591: A Hero's Departure

[The Gunner]

Originally Posted by Blitzgal

Blackwater's overbearing military presence isn't a symptom of government doing what government is *supposed* to be doing. Corporate cronyism is just one way in which the magical "free market" gets muddied once it hits the street.

Blackwater, KBR, DEH, and all those contractors in Iraq have an overbearing presence. I was on a PSD for a few months and we were replaced by a team of contractors, they did the exact same thing we did, the only difference was they got better weapons and got paid about 9 times as much as we do.

[cobralex297]

Can't blame 'em for going to the higher paid jobs, hell, they're quite elite. Minimum four years in US Military Special Forces or equivalent.

By the way Gunner, I'm not sure if you saw my above post, but I'll add to it; I appreciate your service, you are doing the job of a real man, hopefully I'll be able to join you in a couple years, ... not the actual you, as the chances of that are slim, but the figurative you... the royal you... speaking of the US Military. But to add to earlier, if you send me or others your address once you get deployed, I'll be happy to send some stuff to you and your unit. I help run the annual drive for our school that goes out to those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, I could probably swing it so that at least some of the total collection gets to you, if you're interested...

Regards,
Alex

[The Gunner]

Originally Posted by cobralex297

Can't blame 'em for going to the higher paid jobs, hell, they're quite elite. Minimum four years in US Military Special Forces or equivalent.

By the way Gunner, I'm not sure if you saw my above post, but I'll add to it; I appreciate your service, you are doing the job of a real man, hopefully I'll be able to join you in a couple years, ... not the actual you, as the chances of that are slim, but the figurative you... the royal you... speaking of the US Military. But to add to earlier, if you send me or others your address once you get deployed, I'll be happy to send some stuff to you and your unit. I help run the annual drive for our school that goes out to those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, I could probably swing it so that at least some of the total collection gets to you, if you're interested...

Regards,
Alex

Thanks Alex, and thanks to all of you for your support.

As per the contractors, they aren't any more elite than the rest of us. The thing about them being all former Operators is false, most of them that i worked with were either cops or regular joes like the rest of us. They went to the contractors so that they cn get all the same benifits that we get, but at a $600 (DEH convoy commander pay) a day basis. I don't blame them.

[cobralex297]

I know that I definitely read that in terms of blackwater operatives there was a minimum service requirement, however I actually have extremely limited knowledge of the others. Please drop me a line whenever you know where you'll be so we can all send you stuff.

[The Gunner]

Will do

[Bastardman]

Originally Posted by cobralex297

I know that I definitely read that in terms of blackwater operatives there was a minimum service requirement,

Not too sure about that bro. However, Blackwater's Ceo is a former Navy Seal, and they seem to have a preference for Naval Specwar vets.
Other companies Like KBR pay really well to men with almost no experience. They pay to the tune of about 68k a year, sounds pretty good...

[The Gunner]

Originally Posted by Bastardman

Not too sure about that bro. However, Blackwater's Ceo is a former Navy Seal, and they seem to have a preference for Naval Specwar vets.
Other companies Like KBR pay really well to men with almost no experience. They pay to the tune of about 68k a year, sounds pretty good...

Depend on what they do, KBR ran everything that wasn't a military job, and even some that are. Its all politics. The army is designed to be self sufficent in war, but no one can make money off of that.

[Bastardman]

Originally Posted by The Gunner

Depend on what they do, KBR ran everything that wasn't a military job, and even some that are. Its all politics. The army is designed to be self sufficent in war, but no one can make money off of that.

Yeah we were supposed to be pretty good in the Navy too, but I didn't make a whole lot of cash off of that either...

Gotta admit that Blackwater makes some nice gear though...

[Blitzgal]

Originally Posted by The Gunner

Blackwater, KBR, DEH, and all those contractors in Iraq have an overbearing presence. I was on a PSD for a few months and we were replaced by a team of contractors, they did the exact same thing we did, the only difference was they got better weapons and got paid about 9 times as much as we do.

That's what so sad about that whole situation. They're doing the same work that our soldiers are trained to do but getting paid a ton of money (a lot of which is our taxpayer dollars b/c these companies are overcharging us by a huge amount for basic services). Our soldiers are assigned to protect them and get killed doing so. But if their workers do something wrong (like kill ten unarmed Iraqis like a few weeks ago), these companies try to claim that they aren't held to the same military justice because they aren't military. The families of those contract workers killed in Fallujah have been trying to sue Blackwater for more than three years, but the company keeps switching back and forth between claiming they're a civilian enterprise not held to military law or a military enterprise not held to civilian law. Blackwater makes Halliburton look like Sant-y Claus.

[DWarrior]

Originally Posted by Blitzgal

That's what so sad about that whole situation. They're doing the same work that our soldiers are trained to do but getting paid a ton of money (a lot of which is our taxpayer dollars b/c these companies are overcharging us by a huge amount for basic services). Our soldiers are assigned to protect them and get killed doing so. But if their workers do something wrong (like kill ten unarmed Iraqis like a few weeks ago), these companies try to claim that they aren't held to the same military justice because they aren't military. The families of those contract workers killed in Fallujah have been trying to sue Blackwater for more than three years, but the company keeps switching back and forth between claiming they're a civilian enterprise not held to military law or a military enterprise not held to civilian law. Blackwater makes Halliburton look like Sant-y Claus.

Private Sector > Government Work...what a surprise.

But from the footage I've seen, these guys get to fight without helmets. Boom headshot!