Contractors

I know I said that my next post would be pictures of Cara's promotion ceremony...but posting pictures takes a really long time, and I don't have time to wait for all the pictures to download tonight. So, I am going to get on my soap box about contractors.

I want to make it clear that I have very little background knowledge when it comes to the purpose of the contractors that are over here, so I speak only on what I perceive and my own thoughts about the subject of contractors.

I am stationed at JBB, which is the largest base in all of Iraq. There are well over 20,000 people on this post and not all of them are military personnel. There are lots of contractors over here and I do not know the exact job listing of contractors but I know that there are people working at AAFESS (the store), in the barber shop, at the 13th (the headquarters bldg where I work), in the guard towers (Ugandan military), they work as mechanics, in the DFAC serving food, and I am sure they work at about 100 other jobs that I don't know about and don't want to list. I know that not all of these people are Americans too. There are lots of Iraqis that work here on base cleaning, doing construction, and serving food in the DFAC. There are also Filipinos that work in the barber/beauty shop cutting hair and giving massages. I am lead to believe that these people are probably not making a lot of money and they are providing a service that the Army doesn't train soldiers on.

Well, that isn't entirely true. The Army has cooks, but they have contracted this service out and that is why there are Iraqis serving our food. Which leads nicely into my qualm with contractors.

The military seems to have contracted out everything (I might be slightly over-exaggerating this...but once again this is what I perceive to be true). There are contractors everywhere we look, and it is really annoying. I am fairly confident that the Americans that are over here are making at least four or five times as much money as I make and they are doing a job that I am fairly confident that someone in the Army could do. Like I said, I don't know why the military contracts stuff out...I am sure there is a legitimate reason for it. However, these contractors make me feel like crap.

They get to walk around in civilian clothes, they have their own CHU, some of them have a CHU with a bathroom, lots of them have their own vehicle, and most importantly they are getting paid more money than me. Their lives are just as in danger-ed as mine...an IDF attack doesn't discriminate against who it is going to hurt. Yet, the military is paying them six figures to be over here. Well the military pays KBR (or some other business) who then pays the contractors. I am fairly confident that there are enough smart and capable soldiers to do the jobs that these contractors provide. The military would just have to provide us the training to do so, and I am guessing the military could probably save some money.

Don't get me wrong, I am not a soldier because of the paycheck. I signed up for other more honorable reasons, but it makes me feel pretty worthless when I know the military is paying an American citizen six figures to be over here because they are risking their lives to be in a war zone. Where as the military pays me an extra 250 bucks a month called hazardous duty pay. The more I think about it the more beat down I get over the whole situation.