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| Because of delays by civilian contractors, soldiers in Iraq until recently suffered in poor living conditions. Here, soldiers pass the time in temporary barracks in an abandoned building in east Baghdad. (Photo by Tyrone Turner) |
Posted on 08/01/2003 9:25:27 AM PDT by Incorrigible
BY DAVID WOOD
Newhouse News Service
July 31, 2003
WASHINGTON -- U.S. troops in Iraq suffered through months of unnecessarily poor living conditions because some civilian contractors hired by the Army for logistics support failed to show up, Army officers said.
Months after American combat troops settled into occupation duty, they were camped out in primitive, dust-blown shelters without windows or air conditioning. The Army has invested heavily in modular barracks, showers, bathroom facilities and field kitchens, but troops in Iraq were using ramshackle plywood latrines and living without fresh food or regular access to showers and telephones.
Even mail delivery -- also managed by civilian contractors -- fell weeks behind.
Though conditions have improved, the problems raise new concerns about the Pentagon's growing global reliance on defense contractors for everything from laundry service to combat training and aircraft maintenance. Civilians help operate Navy Aegis cruisers and Global Hawk, the high-tech robot spy plane.
Civilian contractors may work well enough in peacetime, critics say. But what about in a crisis?
"We thought we could depend on industry to perform these kinds of functions," Lt. Gen. Charles S. Mahan, the Army's logistics chief, said in an interview.
One thing became clear in Iraq. "You cannot order civilians into a war zone," said Linda K. Theis, an official at the Army's Field Support Command, which oversees some civilian logistics contracts. "People can sign up to that -- but they can also back out."
As a result, soldiers lived in the mud, then the heat and dust. Back home, a group of mothers organized a drive to buy and ship air conditioners to their sons. One Army captain asked a reporter to send a box of nails and screws to repair his living quarters and latrines.
For almost a decade, the military has been shifting its supply and support personnel into combat jobs and hiring defense contractors to do the rest. This shift has accelerated under relentless pressure from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to make the force lighter and more agile.
"It's a profound change in the way the military operates," said Peter W. Singer, author of a new book, "Corporate Warriors," a detailed study of civilian contractors. He estimates that over the past decade, there has been a ten-fold increase in the number of contract civilians performing work the military used to do itself.
"When you turn these services over to the private market, you lose a measure of control over them," said Singer, a foreign policy researcher at the Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington.
Replacing 1,100 Marine cooks with civilians, as the Corps did two years ago, might make short-term economic sense.
But cooks might be needed as riflemen -- as they were during the desperate Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. And untrained civilians "can walk off the job any time they want, and the only thing the military can do is sue them later on," Singer said.
Thanks to overlapping contracts and multiple contracting offices, nobody in the Pentagon seems to know precisely how many contractors are responsible for which jobs -- or how much it all costs.
That's one reason the Bush administration can only estimate that it is spending about $4 billion a month on troops in Iraq. White House Budget Director Joshua Bolten said this week he could not even estimate the cost of keeping troops in Iraq in fiscal 2004, which begins Oct. 1.
Last fall the Army hired Kellogg Brown & Root, a Houston-based contractor, to draw up a plan for supporting U.S. troops in Iraq, covering everything from handling the dead to managing airports. KBR, as it's known, eventually received contracts to perform some of the jobs, and it and other contractors began assembling in Kuwait for the war.
But as the conflict approached, insurance rates for civilians skyrocketed -- to 300 percent to 400 percent above normal, according to Mike Klein, president of MMG Agency Inc., a New York insurance firm. Soldiers are insured through the military and rates don't rise in wartime.
It got "harder and harder to get (civilian contractors) to go in harm's way," said Mahan, the Army logistics chief.
The Army had $8 million in contracts for troop housing in Iraq sitting idle, Mahan said. "Our ability to move (away) from living in the mud is based on an expectation that we would have been able to go to more contractor logistical support early on," Mahan said.
Logistics support for troops in Iraq is handled by dozens of companies, each hired by different commands and military agencies with little apparent coordination or oversight.
Patrice Mingo, a spokesman for KBR, declined comment. Don Trautner, an Army official who manages a major logistics contract with KBR for troop support in Iraq, said he knew of "no hesitation or lateness" by KBR civilian contractors. "There were no delays I know of," he said, making clear that he did not speak for other contractors.
