Working Overseas : Personal Experiences
Washington Welder Tackles Stryker Repair in Qatar
Story about a welder working for General Dynamics Land Systems in Qatar. GDLS contractors at the battle-damage repair facility typically clock 60- to 72-hour work weeks. Earnings from overtime rates are amplified by qualifying for a substantial overseas tax deduction.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Working Overseas : Personal Experiences
Florida Native Sees War Up Close as Contractor
Rickey Dickens II, 36, of Pierson, Florida, a civilian computer systems administrator working for a private contractor in Afghanistan and Iraq, tells what it's like working in a war zone.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Working Overseas : Personal Experiences
U.S. Government Officials and DynCorp International Honor Police Trainers Injured in Iraq
Former trainers from North Carolina and South Dakota honored with Defense of Freedom Medal, Special Recognition from the Department of State and President's Valor Award from DynCorp International.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Working Overseas : Personal Experiences
A close look: Mission Impossible in Afghanistan?
Frank Ball spent 15 months in Afghanistan, overseeing a $340 million annual contract to recruit and train the country's nearly nonexistent national police force for DynCorp International with the U.S. State Department.
Thursday, November 5, 2009

Working Overseas : Personal Experiences
Hero contractor recounts fighting off Taliban
For two hours, a civilian contractor held off Taliban commandos with an AK-47, saving the lives of 24 people in a Kabul, Afghanistan, guest house. But while others are praising Chris Turner’s courage, the 62-year-old former hippie refuses to be called a hero.
Monday, November 2, 2009

Working Overseas : Personal Experiences
A civilian's battle
Severely injured as a truck driver in Iraq, Jeff Haysom struggles for worker’s compensation benefits as he fights to rebuild his life.
Monday, July 13, 2009

Working Overseas : Personal Experiences
Riding Shotgun
American combat forces may be leaving Iraq by the end of 2011 – but the army of guns for hire isn’t going anywhere. Nir Rosen spends a month inside the world of Baghdad’s private security companies.
Saturday, December 27, 2008

Working Overseas : Personal Experiences
Local lawmen training Iraqis how to police themselves
Five former North Carolina law enforcement officers are now working for a private security company advising the Iraqi Police Services, said Joe Ward, one of the men.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Working Overseas : Personal Experiences
U.S. civilian cops offer expertise to Iraq police force
Brian Acree is one of about 800 civilian police officers working under a military contract with DynCorp International. Unlike the thousands of civilian contractors who have come to Iraq to supplement the military, Acree and his colleagues don't provide security services. They're here to impart their experience in urban police work to a young and inadequately trained and equipped force.
Saturday, October 4, 2008

Working Overseas : Personal Experiences
Contractor kicks off soccer diplomacy
An American information technology contractor working in Iraq has launched a program using soccer balls to generate goodwill in the country.
Saturday, December 15, 2007

Working Overseas : Personal Experiences
A conversation with IT contractor Justin Porto in Iraq
As an information technology contractor in Iraq, Justin Porto endures ambushes and mortar attacks as he works with the country’s government to rebuild its communications and IT infrastructure. An employee of MPRI, a division of L-3 Communications Inc., the retired lieutenant colonel is about six months into a one-year stint under a State Department contract.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Working Overseas : Personal Experiences
In Afghanistan, trainer sees a different war
In early 2006, Andrew Schmidt, who grew up in southwestern Minnesota, found his police career wanting and his domestic life in turmoil. The divorced father of one desperately needed to get away and take a break somewhere. Some folks might have thought Cancun. Schmidt chose Kabul and a dusty, one-room mud-brick home routinely invaded by camel spiders.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Working Overseas : Personal Experiences
Helping establish police programs in Afghanistan
Working for Dyncorp, John Finn explained the focus of the mission is on the training of new recruits and the mentoring of a police force, whose "officers" are called "soldiers." This includes teaching leadership, staffing procedures, proper arrest procedures, self defense, hand cuffing tactics, and business operations.
Monday, August 6, 2007

Working Overseas : Personal Experiences
Mother says U.S. has forgotten contractor son held in Colombia
Overshadowed by Iraq war, the plight of the hostages — who are low-profile civilian contractors rather than active-duty military personnel — seems to be forgotten in America amid the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, which began a month after the three men were taken hostage.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Working Overseas : Personal Experiences
A contractor's story from Iraq
The reason I took this job in Iraq was denial: Look, I’m still working. I haven’t been relegated to making bird houses in the basement yet. I’ve got a job, how could I be old? Also, I needed the money. So I found perhaps the single employer who would hire a retiree my age (66) at a decent salary: KBR.
Monday, July 30, 2007

Working Overseas : Personal Experiences
Dyncorp IPLO: Vermont man talks about Iraq experience
Stuart Ashley and his fellow DynCorp employees served in Iraq as liaisons with local police departments, training Iraqi personnel in procedures and tactics. Ashley spent six months in Iraq, starting in September.
Monday, July 2, 2007

Working Overseas : Personal Experiences
Hardiman: Murtha Should Reconsider Iraq Contractor Criticism
An op-ed by Michael Hardiman, a contractor who served in Iraq, on the role of security contractors in Iraq.
Thursday, June 28, 2007

Working Overseas : Personal Experiences
Working in war zone with Dyncorp
When Rockey Kummer left his job at the Parker Police Department, he was making about $46,000 a year. For his 12-month hitch over in Afghanistan, he was paid about $130,000. The money was great, but he also wanted to help, he said.
Monday, June 4, 2007

Working Overseas : Personal Experiences
Civilian duty in Iraq filled with danger, more money
Money, intrigue and the chance to make a patriotic contribution in the "war on terrorism" is luring some El Paso police officers and emergency medical technicians into Iraq's combat zones, where they train local security forces and provide medical care to coalition contractors.
Monday, April 9, 2007

Working Overseas : Personal Experiences
Former Security Contractor Jailed Then Lauded For Speaking Out
A year ago, Donald Vance learned what its like to be falsely accused by the US military of aiding terrorists, held without charge for more than three months in a high-security prison in Iraq, and interrogated daily after sleepless nights without legal counsel or even a phone call to his family.
Friday, April 6, 2007