Feral Jundi

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Quotes: More Civilian Contractors Working For American Companies Than American Soldiers Died In Afghanistan, 2011

Filed under: Afghanistan,Quotes — Tags: , , , , , , , — Matt @ 10:13 AM

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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Aviation: AAR And Supreme Group Crashes In Afghanistan, Seven Contractors Killed

Filed under: Afghanistan,Aviation — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 9:20 AM

There have been two crashes within the last month or so that have resulted in seven contractors killed. My heart goes out to the families and friends of the fallen, and thanks to Ms Sparky for getting the word out about these deaths and horrible accidents. It is another reminder of contractor sacrifice in this war, and our guys in the sky are definitely paying a price.

One thing I wanted to mention in regards to these accidents is that the Taliban are very quick to claim responsibility for these crashes, as if they shot them down. That might be possible, but it behooves the companies and NATO/ISAF to quickly dispel this propaganda if this is not true. I know there must be an investigation to get the facts correct, but that has to be weighed against any benefit that the Taliban might get out of such a thing.

It also shows how important it is that air crews and pilots of these contractor aircraft have some means of protection if they go down in enemy territory. These individuals were killed in both of these incidents, but for those crashes where there are survivors, then contractors must have the means to hold off any enemy attempts at taking them until a rescue comes. I do not know if AAR or Supreme Group have policies that allow their air crews and pilots to be armed, but I highly suggest they do if that is not the case.

The reason why a company should care about such things is that the Taliban will certainly juice every bit of propaganda value out of detained contractor pilots and air crews. Especially if they are Americans. Hell, I could see them taking those captives all the way to Pakistan. So a company should ask themselves if they want that kind of attention, and especially if you did not have policies that allowed your guys to be armed. Or at least ensure an armed security specialist is on your aircraft.

Not only that, but a company should be fully interested in the safety and security of their crews and pilots. You invest millions into the maintenance of your aircraft so it does not crash, and you should also ask how much is invested in your other highly prized assets– your pilots and air crews. From medical training and survival training, to giving them weapons/radios/survival kits, there should be some investment in the safety and security of your people. –Matt

 

Four Tajiks killed in helicopter crash in Afghanistan
Feb 12, 2012
A helicopter used by a civilian company contracted to NATO crashed in southern Afghanistan, killing all four Tajik crew members, officials said Sunday.
The crash was due to a technical malfunction, said Mohammad Jan Rasolyar, the deputy governor of Zabul province, where the crash took place.
But the Taliban in an online statement claimed its fighters had shot down the helicopter.
The Russian-made EY-106 helicopter belonged to the global logistic company Supreme Group, which provides services for the international troops stationed in the war torn country.
The company in a statement said that four crew members of the helicopter who were killed in the Saturday crash were Tajik nationals.
The helicopter was transporting food and water, it said.
‘Investigations as to the cause of the crash are ongoing but no other parties appear to have been involved in the incident,’ the company said.
Last month, a NATO helicopter crashed in the southern province of Helmand, killing six foreign soldiers.
Story here.
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AAR Airlift Reports Helicopter Accident in Afghanistan
January 16, 2012
AAR Airlift, an operating unit of Chicago based AAR CORP. reports that a helicopter carrying a crew of three employees was involved in an accident in Helmand Province, Afghanistan at approximately 10:45 a.m., local time, January 16, while conducting operations for the U.S. Department of Defense.

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Sunday, September 11, 2011

Industry Talk: The Contractor Sacrifice And Resolve Since 9/11

Filed under: Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , , , — Matt @ 3:31 PM

You know, much will be said about the sacrifice and good work of the military during the last ten years of war. Much is being said of the loss of lives, both on that day and during the ten years of war, on this ten year anniversary of 9/11. Every bit of that loss and sacrifice deserve the attention of the nation and world…. But in the back of the room, quietly supporting the war effort, quietly being killed or wounded, and quietly serving for the last ten years is the contractor. And in my little corner of the internet, I wanted to make sure that the contractor sacrifice is counted.

