Greene County Native Providing Security For Americans In Iraq
By: By BILL JONES/Staff Writer Source: The Greeneville Sun 03-30-2004
Greene County native David Randolph isn’t a soldier, but he’s taking the same risks as U.S. soldiers and Marines in Iraq while he provides security for American contractors and high-ranking military officers.
Randolph, 33, a 1988 graduate of Chuckey-Doak High School, said during a Monday afternoon satellite telephone call from Iraq, that since early January he has been working in central Iraq as an “independent contractor” for a private security company called Blackwater USA.
Randolph, who is the son of Renda Scott and James “Buddy” Randolph, a Greene County Sheriff’s Department detective sergeant, said he was recruited by North Carolina-based Blackwater USA last December and left employment with the Horry County, S.C., Police Department to join the security firm.
A former U.S. Marine who helped protect President George H. W. Bush at Camp David, Md., in the early 1990s, Randolph said he left the Horry County Police Department, where he was working as a K-9 officer in the narcotics unit, because he could earn “substantially” more money working for Blackwater USA in Iraq.
Randolph, who said he organized the Conway, S.C., Police Department’s SWAT team several years ago, also has spent 10 years in the South Carolina National Guard. He holds the rank of 1st lieutenant in that reserve military component.
After about a month of intensive training, Randolph said, he and two other former Horry County, S.C., police officers traveled in early January to Iraq by way of Kuwait. Since January, he said, he has been in charge of a detachment of “more than 20” Blackwater security personnel who are based near the small Iraqi city of Fallujah.
Randolph described Fallujah, which he said is probably smaller than Greeneville, as “the toughest town in Iraq.”
Prior to last year’s U.S. invasion that toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, Randolph said, even Saddam feared to travel to Fallujah.
“It was run by a group sort of like the mafia,” he said. “He (Saddam) pretty much left the people who ran the city alone.”
Unfortunately, he said, that meant that “a few people lived like kings” and the rest of the population lived meagerly.
Since the arrival of U.S. forces in the area last year, Randolph said, the people who formerly enjoyed power have seen their privileges curtailed.
“They’re not happy about that, and they’re carrying out attacks as a result,” he said.
Fallujah, which is west of Baghdad, is located “at one corner” of the “Sunni Triangle,” the area mostly west and north of Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, where attacks on U.S. forces have been numerous since last year.
Randolph said the Blackwater USA personnel he supervises provide security for high-ranking U.S. military officers, U.S. State Department officials and employees of U.S. contractors involved in rebuilding the war-torn county’s infrastructure.
Frequently Escort Convoys
As part of their security operations, Randolph said, Blackwater USA personnel escort convoys from place to place along central Iraq’s dangerous roads.
In carrying out their convoy-protection duties, Randolph said, Blackwater employees frequently engage in gunfire with insurgents, who attempt to use roadside bombs, which the military calls improvised explosive devices (IED), and other arms to destroy vehicles and kill as many Americans as possible.
“You have to be vigilant all the time on the road,” he said, noting that anything that looks out of place, such as a pile of dirt by the roadside, can hide an IED. But IEDs aren’t the only worry for those moving about in convoys, according to Randolph.
“I think I’ve been fired on by every kind of weapon there is except an aircraft,” Randolph said.
He added that the insurgents doing many of the attacks in and around Fallujah often have turned out to be natives of Jordan, Iran, Syria, and of the embattled Russian-controlled area of Chechnya.
Blackwater USA personnel have been able to fend off most attacks by using tactics that make it difficult, if not impossible, for attackers to damage more than one vehicle at a time.
“They haven’t been very successful against us,” he said, “But they’re determined and keep trying.”
He also said that insurgents constantly try to draw Blackwater USA personnel and U.S. military forces into ambushes.
“They try to disable a vehicle and then attack you with small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades when you dismount,” he said.
He said Blackwater USA personnel and their U.S. military counterparts counter the ambush threat by positioning their vehicles to cover each other and by avoiding attempts to draw them into traps.
During a Monday afternoon telephone call from the Blackwater USA compound in the desert outside Fallujah where it was 9:30 p.m., Randolph said he and other Blackwater USA personnel “sleep whenever we can.”
Attacked Many Nights
He said that their compound is attacked on many nights by mortar and rocket fire. Asked if the compound had good bunkers in case of such attacks, Randolph said that although there were bunkers, “We depend on their inaccuracy.”
He explained that the mortar and rocket fire unleased by the insurgents had been highly inaccurate for the most part. “After you’ve been here for awhile, you can judge pretty well when you’re in danger.”
After repeatedly failing in attacks on Blackwater USA personnel, Randolph said, insurgents in the Fallujah area recently have began focusing their attacks on Iraqis who drive vehicles that bring food, water and other supplies to Blackwater USA-protected work sites.
“We’ve lost three water truck drivers in the last week,” he said, noting that the Iraqi truck drivers are just trying to earn a living and improve their families’ lives. The former South Carolina police officer
said he remains convinced that the casualties the United States has suffered in Iraq over the last year have been “worth the sacrifice.”
He said that whenever he sees Iraqi children smile and wave as he passes, his belief that U.S. efforts to free the Iraqi population from tyranny is reinforced.
“Now they (the children) will have a future, not just a dead end,” he said.
Telephones Wife Weekly
Randolph said he tries to telephone his wife, Susie, and the couple’s four young children at least once a week to reassure them that he is safe. He noted that he has not yet seen his youngest son, who was born after he went to Iraq in January.
Randolph and his wife also are the parents of a 4-year-old daughter and a 2-year-old son and twin daughter.
Being separated from his wife and children is difficult, Randolph said, noting that he hopes to return to his home near Myrtle Beach, S.C., by August.
After taking some time off, he said, he likely will accept other international security assignments with Blackwater USA.
In the meantime, Randolph said, he would like to receive electronic mail messages from Greene County residents.