Cowboy Up!

[The Reaper]

A lot of poetic license, but some info, nonetheless.

TR

New Republic
May 24, 2004

Baghdad Dispatch
Cowboy Up
By Joshua Hammer

It was just before dusk at Baghdad's Al Hamra Hotel, and the patio by the swimming pool was humming with activity. "Bushmaster," an Australian security contractor wearing an olive-drab floppy hat, sat at his usual table drinking chilled vodka straight from the bottle. "Have a swig of Stoli, mates!" he slurred across the courtyard to a trio of hulking operatives from Blackwater Security Consulting, the secretive U.S. outfit whose guards had been ambushed and burned to death in Falluja a month earlier. Suddenly, there was a commotion in the lobby, and 30 South African mercenaries wearing khaki shorts and body armor marched single file into the courtyard. Bulging arms covered with multicolored tattoos, shaved heads gleaming, they carried an arsenal of weaponry--black M-4 assault rifles, 9mm pistols, stun grenades, serrated knives. Gathering in a semicircle, they answered a military roll call, barking out their names and ranks in guttural Afrikaans.

One of the South African mercs picked up the rifle of an Australian soldier seated poolside, handled it admiringly, then peered down the laser scope at a table full of journalists. "It's like the holding pen for the [South African] Truth and Reconciliation Commission," muttered a food-service provider from the military--a self-described "war profiteer"--seated at our table.

In the last few months, Baghdad's corporate warriors have all but taken over the city. They cruise the streets in late-model SUVs, the long, steel barrels of their automatic weapons protruding from open windows. They've essentially taken over a dozen hotels in the capital. I counted as many as 100 "security consultants," as most prefer to be called, lounging poolside at the Al Hamra on several evenings this week--four or five times the number I saw in my previous visit to the city. As many as 20,000 contractors are currently believed to be in Iraq, and the number keeps growing.

These private armies have assumed many duties normally carried out by troops during wartime. A Virginia-based firm, Custer Battles, guards Baghdad Airport. Erinys, a British company, protects oil fields. Blackwater provides bodyguards for officials of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) and escorts military supply convoys along Iraq's dangerous highways. DynCorp of Virginia has been hired to help train Iraq's police and the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps. And, of course, CACI International Inc. provided interrogators inside Abu Ghraib prison.

For American soldiers and Marines in Iraq, the rapid proliferation of contractors is, at best, a mixed blessing. Some troops I talked to say the contractors' presence frees up their own thinly stretched units to carry out operational activities--including running security patrols, searching for improvised explosive devices, and battling the growing insurgency. "We fight the war, and they do the shit work," one top officer in Baghdad said.

But many troops resent the fact that the private gunmen earn as much as $1,000 per day--ten times the average Marine's salary. And several told me that they find it alarming that so many private gunmen are on the loose in Iraq, unbeholden to military regulations. As the violence intensifies, some contractors have engaged in sustained firefights and even pitched battles with Iraqi insurgents; as many as 50 contractors have been killed in action.

"I went to Baghdad last month and couldn't believe how many armed foreign civilians were moving around the streets," I was told by a major in the First Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq. "It blew me away."

The U.S. military and the contractors work in close proximity.

When I flew around northern Iraq two weeks ago on an inspection tour of police academies with Lieutenant General David H. Petraeus--the former 101st Airborne Division commander who is now rebuilding Iraq's security forces--Petraeus's entourage was guarded, in part, by Blackwater's private security men. In Najaf in April, where hundreds of fighters from Moqtada Al Sadr's Mahdi Army surrounded CPA headquarters, eight Blackwater operators, one Marine, and three Salvadoran soldiers fought side by side from the CPA's rooftop. After ten hours spent fending off sniper fire and rocket-propelled grenades, the men were resupplied by a Blackwater helicopter flown by a veteran Army pilot, who dropped clips of ammunition onto the rooftop. A short time later, the helicopter returned and evacuated a Marine. Some American officials sense commitment and dedication from the contractors. "I looked in their eyes," Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the chief U.S. military spokesman, told The Washington Post after meeting the American mercenaries. "They knew what they were here for. ... They were absolutely confident."

Sometimes, however, the mercenaries' activities do more harm than good. The uneasy relationship between the troops and the contractors reached its nadir on March 31, when the four Blackwater men were brutally murdered in Falluja, their body parts strung up on a bridge. The previous day, the four contractors, all heavily armed but driving unarmored vehicles, had reportedly escorted a food convoy to a nearby Marine base. They spent the night at the base, apparently ate alongside the troops, and then left the next morning for Baghdad, inexplicably taking a shortcut through the resistance stronghold. "We would have told them not do it," said one Marine officer. The officer angrily called the contractors "cowboys" and said they had failed to inform anyone on the base about their plans, a direct violation of military policy. The Marines learned of the ambush and murder by watching CNN.

