Military Interactions with Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan

[tulanealum]

What's wrong with being a contractor? I've done three deployments as a contractor in Bosnia and Iraq and my teams were usually given more work than the military and were making more significant contributions. I think what should be remembered is that contracting composes a wide spectrum...from intel to protective services to mess hall activity.

I've never understood the fear of contractors or the whole, "greedy bastards" bit.

I'm deployed as a soldier now and think our contractors are great.

[120mm]

I have to agree, to a certain extent. I'm currently working as a contractor, on the equivalent of "half pay" of my Active Military pay.

I provide the "green-suiters" with a product that frees up active military personnel for other duties, and provide them with a handy scape goat if things go wrong.

Also, in some MOS' contracting may be the way to go. For example, operation of the HIIDE system needs to be contracted out, as it is nearly impossible to get a soldier of the correct rank trained to competency before they get promoted out of the position for HIIDE operator.

The answer, then, is to either get rid of our obsolete and inefficient personnel system, and let competent people stay in jobs longer, while receiving competitive pay for their skill (as well as *gasp* treating them respectfully, and as competent human beings).

The contractor system is a symptom of the overall problem, and that is that the current personnel system is broken, badly.