Feral Jundi

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Quotes: PSC Usage In Afghanistan Is Highest Recorded Number In US History

Filed under: Afghanistan,Industry Talk,Publications,Quotes — Tags: , , , , , , , — Matt @ 2:31 PM

What I wanted to do here is to highlight some very important and historical statistics of this CRS report I posted a couple of weeks back. This gives a very clear picture as to how significant private security contractors are to the war effort in Afghanistan, and the sacrifice of PSC’s. Especially the sacrifice of local national PSC’s, which account for most of the deaths of this group.

Although I must emphasize ‘recorded’ here, because no one recorded the amount of US PSC use during our very early wars.  I personally think that privateer usage was one of the highest number of PSC’s used by the US during times of war. Although a strong argument could also be made that the expansion of the west in the US would be the most impressive number of PSC’s used during time of war.

Pioneers, investors, the military, the railroads, cattle companies, shipping companies, banks, law enforcement etc. were all highly dependent upon on private security in all of it’s forms to protect lives and investments against Indian combatants and criminals. During this time period, there were 8 contractors awarded the Medal of Honor as well.

And of course this expansion of the west and resulting Indian Wars and land wars covered a very long time period of conflict in the US. For that reason, I would estimate that this time period would be the highest use of PSC’s by the US. It just wasn’t recorded by any government accounting office. Although Buffalo Bill did a pretty good job of bringing some attention to the matter with his Wild West Show. (which ran from 1883- 1913, a 30 year long show!)-Matt

Number of Private Security Contractors in Afghanistan
Since December 2009, the number of PSC personnel in Afghanistan has exceeded the number of PSC personnel in Iraq. According to DOD, as of March 2011, there were 18,971 private security contractor personnel in Afghanistan. This represents the highest recorded number of private security contractor personnel used by DOD in any conflict in the history of the United States. Local nationals made up 95% of all security personnel.
According to DOD, for the 15-month period of September 2007 to December 2008, the number of security contractors in Afghanistan increased by 16%, from 3,152 to 3,689. However, from December 2008 to March 2011, the number of security contractors increased from 3,689 to 18,971, an increase of over 400%. DOD has attributed the increase in contractors to increased operational tempo and efforts to stabilize and develop new and existing forward operating bases.
Security Contractors Compared to Total Contractor and Troop Levels
From December 2008 to March 2011, the number of U.S. troops and DOD contractor personnel in Afghanistan increased. However, the number of security contractors increased at a much faster rate (414%) than total contractors (26%) or troop levels (207%). As of March 2011, security contractor personnel made up 21% of all DOD contractors and was equal to 19% of the size of total U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan.
Casualty Rates of PSC Personnel vs. Uniformed Personnel
According to DOD, from June 2009 to November 2010, 319 private security contractor personnel working for DOD have been killed in action in Afghanistan, compared to 626 U.S. troops killed in action over the same period.28 Adjusting for the difference in the number of PSC personnel compared to troops, a PSC employee working for DOD in Afghanistan is 2.75 times more likely to be killed in action than uniformed personnel.  More contractor security personnel were killed in action providing mobile security (233 people or 73% of fatalities) than static security, even though those providing mobile security are only 25%- 30% of the total PSC workforce.
Nationality of Contractors
According to DOD, since September 2007, local nationals have made up 90% or more of all security contractors in Afghanistan.
Link to report here.

Monday, April 11, 2011

History: The 8 Civilian Recipients Of the Medal Of Honor And The Purge Of 1917

Filed under: Cool Stuff,History,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , — Matt @ 4:16 PM

In the past I have talked about William ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody and his Medal of Honor. It is significant, because he was awarded this medal for heroism, as a civilian contractor.  What is not talked about though, are the other 7 civilians that were the recipients of this medal, to include the only female recipient Dr. Mary Walker.

Mary’s medal is the reason why Buffalo Bill and the other civilians were able to retain their Medal’s of Honor after the Purge of 1917.  This purge was an effort to thin out the ranks of the MoH and make it a purely military honor. It was also designed to take away medals from individuals that did not receive the medal for heroism. Basically, they wanted to make the medal more exclusive.

But what is interesting here is that all of these civilian medal recipients mentioned below were purged from the list back in 1917, not because of a lack of heroism, but because they were not military.  But then along came Mary….. As soon as it was determined that Mary and company could not wear the medal any more, of course that caused a backlash. Mary would purposely wear the medal out of defiance of the ruling, all the way up until her death.

What happened after her death is that her family fought for the medal to be restored, and for sixty years this battle continued. In 1977, these efforts caught the attention of President Carter and he restored her medal posthumously. It is that event that that led to the other 7 civilians having their MoH restored. So that is a big thanks to Dr. Walker and President Carter. Although I am sure he did not intend for his actions to legitimize the heroic acts of contractors during times of war, and I think he was thinking more in terms of women’s equality. lol

The other interesting part of this history are the civilians who were working for the navy that received the MoH. They were boat pilots it sounds like, and this was during the Civil War. They were not privateers, but they were still working as civilians and were awarded the medal for heroism. Although there is not much on this history, so I really cannot add much there.

Finally, the guys I really like on this list, were the scouts.  These folks were crucial to the Army mission during the years of brutal warfare in the wild west. There were other famous scouts from that time period like Frederick Russell Burnham, but it is these four scouts below that were recognized by the government for their heroism in battle.