Some troops I talked to had felt a powerful urge to avenge the contractors' deaths. "They were Americans, and they were brutally murdered. My instinct was, 'We've got to go in,'" said First Sergeant William Skiles, a leader of Echo Company, Second Battalion, First Marine Regiment. But many others were incensed that the mercenaries had forced the military's hand. "My first questions were, 'Who are these people, what were they doing there, and why didn't we know about it?'" said Lieutenant General James T. Conway, commander of the First Marine Expeditionary Force in Falluja. Conway told me he'd had a plan in place to establish military control over Falluja but that intense political pressure to invade the city following the Blackwater killings obliged him to move far more quickly than he had wanted.

Conway expressed his reservations to Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, commander of allied forces in Iraq. But he was told that Washington demanded immediate action. Days later, Conway sent two battalions into Falluja, where they killed hundreds of Iraqi combatants and civilians, leveled much of the city, and caused a wave of international opprobrium that ultimately forced Conway to withdraw his troops.

The ambush killings in Falluja, and the beheading of a contractor this week, sent shock waves through the mercenary corps in Baghdad. Even so, the brutal attack seems unlikely to dampen the contracting boom. "These guys may be chastened, but nobody's talking about leaving Iraq," I was told by one "security consultant" as he sipped a Carlsberg poolside last week. "For one thing, the money's too damn good." He also pointed out that most of the contractors are the hardest of the hard core-- veterans of such elite outfits as the U.S. Special Forces; the Rhodesian Selous Scouts, the former special forces of the Rhodesian white regime; and Executive Outcomes, the now- disbanded South African mercenary army that fought in Sierra Leone and Angola.

These men thrive on the danger of working in war zones. As the security consultant spoke, a contingent of 25 Blackwater operatives seated across the pool passed around a bottle of Jack Daniel's and two bottles of vodka donated by Bushmaster. As if on cue, one Blackwater man pulled out anacoustic guitar, and his two dozen comrades burst into a rockabilly ditty: "Goin' Down to the River with My Dirty Ol' Shotgun." Bushmaster, an empty bottle of Stolichnaya at his feet, grinned and tipped his hat.

Joshua Hammer is Newsweek's Jerusalem bureau chief and the author of A Season In Bethlehem: Unholy War in a Sacred Place, published by Free Press/Simon and Schuster.

[Roguish Lawyer]

I would be interested to know what percentage of the war budget is being spent on private security contractors being paid this much, and whether there is a realistic alternative. I imagine these are just the going rates and we need the right guys, but we are going to create some pretty perverse incentives paying contractors this much money.

Tell the truth: why would you re-enlist in SF when you could get a job at CB or Blackwater paying you so much money?

Seems to me that the all-volunteer force is being tested hard right now . . .

[FILO]

You are right the money is relatively very good if you have the right credentials and you hook up with the right company. Moreover, lots of money is being thrown at experienced guys who are still on active duty, but not all are taking. In fact, I have a good buddy who has over 15 years of SF and current SMU experience and he is coming up on retirement this year. He has been approached by a number of recruiters for the P.M.C.’s but he has decided not to jump on board since he is not willing to put his future at risk for short term monetary gain. This situation of recruiting experienced military operators is not limited to P.M.C.s but to O.G.A.s. as well. Even the O.G.A.s have lost a few very experienced former Army SMU types; some of them reported on in Afghanistan.

[Sacamuelas]

What is the Army compensating its very experienced current SF and SF/SMU assigned personnel?

I am not talking about base pay either. I would like to see someone calculate the total compensation that a soldier of this caliber and experience gets- include jump pay, combat pay, any special pay for performing the SMU type operations (?), housing, reenlistment bonuses, any other bonuses that I don't know about, deployment pay (?)...
Obviously, I do not know the proper terminology for the types of pay for specific duties, training, and hardships- please forgive my ignorance.



Anyone care to give an account for a comparison to what these contractors are paying? Use someone like the example given by FILO. 20 yrs prior service, current SF soldier, SMU experience, who is coming up to retirement date or needs to be reenlisted by the US Army. I will "assume" that someone of this experience/training would be a MSG, so let's use that for the "base pay" part of the answer.

Anyone willing to give up the info? Without the true figures, it is hard to have a discussion on the disparity of pay between Gov. and private contracting companies like Blackwater.

