Dave Smith, a former British soldier who has worked as a contractor all over the world (including, for a time, in Liberia, for the now-deposed war-criminal president Charles Taylor), put it: "The difference between a contractor and a military guy is I'm getting paid five times as much and I can tell you to get f***ed if I don't want to do it." For a certain sort of person, it's a great gig.
The problem is finding that sort of person. Carrying an automatic weapon in a Third World country, beyond the easy reach of higher authority? The job description is like a bug light to borderline personalities. Big companies like DynCorp have every incentive not to hire flakes and compulsive danger seekers. The bad publicity isn't worth it. But in a situation like Iraq last year, in which the federal government threw hundreds of millions of dollars at reconstruction companies, which in turn rushed in thousands of new security contractors, the screen could not be very fine. There are civilians toting guns in Iraq who shouldn't be.
Some of them are easy to spot. I ran into one late one night outside the Gardenia Hotel, a dumpy former office building. Kelly and I were staying in a house across the street, and I'd walked over to see if I could find someone to do my laundry. Standing on the front steps was a middle-aged Englishman. He introduced himself as Richard, a former member of the 22nd SAS. He had a rifle slung over his shoulder, and he was slobbering drunk. Hearing my accent, he immediately lit into Americans as fearful and weak. "Come with me, my Yankee Doodle Dandy w@#k," he said. "I'll take you places you've never been."
Like where? I said. He looked as if he were about to tell me. Then he stopped and lurched forward, almost on top of me. "You're not Irish, are you?" he demanded, breathing in my face. Nope. "Good man!" He all but embraced me. He'd killed enough of the Irish in Ulster, he said. He'd hate to have to do it again.
About ten days after I left Iraq, Richard put three bullets into a man he was supposed to be protecting. Apparently, it was an accident. He'd forgotten to take his rifle off automatic and . . . well, you know. The man survived. Richard was fired. It turned out he had never served in the SAS.
Intriguing.
It makes me wonder who's on point for the fight against insurrectionists/terrorists in Iraq: military personnel or contractors?
Also raises the question of exactly how well things are going over there...
Hiring mercinaries is common these days. MPRI is a good place to apply, you get contracted by a contractor to a contractor. It's all very confusing. Really though, one of my old platoon Sgt.s went to Iraq last year with some company and all this guy knows how to do is drink coffee, bitch and carry a rifle.
Many high ranking guys use Merc's rather than our own troops. You can get ex-SF guys instead of privates to guard you, well why not? I'd rather be around ex-SEAL/s than a Ft. Jackson private, better resume.
Let them call me a rebel and I welcome it, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of demons were I to make a whore of my soul. (Thomas Paine)
Technically these contractors are known as PROCOBS professional civilians on the battlefield. I myself have been working as a PROCOB ( I think mercenary is viewd as politically incorrect !) for nearly 2 years now, its actually a good job from my point of view.
I have found the work interesting and well paid. My first job was training Americans in Germany who were about to be deployed to Bosnia, this was great fun, i spent my time between Hohenfels in Germany and Tusla in Bosnia. The PROCOB teams would go out on patrol with the guys down range, then we would come back and design whats called CBIs (complex battlefield incidents) on the experiences we had had, these would then be implemented into the training program for the next batch of lucky lads to be deployed to Bosnia or Kosovo.
As for jobs in Iraq at the moment they are crying out for more blokes over there, which is why they seem to take almost anybody who has come into contact with a NATO uniform and a gun.
The money can be good depending on who employs you and what you end up doing. Normally you have to sign a minimum 3 month contract, if you dont do the full three months you will receive NO or very little pay. For somewhere like Iraq sticking a 3 month stint is not gonna be as easy as you might think. If you do 6 months you normally receive a hefty bonus, i say normally as it depends who you are directly contracted to. BUt if you dont get offered a good wedge to stay for longer than 3 months I would say dont take the job.
There are many roles for PROCOBS to be employed in ranging from the obviouis armed security to linguists,medical staff and on and on.
To anyone thinking of going into this line of work i would say think very very carefully about it. If you are thinking of doing it for a kick then dont bother....go to a theme park or do drugs instead. 0X
I spoke to a mate of mine on MSN today. He is ex 2 para, and is currently in Iraq on CP work. He reckons it's like the wild west out there. The frightening part is not that everyone is armed to the teeth but people who don't have any skills are armed to the teeth and doing CP.
quite a catching report.
a: how do you find these companies on the web - i fancy a nose around.
b: pasha, have you seen the date on that thread? it says the article was written on march 1st '04?!
Answering your last question first, I believe March 04 is the magazine edition, so the print version must be available in the shops now. The article was passed on to me without a qualification as to which edition, but the sender resides in New York hence I presume it is the US edition.
Erinys, DynCorp and KBR are just a few names that you try a google search on. I don't think you'll get much from them in the way of of details though.
Best regards!
If you are really interested in doing a stint in Iraq as a movingh target with a paycheque then ring the American embassy nearest to you and state your military service and what capacity you can benefit George and you might be surprised how quickly you receive a phone call from a Mr Jones of ......... !
Otherwise search the web but happy hunting and i hope ya have broadband !
It's my understanding that the outside hired guns (ex all US SO's guys in this case) are more into special training of new camp troops before going field... but it would not be out of line to say some are paid shooters on the payroll of many world outfits ready to supply top trainers etc.