I often wonder if congress would ever consider including civilians once again for the MoH?  In this current war, there are numerous acts of gallantry and sacrifice that were performed by contractors, and yet their act goes unnoticed? Contractor use in this war far surpasses the use of contractors in US history, with over 2500 plus killed and thousands wounded. Yet there has been very little recognition of the heroes in this group (250,000 plus contractors serve in the war zones). Of course there have been a handful of Defense of Freedom Medals given out, but that is it.

Of course some would say that contractors get their reward in the from of monetary payment. But so does the US military, and so does all of it’s partners. What I am talking about are recognizing an individual’s sacrifice and efforts during times of war, despite if they are military or civilian. I celebrate our military heroes, and I would like to celebrate our civilian heroes as well. But no one knows about those civilian heroes, because they have not been recognized for their efforts.-Matt

Restoration of 6 Awards Previously Purged From TheRoll Of Honor
From Home of Heroes website.
There was no intent on the part of the 5 retired generals that reviewed all prior awards of the Medal of Honor, to single out any individual or group of individuals from whom to revoke our Nation’s highest award.  Certainly the case of the 27th Maine precipitated the review, and as a former commander of the Medal of Honor Legion, General Miles presumably agreed with the Legion’s opposition to the inappropriate awards to that unit.  Even so, however, the five generals approached their daunting task with reverence for the award as well as a sensibility to those who had already received the award. (more…)

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

History: Contractor Buffalo Bill Cody–Congressional Medal of Honor Holder

Filed under: History — Tags: , , , , , , — Matt @ 1:32 PM

    Yep, it’s true.  He is by every definition of the word, a civilian contractor and he is a Medal of Honor recipient.  Matter of fact, he, along with several other famous wild west legends were contractors as well. Men like Robert Denbow, David L. Payne, and Wild Bill Hickok were all civilian Scouts hired by the US Army to hunt and kill Indians during that long war for the west.  Not to mention the hundreds of Indians hired by the US Army to be Scouts.

   What they paid these guys back then was interesting too.  Cody was getting paid I believe 5 dollars a day, versus 12 dollars a month for the enlisted man in the Army. (sound familiar?)  In essence, Cody and the rest of the mountain men Scouts employed by the US Army were well compensated and highly valued contractors back in the day. I am not sure how much they paid the Indian Scouts, but I am sure they paid pretty well for that too.  Scouts were certainly an asset back then, and worth every penny.

    On a side note, I have been reading the book Indian Wars, and have been very interested in that war’s activities.  Especially how the tactics evolved over the course of many years of fighting, and how important the use of Indian and Mountain Man Scouts were to that effort. Arguably, the US Army back in the day, would never have defeated the Native American without these civilian contractor Scouts.

    That war went through the same typical ‘arc of learning’ that we painfully go through in every war, and in the beginning it was all about using conventional forces to combat guerilla forces.  We learned slowly, after years of combat with the Native American, that conventional warfare like that, just doesn’t work against light and nimble guerilla forces.

    In this war, we got small and mobile, and used Indian Scouts that hated a rival Indian tribe, and it worked.  It reminds me a lot of how the Selous Scouts operated in Rhodesia, by using captured and turned guerillas for operations.  General George Crook and Kit Carson is definitely worth some more investigation, if you are interested in the Scout concept as it was applied during the Indian Wars.

     Also, thanks to Cannoneer#4 for all the enlightening input about Scouts during the Indian Wars on prior posts.  I learn a lot from ‘you’ the readership, and your input is highly valued. Cheers. –Matt

Edit: Also, I mean no disrespect to my Native American readership.  This is purely a study on military tactics and military history, and the use of contractors in past wars.  But along those lines, it was a war and it does deserve some study so we can learn from it.  I also have great respect for Crazy Horse and Geronimo, and we can learn a lot about how they conducted operations as well.

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Buffalo Bill Cody

Buffalo Bill Cody – Congressional Medal of Honor Holder

By Carl Benjamin

Earlier this year I did an article for Associated Content on Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and the many characters that performed with him. Over the course of my research, I discovered that Buffalo Bill Cody was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. This is something that I never knew about or even understood why and how he received it.

William Cody was born in 1846 in Iowa. Quite a bit is known about young Bill Cody. After the death of his brother, the family moved to Kansas. His family was often persecuted because they believed in fighting anti-slavery. His father was stabbed while giving an anti-slavery speech. He never fully recovered. At the age of 11, Cody took a job with a freight company as a “boy extra”. His job was to ride up and down the wagon train delivering messages. He later joined Johnson’s Army as a scout. His job was to help guide the Army in Utah. It is here that he got his reputation as an ‘Indian fighter.” Sometime between the age of 12 and 14 he killed his first Indian. At the age of 14 he signed on with the “Pony Express.” Before he became a rider, he helped build the stations and corrals and took care of the livestock. In 1863 , after the death of his mother, he enlisted with the Union Army and entered the Civil War.(In 1863 he enlisted as a teamster with the rank of Private in Company H, 7th Kansas Cavalry and served until discharged in 1865. From 1868 until 1872 Cody was employed as a scout by the United States Army.)

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