have four years experience providing security services, the ability to pass a standard Army fitness test and proficiency with weapons such as automatic rifles and semiautomatic pistols.
Wilson and Heard, who both still have time in the Guard remaining when they return to the stateside, saw plenty of action during their deployments in 2006 and 2007. Their unit was based in an old Iraq air force base in the midst of the restive Sunni Triangle, where they were targeted by insurgents almost daily.
“That road between Ramadi and Fallujah used to be just horrible,” Heard recalled. “When we first got there, we were being hit the minute you left the wire.”
Despite his experience — or possibly because of it — Heard said that he seldom leaves the base now. In September 2006, the convoy he and Wilson were in was attacked and Heard was knocked to the ground by a rocket attack. Out of habit, he had padlocked his Bradley fighting vehicle and was unable to get back in. He recovered eventually, but still suffers from hearing damage.
“I remember getting a call early in the morning that he had been hurt,” recalled Heard’s mother, Pam. “I thought to myself, ‘At least there isn’t someone knocking on my door.’ That would have meant the worst. But he says it isn’t like that now. I talk to him several times a week, but you never lose that worry.”
Family members and friends have expressed concern about their loved ones returning to a place that has seen so much bloodshed.
“They think I’m crazy,” Wilson said. “But I guess they understand that, with what our economy is like these days, you’ve got to go where money takes you.”
Others who have been there may understand an allure that’s more than just a paycheck.
“Dan and Dustin, and even me, you get to like the structured lifestyle: You’re going to have breakfast at 0600, you are going to work, then go to the gym and then you are going to talk to your wife,” said Andrew Riewer, who served with Wilson and Heard and remains in the National Guard as a supply sergeant in Detroit Lakes.
“You know what’s going to go on every day.”
Story here.