Sorry Sparky i posted this on the griz post.

It is evident that KBR is not the sole owner; proprietor and disseminator of B.S. KBR and the other Contractors are comprised of good citizens serving their country and the Soldiers Sailors, Airmen and Marines on the front lines. I take particular offense to your referring to us as wannabee’s. I am a Retired First Sergeant that served 22 years in the United States Army! I am no wannabee! A good majority of KBR employees are veterans that get great pleasure helping and serving the men and women fighting for this country. Your myopic opinion is best characterized in the Movie, “Men who stare at Goats” you have an uneducated opinion and you believe all the stories and filter the facts to support you pre-formed opinion. You are an idiot.
Wannabee’s do not get killed by wannabee rockets, the do not work in 130 degree wannabee heat, they do not have wannabee families and do not get shot by wannabee bullets. When I was unloading convoys for the Seal Team 2 and 6 I was not operating a wannabee loader on a wannabee mission. Are there people who are in Iraq and Afghanistan trying to fill some missed void in their life where they wished they served? Yes! Are their cold war soldiers who always trained for combat but never had the opportunity to go, working there to see if they could handle it? Yes. What is so wrong with that, be it money, ego, desperation, whatever the motivation, we are here working in conditions that you could only hope to imagine. KBR, DYN Corp, Fluor and over a 100 other contractors are doing jobs supporting our countries forces. There are redundant levels of oversight. During start up and through the insurgency there were a lot of crazy things happening on both sides of the fence. War is loosely controlled chaos. I was in the Green Zone. I was there when MS Sparky was there. I was there when the incident with Jamie took place. The biggest contributing factor to this incident and others at USMI was alcohol consumption.
KBR Security did not have Armed Guards except on the Rhino and corporate guys that were not SEII or B&R employees. I lived in one of those “Shipping Containers” It had a toilet, a shower, a sink, a refrigerator, desk, wardrobe, bed, and an office chair and THANK GOD, An Air Conditioner. I was so thankful to leave a Bedouin Tent and move into a bombed out building and ecstatic when I got my Hooch (Container).
The people at USMI worked for and supported the State Department. The whining factor was greater at USMI. They had supervisors supervising supervisors. It was by all means a real Union GIG! (No offense Ms. Sparky0 you know the deal. I was at D@, Steel Dragons, Headhunter, Bulldog, Union3, and Prosperity. I was on the DOD side. USMI talked about doing things, they had the parties, and they had State Department Privileges. The biggest reason most employees wanted to transfer to USMI was because, (at that time) they did not fall under General Order Number One. This order outlined permissible and non-permissible activities for DOD Personnel and the Contractors serving DOD. It did not apply to DOS. Hence, USMI had a far greater number of Alcohol related incidents than other camps. Alcohol is a judgment inhibitor. My wife says if it wasn’t for alcohol, most men would be very lonely. So combine, stress, testosterone, alcohol and deviant behavior (on both sides) you enhance the probability of a sexual assault. It does not make it right. It is what it is. Those are the facts. After this and other unpublicized incidents, (including a US Marshall slamming an up Armored Suburban through the Embassy wall, all personnel were placed under General Order Number One.

I could write a book. What elevates me to anger are comments of a general nature throwing all contractors into the same bag. Let’s apply the same Standards to the Congress, the AFLCIO, AFGE, SEIU, and the President. Honesty and integrity? Barny Frank and Chris DODD? Al Sharpton Jesse Jackson, and let’s not forget William Clinton, whitewater and Monica Lewinsky.

Although he is the “Villain” in the movie
“A Few Good Men” this quote is how I feel about people that throw stones and criticism from the safety of their homes.

Col. Nathan Jessup:

Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns.
Who’s gonna do it?
You?
You, Lieutenant Weinberg?

I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for “civilians” and “innocents” and you curse the marines who put their lives on the line everyday.

You have that luxury.

You have the luxury of not knowing what I know:

That civilian deaths and collateral damage, while tragic, probably save lives. American lives and my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives.

You do not want the truth because, deep down in places you do not talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, and you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something.

You use them as a punch line.

I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said “thank you” and went on your way.

Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand at post.

Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you are entitled to

I highly suggest that until you spend time in a combat zone, until you see friends like Hector Molina shot up and killed by wannabee bullets, that you keep your uneducated mouth shut!

1SG USA (RET)

Having been a military dependent, active duty and a contractor I may have a different perspective than you.

First you keep referring contract employees as pretend soldiers – they are not – in fact they must at all times identify themselves as contractors and must not in anyway present themselves as military or government personnel. LOGCAP employees are not armed and do not participate in the military functions.

These employees do the things that the military does not want to – like clean the toilets and the buildings, pest control, preparing/serving food and cleaning up afterward.

Additionally, I believe that you have a skewed concept of what these people actually make. The base salary (40 hours a week) for most US Expats is around $29k – on top of that just like the active duty personnel they receive danger pay. Unlike active duty personnely they are working 84 hours a week (12 hrs a day 7 days a week) or the equivilent of 2.1 full time jobs. They are paid straight time for the additional 44. So yes they are making a good income. But they are earning it. Remember this is for a US Expat – the majority of the work is done by Third Country Nationals – mostly subcontracted that make far less.

The Army did a study on one task order alone to determine if it would be more cost effective to have the Government do the work. They determined that it would have cost the Government 2.5 times more to do the work themselves. So even if they took the money they were giving the contractors to do the work and gave it to the military – they will still have to raise our taxes to cover the additional estimated $22B annually it would cost.