Correspond with servicemen/contractors posted overseas (San Antonio, Anton: home, unemployment, inspectors)

[gy2020]

When I started the previous thread yesterday I quickly found a limitation. Some of our men and women overseas work as contractors and feel left out. I was trying to rename the thread but found it easier to just go ahead and start a new thread. San Antonio is a service town so I think I'll contact the bases and let them know about this thread. Hopefully we'll get some service people and contractors writing home to every one.

[PopsGuysRule]

Originally Posted by gy2020

When I started the previous thread yesterday I quickly found a limitation. Some of our men and women overseas work as contractors and feel left out. I was trying to rename the thread but found it easier to just go ahead and start a new thread. San Antonio is a service town so I think I'll contact the bases and let them know about this thread. Hopefully we'll get some service people and contractors writing home to every one.

WHAT A GREAT IDEA!!!!!!
Thank you for this thread, gy!!

I'm here to listen and share, if anyone starts 'corresponding'.... Yayyyyy!!!
cool beans

[gy2020]

I sent a private message to a serviceman/contractor and hopefully tomorrow morning we will hear from him. He is probably a sleep right now.

[gy2020]

If your interested, why don't some of the locals write a message and let the people overseas know we want to write to them?

[crazedchef]

Hello,

I am the person gy2020 contacted.

Anyone who has read one of my posts knows by now that I am in Baghdad and have been here for almost three years now.

I work for the company that was spun off of the one that Dick Cheney was the head of for years before becoming the Vice President.

What do I do: Purify water to insure the safety of all personel on this base.

I am now the foreman because everyone else left. Another contractor working at the fuel point was killed by an incoming RPG and we had the misfortune of being the first at the bunker and finding his remains. No one handled it very well.

There is no support system set up for the contractors who are traumatized over here. Everywhere you look on TV the government and private citizens are bending over backwards to take care of the soldiers, and rightly so, but also ignore the contractors whose lives are in danger right alongside the military.

Just yesterday, THREE people who work for my company were killed by IDF (indirect fire, also known as mortars & rockets). Also several TCN's (third country nationals, mostly Indians) were killed.

I have not seen one article or mention on any media. It is like we are invisible. There is NO official count of the number of contractors killed and injured in this conflict.

Sorry, do not mean to gripe.

Day by day, we all just go about our business, making food, plumbing, carpentry, general labour, purifying water, power generation, heavy equipment operators, electricians, laundry, etc...

WE basically run a city where the soldiers are the citizens. We all take their comfort very seriously. Their comfort is our job. We want them to be able to relax when on base and get their hot meal and shower and put on fresh clothes. Yes, we do care and we take pride in what we do.

We all know that the military faces much more hostile action than the majority of us face (I am not including the truck drivers and recovery vehicles, THOSE guys are called crazy by the military even).

But we still face real dangers. The majority of us have had close calls, sometimes very close, but you learn to live with it, or you go home (we do have that option). We are not eligilble for any type of unemployment and it is difficult to recieve medical care (despite what the company tells us, I have heard too many stories from de-mobing friends). Basically once you leave, you are on your own.

At first, there is constant fear. Always thinking about the different ways to be killed or maimed by all of the ordenence that is lobbed over the wall. After a while though, it becomes more of an annoyance. It still raises the heartrate and causes the fear response, but you wish the bunker call would end so you can finish whatever you were doing before the attack. Some people adjust to life here, others have to leave NOW. During one attack last July, a contractor from Kenya, who had been in his countries military for a dozen years, freaked out and stayed in the bunker all day. He left shortly therafter.

We are also threatened CONSTANTLY with losing our jobs. We have very short amounts of time to pull things together and there are many, many inspectors making sure the contract is followed.

This is a hard life, but I am getting to spend some time outside the box and live and adventure that I never thought was possible for someone who could not join the military (I have asthma).

We want to support the military the best way that we know how, and as a team we put "mission first."

This narrative tends to jump all over the place because it is impossible to describe the place/job/fear/thrill/hardships/duststorms/life working 12 hours a day 7 days a week.

Have a Great Day.

One day I'll be back in San Antonio.

crazedchef
still in Baghdad

[rd2007]

At least it's unanimous that pretty much everyone doesn't care about contractors. I'm one @ AFISRA here in SA and am pretty used to being a third class citizen when I'm at work. I think there's a misperception that we're all overpaid and don't do much work.

Stay tough over there and hopefully you come back soon. How long do you plan on staying? or do you just take it day by day? I was in Bosnia with a woman that had been a contractor there for 10 years and she planned on staying around 15 and then calling it quits for good. It would be nice to retire in your 30's or 40's for the rest of your life and not have to worry about money ever again, but there's also that other side of the story...

[crazedchef]

Hello,

I scour the websites looking at jobs in San Antonio all of the time. Although I find job listings for my specialty: Ultra-Pure Water Purification, I do not want to deal with all of the other things that come along with it: traffic, taxes, paying for food, having too much time on my hands, etc...

Now that I think about it, I have grown so accustomed to working 12 hours a day, and being able to walk to work that I would MISS IT. I guess I have become acclimated to the adrenaline and if I did not have to know where the nearest shelter was, I would not know how to handle myself.

About the taxes: ANYONE, ANYWHERE who works for 330 out of 365 days of the year is eligible to take the first $85,700 straight off of the top of your earnings and then take the standard deduction. Foreign Earned Income.

I miss San Antonio a bunch, but not as much as I used to.

Thanks for your support.

crazedchef

[gy2020]

Thank you very much Crazedchef and thank you rd2007 for responding as well. This thread is for you. To have the opportunity to vent. Let people understand the stress that is part of your life. We care about you, hang in there.

[Latinocowboy]

CrazedChef, God keep you safe in the midst of it all. Let us know if you ever make a trip back home for a visit.

[sapphire]

Did anyone happen to catch this the other day? I think it's very cool!

MySA.com: Food | Recipes (broken link)

Maybe they could be convinced to extend that to contractors as well.