So who is this contractor? They are the Sri Lanken who is building the barracks for an Iraqi brigade. He is the Ugandan standing guard at the DFAC or front gate. He is the former Navy SEAL, working in a PSD detail as a contractor for the State Department. She is a health and safety inspector for a camp in northern Afghanistan. He is an Afghan convoy guard transporting fuel to a remote camp. She is an interpreter working with the coalition to help them with their daily patrols in the villages. The contractor is everywhere in this war, and their contribution is certainly significant.

Some of these contractors are prior military, and some are former police officers. But many are civilians who wanted to make a difference. They are the plumbers, the carpenters, the teachers, the cooks, the paramedics, etc. that come from all over the US and the world to give their contribution to the war. I would speculate that well over a million civilian contractors have cycled in and out of the war over the years, but there are no statistics to back this up. Although we do know that our ratio of contractor to the military in the war zones over the years has been about 1 to 1, and sometimes higher. So whatever the military numbers, the contractor service is pretty close. And believe it or not, in Afghanistan there was a historically significant point in the war where there were more contractors than soldiers.

“As of March 2009, there were 68,197 DoD contractors in Afghanistan, compared to 52,300 uniformed personnel. Contractors made up 57% of DoD’s workforce in Afghanistan. This apparently represented the highest recorded percentage of contractors used by DoD in any conflict in the history of the United States.”–CRS report

But what is the contractor sacrifice?  Well according to the Department of Labor, there have been 2,752 contractors killed and 71,662 wounded. The number of reporting companies is a staggering 1,831. (from 09/01/2001 to 06/30/2011) Think about those numbers and understand that each of those deaths and injuries are individuals that willfully came to these war zones to serve in their various capacities. Each had families and loved ones that mourned over their deaths. Or they had to deal with the struggle each day with the physical and mental fight that comes with rehabilitation and healing.

I personally think that the death and injury rates are much higher, but because there is no official commission to track all deaths and injuries of contractors, that the DoL statistics are really all we have. Of course there are individuals tracking deaths, but it has been noted that all they really care about is military deaths–with contractor deaths being a burden to count….

There is also another area of contractor sacrifice that gets little attention, and that is the POW’s and MIA’s of the industry. Just recently, James Coker was a Pentagon civilian contractor that was kidnapped, and then later beheaded in Afghanistan. It was barely a blip in the daily news cycle.  Or you have those contractors that have been wrongly detained in corrupt prison systems for years, just rotting away.

I have also touched on an area of contractor sacrifice that has not received any attention, and that is mental health. How many have taken their own lives since returning from the war?  I do not know, and it is a statistic that I think would match the military’s rates of suicide. (ProPublica touched on it a little)

But with all of this death and suffering, contractors continue to serve and in great numbers. They will continue to serve for as long as it takes, and they will do it quietly and willingly. So I give praise to the military for their sacrifice in this war, but we must also recognize and give praise to the sacrifice and resolve of our contractor force.

Lastly, the main reason why contractors and the military are fighting this war, is the cowardly act of terrorists  on 9/11, and the equally cowardly act of groups supporting those terrorists around the world. Hence why we have taken the fight into places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Pakistan, Yemen, and other rocks of the planet where the enemy chooses to organize and scheme under. It is our desire for justice and the urge to defend the homeland, that will keep the fires of this war lasting as long as it takes. That desire for justice is what drives all of us, both contractor and soldier, and we will not stop until justice is served and the enemy is no more. –Matt

From left to right, Tim Newman working as a DynCorp contractor in Iraq; the aftermath of the IED explosion that took Newman's leg; Newman after his recovery. (Photos courtesy of Tim Newman)

In April 2004, Reggie Lane was driving a fuel truck in Iraq for a defense contractor when insurgents attacked his convoy with rocket-propelled grenades, causing him numerous injuries. For most of the five years since, Lane, now 60, has spent his days in silence, cared for at the Country Gardens Adult Foster Care in Central Point, Ore. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Malek Hadi was working with the U.S. military police when a homemade bomb detonated beneath his Humvee in September 2006. (Allison V. Smith/For The Los Angeles Times.)

