Working In Iraq

Six years ago if some said I would be working in Iraq, I would have told them they were crazy. But then I got into financial trouble and Iraq seemed a good place to make a lot of money quickly. I did make a lot of money quickly and my family was back here spending it faster than I was making it with little regard to the dangers and hardships I was going through to earn that money.

My employment to Iraq started with a trip to Houston in December of 2003. There I spent five days been tested, stabbed, poked, prodded, questioned and went through NBC training. During this time a physcial was done, a complete physcial. A mental evaluation was done. I spent many hours sitting through boring classes about the company and what was expected of me.

The recruiter had told me that while I was in Houston, I would not be paid. What she failed to tell me, was that I would be there for eleven days. Six of those days were spent waiting for a flight to Iraq. I finally boared a plane and headed for France. From France I headed to Dubai. We stayed in Dubai for a day and then it was on to Iraq.

While in Houston I had a nice room all to my self. It even had a little sitting room with a couch and TV. In Dubai I had to share a room with another guy. When I got to Iraq, I had to share a tent with fifty other guys. They had just got the tent put up mintues before we arrived. We put our stuff in the tent and then it started pouring. The tent leaked everywhere. It was a cold, wet and miserable first night.

"How dangerous was it?" you ask.

In order to land, the plane did what is called the "screw" maneuver. This is where they keep the plane in a tight circles as it quickly descends on the airport to land. This is in case someone fires a rocket at them. They are in a better position to dodge it.

My first night at Camp Anaconda there was a lot of incoming. Rifles, machine guns and mortar fire kept me awake most of the first night. When this quiet down, there was the steady pouring of rain leaking through the tent. Plus it was January and it was cold. On top of this, the generator they were using to power our tent was not running correctly. I woke up to the smell of thick, exhaust fumes. I got up and tracked them back to the generator. I went to the building where there was a guy on duty and reported it to him. He said there was nothing that could be done until the morning. So I went to the generator and shut it down. I wonder if I saved the lives of forty-nine men that night and no one will ever know.

Several days later I was told the company needed a logistics person at Camp Warhorse, in the city of Baqubah. I said sure I would love to go. I arrived without incident. About four hours later there was a mortar attack. Two people were killed. Around 3 am there was another one. No one hurt this time.

This was all in the first couple of days of being in Iraq. Several days later I met a couple of Christian people so we started having a prayer meeting each morning at 6 am. We did this for the entire year and a half I was there. Everyday, without fail. During this time, no one was killed on base.

The first hardship was privacy. I had to sleep in a tent with fifty other people on a cot, not my nice queen size bed with fluffy pillows and soft sheets.

Then there was no heat. It was cold and rainy.

Then there was the walking 300 yards to get to the showers and toilet. This is interesting if you are like me and have to go two to three times a night. And since it was raining and there were no paved roads, then you took your chances of falling into a deep, mud hole. This I did several times.

Then it was dark. Especially after I lost my flashlight. I tripped and it fell down a hole never to be seen again.

Then there was the food. It was OK. But I had to stand in line for an hour to get it. And on top of this it was raining and cold.

At one point things got so bad that the only thing we had to drink at the Defac was grapefruit juice and water. Due to attacks the convoys were not getting through. Even the PX was out of soda, chocolate, chips and other good things to eat. At one point we had to eat MREs since regular food was on short supply.

And I could go on. When summer came it was hot. Hot enough to fry eggs on the front of the truck. I am not kidding.

For more about working in Iraq go to Iraq Up Close and Personal. I put a lot of details into the stories I have written on this site.

Well, if you still want to work in Iraq then take a look at some of the companies listed below. You can also go to Iraq Up Close and Personal for a larger list. Keep in mind that there is a lot of changing going on right now.

Some units are moving from their permanet base inside a city to a temproary base outside the city. Also KBR, which has been the largest contract holder, has lost parts of the contract to other companies, so there is a big change coming with this. Obama had nothing to do with this. This reshuffling of the LOGCAP contract has been going on for two years.

All things should be in place by the end of September.

One company new on the scene and recently sent me an email is www.pelatron.com.

There is KBR.

Another company to check out for jobs in Iraq and Afghanistan is DynCorp.

And you might want to check out http://www.fluor.com/careers/pages/default.aspx.

Last of all, if you are a veteran you can go to Military Hire and check their listings.

Good Luck.

I just received this from a recruiter:

"The simple truth is, that while a handful of these positions can technically
allow for an interim clearance to be granted, the competition (as you state
on your blog) has increased to the point that an otherwise well-qualified
candidate without an active clearance will simply be placed on the "Too Busy
To Read" pile by the horribly overworked in-country supervisors, who vet and
interview candidates in their "spare" time.

The best channel for an applicant to gain any kind of first-time clearance
prior to working at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, is to join a Reserve or
National Guard unit, having researched first whether or not a background
check and security file will be opened up for that billet.

I can't help that the potential repercussion is that they could potentially
then be activated for deployment, but there is precedent for Reservists
right now to go work overseas as contract labor or technicians."

Basically you will need a security clearance to get a job in Iraq when working on a military base.