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Gates still impresses. The Blackwater contracts should be altered to include no-compete clauses.
Much as with industrial concerns, they should have and enforce non-competition clauses. Blackwater should not be allowed to poach highly trained personnel who have benefited from training and experience with rare and expensive military resources.

Please tell me you are kidding!!! Are you saying that a private company cannot come up to a military person and offer them a job six months before their contract is up? So what you are saying is that these guys MUST do 20 years? Perhaps I don’t understand what you are trying to say. These guy did their time and now have a choice to make. Either stay in or get out and make loads of money? You must be some sort of socialist or something...I don’t get it. Either that or you are against capitalism. Maybe if the military is that worried they should increase their pay to what the private sector pays. That should fix the problem right away. I am just surprised that you want more government intervention...

Non-compete agreements are commonplace all over. These non-compete clauses would be with those companies that contract with the DOD. Nothing wrong with that.

That said, I think this bonus program for special operators is a great idea. They are highly valuable, and expensive to train. I’m all for paying them what they’re worth.

The way the world is, and the way they work these guys, what you think your chances of getting a pension is? You might not think of it when you are in your twenties, but when you are working into your thirties, knowing you won’t be able to help your kids with even community collage, knowing your SF E8 pension is the same as (no offense) a supply E8 pension. Most likely you will have been wounded, bone broken here or there, and a couple of bouts or more with very interesting tropical diseases. From sleeping on dirt, out in the open and keeping up with the younger studds and officers with their ‘how to lead’ handbooks, you will be a caffeine addicted, skin cancer-ed, mal contented wreck that sees a dentist every other year. Any good stories you have, no one's going to believe them anyways, and your kids will run from the room screaming.