On the one-year anniversary of her husband's suicide, Barb Dill breaks down at her husband's tombstone. Wade Dill, a Marine Corps veteran, took a contractor job in Iraq. Three weeks after he returned home for good, he committed suicide (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times / Redding, CA / July 16, 2007).

 

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Afghanistan: Four Nepalese Guards Killed While Defending UN Compound Against Taliban Manufactured Riot Attack

Filed under: Afghanistan,Industry Talk,Nepal — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — Matt @ 12:29 PM

Thanks to Carmen for sending me this story. I call this a ‘riot attack’ because it is an excellent way of getting close to your target, and masking your movements within the sea of protesters. And as the protesters are angered and riled up by some key agent provocateurs in the crowd, the attack elements can do their thing. The added benefit is that the crowd will follow the attackers into the compound and help in the killing and destruction.  Which is exactly what happened with this protest/riot attack.

Might I add that the Terry Jones quran burning deal happened several weeks ago, and the UN had nothing to do with the act.  Why not attack the US bases or consulates, because Jones is an American? And why show anger over just this one idiot who burned a book?  There are plenty of religious nut jobs out there that have been burning Qurans left and right, to include even the Westboro Baptist Church.  I did a search on Youtube the other day and I was blown away by how many folks across the world were burning Qurans out of protest against these intolerant and extremist elements of Islam. Muslims could have a field day with protests, and yet Terry Jones is the dork they use? Like I said, this is manufactured.

I bet the imams in the mosques who are working for the Taliban, have been telling everyone that Jones is a huge religious leader in the US? That is just not the case in reality, and you will notice that the media purposely ignores Jones. And yet these religious leaders in Afghanistan think he is significant? These groups manufactured this protest, and played upon the ignorance of the Afghan people who naturally believed everything they had to say about the matter. Is there not a voice of reason to counter such things in these mosques and town squares? I would say not, which makes using crowds as a weapon feasible.

So what does that mean for security specialists working in the war zones? (I wrote about this last year) It is just one more attack to study and be aware of in your particular area of operations.  Now with uprising and protests popping up all over the middle east, the chances of this kind of attack will continue through the spring and summer. I would say that any protest that develops, will always have the enemy floating around in it and looking for ways of firing up the crowd.  The key here is to identify folks in your ranks that have experience with riot control, like law enforcement types, and draw upon their knowledge to formulate a plan in the defense. A good study would be this last attack, and the attack on Dyncorp contractors last year.

Another thing that I was thinking about the other day is crowd control measures that contractors could use in these types of scenarios. I asked one buddy of mine who was a cop if he had any ideas, and in prime ‘Gorilla Warfare'(Pete Blaber)/Building Snowmobiles (Boyd) fashion, he said use snakes. In India, the cops used non-poisonous snakes as a crowd dispersion tactic to clear out people, and he said it worked like a charm. No chemical agents, no physical baton use–just release hundreds of snakes into a crowd. The crowd quickly switched gears and decided that running away from snakes was far more important than protesting whatever it was they were protesting. So the lesson here is that any less than lethal method, no matter how crazy, should be looked at as a way of dispersing a crowd and defeating the riot attack.

It also takes planning and talking it up amongst each other at your particular job site. Get your QRF’s in order, and insure communications protocols and response protocols are all hammered out and working properly.  You want to make sure that when there is trouble, you can depend upon a ‘cavalry’.  But until that response force comes, you should have a defense and plan that can hold it’s own until they come.  You must have a good learning organization and a leadership that cares about doing things right in order to create a defensive plan that works. Also remember that if your guards are allowed to contribute ideas to the SOP’s, that they will be much more comfortable and supportive of implementing them. People will support what they help to create… I certainly hope the Nepalese were not just blindly following whatever plan they were given?

