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.