[Roguish Lawyer]

Looks like you can get a lot of that info here, although it does appear that you need to know what bonuses to look for.

http://usmilitary.about.com/library/...enlbasepay.htm

Of course, the obvious solution to the retention issue is to increase pay for AD personnel.

[Smokin Joe]

It appears that these Companies are throwing a good amount of money towards SF/SMU (Active/ Inactive) individuals. However, what about the down side.

Not the same compare and contrast but this is all I got so...
One of my Lt.'s recently retired and is in BagRag training there Police Officer Corp over there. He is getting 100 grand for 365 days of service doing anything from teaching at there academy to being a Field Training Officer.

He had to provide all of his own gear, and clothing. If he wants to take a vacation or leave for any reason he has to provide all of his own transportation back to the U.S. then back to Baghdad to go back to work.

He could not bring any of his own weapons. I don't know but 'assume' they will give him something to defend himself with but who knows what that will be.

He gets zero 'Official Intel' everything is word of mouth.

If he gets in deep shit he could be on his own. No 'guarenteeed' back up.

There are some other downers but that is all he has shared with me so far.

Just something to think about.

[Solid]

Is there a downside that wasn't listed in the article for deployed soldiers operating with, or in proximity to, PSCs?

Based on history, pre-rifle mercinaries were heavily used and seem to have had a largely positive effect in the armies they were working for. However, I wonder what the evolution of small unit warfare has done to change their place in modern operations.

Thank you,

Solid

[The Reaper]

I think that the Army is, and has been grossly undermanned for the mission requirements, and this is the logical consequence of such shortsighted actions. All of the Army's big ticket items (Paladin, Comanche, etc.) have been sacrificed already to maintain the limited force structure that we have while other services have remained latched on to large scale Cold War projects.

We HAVE to hire the contractors, because there aren't enough soldiers (AD and Reserve) left to get the job done.

Base pay for an E-8 over 20 years is $3815. Add BAH, BAS, Hazardous Duty pays, if any, Foreign Language Proficiency Pay, if any, and Special Duty Incentive Pay or Continuing Service Reenlistment Bonus; Hostile Fire Zone Pay and Family Separation Allowance when he is deployed. TSP is not matched for uniformed Service Members, Med and Dental for the SM is provided, family dental and Life insurance the soldier has to pay for. No more than $1500 or so in bonuses, if he has everything. Assume he has everything and call it $5315. For a fair comparison, you really should subtract the retired pay he would be getting if he were not on AD, roughly $1900 per month, leaving you with compensation of about $3415 per month for spending half of his remaining service in the box, at high risk.

The Army is getting a soldier for less than $42,000 per year whose fair market value could be as much as $350,000 per year.

Wanna drop your tools and sign up?

When you have an E-8 making $50K on AD, and he is eligible to make half that as a retiree, plus $150-300K per year for very high risk, short term employment, he has to look at his situation and make a decision for his benefit. He has served his country well and honorably, and has nothing to be ashamed of for being compensated at a fair market price for his services.

The Army is hiring contractors because they cannot accomplish the mission with the force structure they have, the contractors are filling a government offered contract, the soldiers are doing what is right for them/their families, and the U.S. taxpayer is footing the bill for having maintained a very small, all volunteer force while acting as the world's policeman.

The downside for contractors is the risk, lack of job security, lack of benefits (life insurance, health insurance, retirement, etc.), lack of support, variable conditions, and as I told a young E-4 in a retirement brief the other day who was excited about working as a contractor, if he got caught while wearing the uniform, the U.S. military would move heaven and earth to get him back. As a a contractor, he he is on his own and better have a plan, like the truck driver did. You see how much support the BW guys in Fallujah got.

We can make the Army larger (cheaper) by conscription, make it larger by paying more and have it underemployed part of the time, we can hire contractors to fill short term gaps, or we can adjust our military decision making to reflect the force structure that we have.

I think that the civilian CoC was sold a bill of goods by the "Air Power can do everything" advocates, whose shock and awe has predictably been unimpressive to the insurgents and failed to get the job done in Iraq. We went in on the cheap with deficient post conflict planning and lack of a defined (and achievable) end state. We are now paying the price.

Will 250 F-22s do us any good in this conflict? Not really helpful at seizing and holding terrain. How about the two to four more divisions that money would buy?

Bottom line:

Soldiers have to do what is right for them and their families, and if the U.S. is determined to be the global 911 force, the military in general and the Army and Marines in particular need to be resourced adequately to succeed.

Just my .02, YMMV.

TR

[Roguish Lawyer]

TR, that was brilliant, as usual.

[Kyobanim]

TR for Prez! The voice of common sense.