Another thing to think about is that you could also use the crowd as a means of attacking the enemy. The riot attack is not just a tool of the Taliban, and if the crowd is this easily manipulated in Afghanistan, then this could be one way of striking back. The key to success is to copy what it is they are doing in the various regions, and add one or two little things to the scheme that make it that much better. It is not good enough to just borrow the brilliance of your enemy, but to add to that scheme the things that will give you an edge over the enemy. Mimicry strategy, all the way…

Rest in peace to the fallen, and it sounds like these brave Nepalese guards had quite the fight on their hands. I do not know if their company is IDG Security Limited or not, but the UN does have a history of using Nepalese security contractors in Afghanistan. My heart goes out to the other fallen in this incident as well, and I certainly hope the UN will be steadfast in their mission in Afghanistan after this tragedy. The enemy wins, when groups like the UN give up and leave because of these attacks. –Matt

12 killed in Afghanistan amid protests over reported Quran burning
April 1, 2011
Twelve people were killed Friday in an attack on a U.N. compound in northern Afghanistan that followed a demonstration against the reported burning last month of a Quran in Florida, authorities said.
The fatalities comprised seven U.N. workers and five demonstrators, officials said.
Another 24 people were wounded, said Abdul Rauof Taj, security director of Balkh province.
Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai, a spokesman for the police in Mazar-e-Sharif, told reporters that a number of suspects “who might be the main organizers” had been arrested. (more…)

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Industry Talk: More Contractors Than Troops Killed During Past Year In Iraq And Afghanistan

Filed under: Afghanistan,Industry Talk,Iraq — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , — Matt @ 11:38 PM

Indeed, the total number of what might be termed “total U.S. fatalities” now should exceed 7,500. That’s because, as of June 2010, more than 2,008 contractors have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Another 44 contractors killed were in Kuwait, many of whom supported the same missions. On top of that, more than 44,000 contractors have been injured, of which more than 16,000 were seriously wounded. 

*****

     This is probably the most under reported and least known aspect of this war. And these are just the deaths that can be identified through the Labor Department’s insurance claims database.  I would speculate that the amount of deaths is much greater if there was a full accounting of all Iraqi and Afghan contractor deaths. In my view, those lives mean just as much as any other contractor’s life. These figures also do not take into account those families that did not file an insurance claim for the loss of their loved one.

    The wounded figures are startling as well. Especially the seriously wounded.  Do we have double, triple or even quad amputees? How many TBI cases? How many burn victims? I imagine we have many of the same types of injuries as the military. For that, if there are any wounded contractors reading this, thank you for your sacrifice and I hope the pain diminishes and healing continues.

     Probably the most elusive numbers out there about our wounded, are the mentally wounded contractors.  Many veterans come into contracting with a brain filled with their past military experiences–to include PTSD. But what happens to contractors who might have PTSD caused by their time on contracts? Or how about the suicide rates for contractors?

     I know Propublica/T. Christian Miller has done some great reporting on these types of subjects, but what I would really like to see is the government get more involved with this stuff. That is the right thing to do in my view, and it has been severely lacking. –Matt

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More contractors than troops killed during past year in Iraq and Afghanistan

By Katherine McIntire Peters

September 22, 2010

Recent data show that more contractors were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan than U.S. troops during the first six months of 2010, according to a George Washington University law professor.

“Contractors supporting the war effort today are losing more lives than the U.S. military waging these wars,” wrote Steven L. Schooner, co-director of the Government Procurement Law Program at The George Washington Law School, and Collin D. Swan, a student there. Their article appeared in the September issue of Service Contractor magazine, a quarterly publication of the Professional Services Council, an industry group.

The data show that in the first half of 2010, contractor fatalities in Afghanistan for the first time exceeded troop fatalities — 232 and 195, respectively. Contractor deaths in Iraq surpassed military deaths there beginning in 2009. Between January 2009 and June 2010, there were 204 contractor deaths and 188 troop deaths in Iraq.

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