Non-Government Employees Are ‘Contractors’ in Combat
April 20, 2004

by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor

When the news media first began reporting on the deaths and mutilation of four American contractors in Iraq on Mar. 31, most Americans probably thought first that the reporters were talking about plumbers, electricians or carpenters, the kind of contractors with whom most people do business. As it was eventually reported in greater detail, these were a different kind of government contractor—a kind that is not as rare as many might believe.

In fact, these contractors, or others like them, might be among the kinds of people you could meet and visit with at the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) annual meetings and convention, the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show, at an action shooting match or during instruction at some of the larger and better firearms training centers. Like many in the military service, the contractors might also be fellow NRA members.

I know because I have met and even worked with some of them—not the ones who were killed and defiled on Mar. 31 as far as I can remember—but others like them. Most are former long-term members of the military themselves, people with special training, skills and experience who have been in harm’s way and see a way to earn a good income while serving their country and its culture. Such a contractor’s compensation, by the way, is reported by some sources as $1,000 per day.

Culture, however, is a critical factor in determining who does what to whom. War and combat have a culture and rules all their own, something most Americans today are ill-prepared to understand.

And the cultures of some opponents—and even allies—in combat are even farther removed from our comprehension, but that may be a subject for another day and another column.

Contractors’ Names
The four American contractors killed on Mar. 31 were employees of Blackwater Security Consulting, a North Carolina firm that provides specialized security, corporate bodyguard and arms training for private and government needs. Blackwater also operates a shooting school, and has a range facility which has been used for major civilian shooting competitions. Blackwater recruits security specialists for contract work from elite US and other special operations units worldwide, and also trains police and other government employees. However, Blackwater is not the only firm providing such training or contracting with the government to supply people with special skills.

Some news sources reported that Blackwater declined to release the identities of the contractors, but WorldNetDaily.com’s Joseph Farah reported that sources close to the families said three of the men were former US Special Operations troops: Jerry Zovko, 32, an Army veteran from Willoughby, OH; Mike Teague, 38, an Army veteran from Clarksville, TN, and Scott Helvenston, 38, a veteran of the Navy, whose hometown was not known.

ABCNews reported that the four American contractors who were killed and mutilated in Iraq were “targets of opportunity” who had the bad luck to drive into a pre-planned ambush site, citing US intelligence sources.

Iraqi insurgents had set up several ambush points around Fallujah, the city west of Baghdad that is a hotbed of anti-American sentiment, and had stocked them with gasoline on the morning of the attack, intelligence sources told ABC.

Some townspeople had been warned to stay inside.

“This was clearly an attack to get maximum media exposure,” said one source.

The four contractors left the Iraqi city of Taji on Mar. 30 to escort a convoy of several flatbed trucks full of goods. The plan was to spend the night at a US base called TQ, west of Fallujah. Instead, the convoy ended up at a base east of Fallujah.

Ambush
On the morning of Mar. 31, with two contractors in the lead SUV and two others in an SUV at the rear of the flatbeds, a decision was made to drive through Fallujah.

Each of the security guards was armed with a combat rifle and pistol. The contractors also had satellite communications on board.

At around 8 a.m., the convoy approached a traffic circle on Highway 10 going into the city. According to intelligence sources, eyewitnesses say a vehicle full of gunmen pulled in front of the lead SUV, while occupants from several other vehicles fired Kalashnikovs and rocket-propelled grenades. Eyewitnesses put the number of Iraqi assailants between seven and 18. US investigators have identified several of the assailants, and intelligence sources say they include former members of Saddam Hussein’s paramilitary forces and some “non-Iraqi Arabs.”

The contractors were killed, but the truck drivers escaped by driving away.

Another vehicle full of attackers then pulled up and dragged two of the bodies out of the SUVs, doused them with gasoline, set them on fire, and dragged them behind vehicles. Two of the bodies were hung from a bridge, but after the bodies were hung and the cameras had recorded the event, the assailants fled into the neighborhood where some were well known to locals.

Since the event, US Marines have been engaged in sealing off the city and rooting out the attackers. Several Marines and many more Iraqis have been killed in the follow-up action.

Pentagon’s Experts
Just how widespread is the government’s reliance on contractors or other short-term fixes for people with special expertise can perhaps be understood from a Mar. 26 story in The Washington Post. In it, The Post reported that a new Pentagon policy will allow the Defense Department to hire as many as 2,500 experts with state-of-the-art knowledge in fields of critical importance to national security. The appointments would be for five years, with a one-year extension possible. The new policy was made possible by the fiscal 2004 defense authorization act.

The salary range is pretty good and even allows for bonuses of up to 50% of an expert’s pay. However, there is a cap on the amount any one expert can be paid. Total compensation may not exceed the vice president’s salary—$203,000 in any calendar year.

I figure that’s as much as $507 million every year and over $2.5 billion during the five year period. Maybe we need these experts, but it would seem that the government could come up with a better way to recruit and employ the top talent it needs.

In a related story, in March, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was recruiting a communications specialist to head up a TSA liaison office in Hollywood, to work with the movie and television industry. GS-14 and GS-15 salary ranges were discussed, which means the successful candidate could start as low as $89,000 and end up at $136,000 or so. That wouldn’t include the office rent and other overhead, nor the cost as assistance and clerical staff for the liaison office. Needless to say, I wondered why TSA would need such an expert to deal with Hollywood unless the networks soon plan to replace “CSI” with a “TSA” show.

In the 1940s and ’50s, our nation used to draft experts into the military and even welcomed volunteers, like the certified NRA instructors who taught military recruits basic marksmanship in World War II. After that war, President Truman and key figures in the military services officially expressed their gratitude and that of the nation.

One wonders today as the Pentagon hires civilian experts in various fields how we ever used to get the same or similar levels of experience in the days before the volunteer military. There was a time in my experience when a first lieutenant’s job was done by a private first class or corporal until peacetime required a higher paid civilian to fill the same job.

But then, as the late Illinois Sen. Edward Dirksen used to say about government spending: “A million here, a million there; pretty soon it adds up to real money.”