[NousDefionsDoc]

Well said Boss. While the money can be good, even great, its about credentials - and there's not very many places you can get those. If you get jammed up, there's no Spectre or Spooky to come help you. You may go several months between jobs. There is no support service behind and you and you have to buy a lot of your own gear. Sometimes no insurance or benefits, many times there are pay problems. I know people that have been fired because they had to leave for a family emergency. You don't get 30 days of paid vacation a year, and many of these jobs are little more than guard duty. Its not all roses.

But I like it better than selling car insurance or flipping burgers.

OBTW, this is nothing new, just a lot more of it and more press.

[Sacamuelas]

ALright.. thank you TR.

Let me see if this all adds up... I found the following specifics from .mil online sources. I will attempt to put the SF soldiers pay into the form that he would have recieved if a contractor by adding in the ARmy benefits to his paycheck.

E8, 20 years, with incentives reported by TR given:

$3815 Base pay
1008.00 BAH
254.46 BAS
150.00 HDP
100.00 FLPP-1
225.00 Special duty incen. pay
1589.88 3 yr Reenlist bonus [(up to 15x basic/3 years)/12mos]
225.00 hostile fire zone pay
100.00 family separation pay
__________________________
$7468.04/month = $89,616.48 per year

• Now, factor in 30 days paid leave which equates to the above amount being paid for only 11 months of actual service. This works out to a "corrected" 12 mos paycheck(like the contracts were worded 360 days) to compensation on the scale of:

$89616.48 / 11 months(actual work) = $8146.95 X 12 months of the contract period = $97,763.40 per year

• Now factor in the fact that Soldiers do not pay federal income tax on any of the pay while serving in combat zone. That means the following:

$97,763.40 X 25% federal tax bracket = $24,440.75 tax benefit

Now, that sums $97,763.40 + 24,440.75 = $122,204.15

• also remember that as a Gov. employee, your half of the self employment tax is covered by the gov. So lets add in the extra 7.5% you would be paying to the IRS for that too.

$122,204.15 X .075 = $9165. 31 tax self employ taxsavings

so its now $122,204.15 + $9165.31 = $ 131,369.46

• and finally to conclude the purely monetary COMPENSATION conversion over into contractor wages... based on what TR stated about being deployed on average six months of your time as a AD SF NCO...

TOtal SF compensation: $131,369.46 for on average 6 mos deployed per year

Total compensation for contractor for a equal 6 mos deployment: 300,000 / 2 = $150,000 with no benefits,etc

That is a much better comparison when you consider all the other benefits included below that are automatic with the US SF soldiers mission: here are a few things I haven't even factored in to the equation... some of which aren't availble at any cost unless you are a member of the Army.

• The unlimited and unrestricted -no cost to the soldier- disability and future pay supplement coverage afforded to US soldiers if wounded and disabled in action, there is transportation to and from the hostile zone provided at no charge, there is free transportation to home when on vacation/leave, there are free weapons-ammo-uniforms- coms-gas-support- access to US SF medical care in the combat zone-etc. , health/life insurance, all the other active duty benefits that can be accessed.
  
  And let's not forget what NDD and TR have already mentioned which should be the MOST important "benefit" in the SF compensation package in the type of mission the "contractors" have to perform... true/dedicated/relentless support from all your fellow US soldiers/airmen/sailors; Air support from spectres,other CAS during operations; armored support when called for, access to REAL intell networks, free/continunous training including range acess and ammo, access to the best technology available to perform your mission at no cost, etc.

**edited to clarify final sum total above..thanks RL

[Roguish Lawyer]

Originally posted by Sacamuelas
and finally to conclude the purely monetary COMPENSATION conversion over into contractor wages... based on what TR stated about being deployed on average six months of your time as a AD SF NCO...

$131.369.46 x 2 ( contractors won't get paid 300k to be CONUS 6 mos a year) = totals $262,738.92

Wow, nice effort, Doctor. (I was wondering what was taking so long!)

I don't understand the part I've quoted above.

[Sacamuelas]

I know... I am sure someone is going to find all sorts of little math/tax law/etc details that are wrong. It was an attempt to make you guys feel better...


YOu just didn't REALIZE you were paid so much... LOL

[Roguish Lawyer]

Originally posted by Sacamuelas
I know... I am sure someone is going to find all sorts of little math/tax law/etc details that are wrong. It was an attempt to make you guys feel better...


YOu just didn't REALIZE you were paid so much... LOL

Well, if the dentist thing doesn't work out, you can always get an army recruiting/retention job!

Seriously, I don't understand. What is the thinking?