(David Wood can be contacted at david.wood@newhouse.com)
Not for commercial use. For educational and discussion purposes only.
Or maybe they thought it was just like every other Pentagon contract: Billions of dollars to play with and actual performance optional.
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| Because of delays by civilian contractors, soldiers in Iraq until recently suffered in poor living conditions. Here, soldiers pass the time in temporary barracks in an abandoned building in east Baghdad. (Photo by Tyrone Turner) |
As one of the civillians who work with the DOD to support the military, I can tell you that your comments are NOT appreciated. Although I personally was doing my job in the US during operation Iraqi Freedom (I would have gone if asked), many of my friends and co-workers were in the line of fire, unarmed and bravely doing their jobs (a seersucker missle landed a few hundred feet from one of my friends). I don't know if the author of this article is pushing an agenda or not, or if facilities he writes about were witheld by the Pentagon for any number of reasons. I do know however that you are besmerching many fine Americans. For all I know, you are one of those cowards who buy military ribbons and cliams they were awarded them for bravery. So, now that I have said that how does it feel to you to have someone who knows nothing about you, questioning your honor, integrity and courage?
Or are you the 1 person in America who never heard of the $400 hammers, billions of dollars in cost overruns, and shoddy merchandise delivered late, after being subcontracted to foreign firms?
If you're really out there doing your job and giving your country real value for the money, that's WONDERFUL! There should be more people like you, because there aren't nearly enough now.
With the exception of the character flaw where you make up stuff to use as insults against someone you don't know and who did not, in fact, say anything that applies to you.
"We thought we could depend on industry to perform these kinds of functions," Lt. Gen. Charles S. Mahan, the Army's logistics chief, said in an interview.
One thing became clear in Iraq."You cannot order civilians into a war zone,"said Linda K. Theis, an official at the Army's Field Support Command, which oversees some civilian logistics contracts. "People can sign up to that -- but they can also back out."
All of these comments may seem damning but they appear to me to be taken out of context to suit an agenda. Let me provide an alternate Q and A to show how these comments may have been spun.
Q: General Mahan, Why have you cut down on the size of the Army Corp of Engineers? A: "We thought we could depend on industry to perform these kinds of functions"
Q: Linda Theis, can you order civillians to work in a combat theater? A: "You cannot order civilians into a war zone, People can sign up to that -- but they can also back out."
It got "harder and harder to get (civilian contractors) to go in harm's way," said Mahan, the Army logistics chief. But as the conflict approached, insurance rates for civilians skyrocketed -- to 300 percent to 400 percent above normal, according to Mike Klein, president of MMG Agency Inc., a New York insurance firm. Soldiers are insured through the military and rates don't rise in wartime.
Might General Mahan have been talking about the added cost of the insurance industries' rate increases that made it harder and harder to get (civilian contractors) to go in harm's way?
Finally I will second what the gentleman from the construction firm said, I don't know of any delays or problems caused by a lack of support from civillian contractors. I do however know that some in the military resent their manpower losses and would like to trend back to a larger force. It just doesn't make any sense to do so though, It is both cheaper and wiser to use seasoned dedicated professionals to do ancillary jobs. A 40 year old civillian (most of us are ex-military) requires no training, minimal military support and does not leave in 4 years. This allows the green and blue suiters to do what they do best... fight.
Ronald Reagan, February 12, 1986
I know where companies have sent contractors to Iraq and have offered only a 25% uplift on a per hour basis. While it seems like you make a lot of money, it includes working 7/12.
So in this line of work its: show me the money. It's only fair. If exes sit in their cushy leather chairs and get huge bonuses, why should the people doing the dirty work risk their neck for an extra 25%/hr. Many who have gone there are not full time employees, but people who were hired directly because they are out of work and needed to pay the mortgage.
An employee of Kellogg Brown & Root got killed today. Do you think people will be jumping to leave their families, risk their lives, for a mere 25%/hr. s
If companies starting sacrificing profits in leiu of better employee compensation, they would see a better response.
I am corrected, and I apologize.
Don't try to kid me. These contractors are still trying to fill out the three tons of paperwork so they can be qualified to hammer nails.
They have to prove, among other things, that they have the requisite quotas of tri-plegic Martians on their workforce before they can claim a dime of gubmint money.
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