The government decided that contractors are eligible for public honor as civilians, through awards such as the Defense of Freedom Medal. This is described as the “civilian equivalent” of a Purple Heart, as both require the recipient to have been injured or killed. But the contractor is honored as victim; not hero.
How should one recognize an act on the battlefield that gets you wounded? If you are a soldier, marine, sailor or airman the answer is easy; you get a Purple Heart. That medal, originally created by General George Washington, is awarded to U.S. soldiers wounded by the enemy in combat. It was ordered by the Continental Congress to stop giving commissions or promotions, since the Congress could not afford the extra pay these entailed, so Washington drew up orders for a Badge of Military Merit made of purple cloth. In 1782 he directed that “whenever any singularly meritorious action is performed, the author of it shall be permitted to wear on his facings, over his left breast, the figure of a heart in purple cloth or silk edged with narrow lace or binding.”
In short, Washington gave cloth because he could not give money. But if you are a private contractor and you get wounded you don’t get a Purple Heart.
You, hopefully, will get medical care and benefits which your employer is required, at least theoretically, to provide under the Defense Base Act.
To Mateo Taussig-Rubbo, a professor at the State University of New York, Buffalo Law School this raises the question as to whether they are forms of value which can be substituted one for the other.
In an essay he wrote, “Value of Valor: Money, Medals and Military Labor,” published earlier this year he explores the divide between money and medals. This raises interesting questions about motivation.
HUDAIDA, Yemen — Al Qaeda militants claimed Monday that they attacked a convoy carrying four US military advisers in Yemen, but American officials said the targets were civilian contractors.
The terror group said in a statement that jihadists opened fire Sunday on two cars carrying four American military advisers who were in Hudaida on a training mission with the Yemeni Coast Guard.
The militants “opened fire on them as they left their hotel on their way to work,” the group said, adding that the attackers were able to flee despite efforts by Yemeni security forces to cordon off the city
But US officials said the four were not Department of Defense personnel and were civilian contractors training Yemen’s coast guard.
A local security official confirmed the attack took place. One of the contractors was slightly injured.
An email from the US embassy in Sanaa said,”Reports of US military trainers in Hudaida are false.”
However, the first recipient was Nic Crouch, a private security contractor who was killed whilst working in Iraq.
His parents received the medal posthumously on his behalf last month.
The medal means the world to Nic’s parents. Awarded to their son after his death, it is official recognition for his work supporting the mission in Afghanistan. But they have had to fight for that recognition.
The Civilian Service Medal is now awarded to many outside the military who have supported the Afghan campaign. At a lavish ceremony, 110 civilians received their medal, presented by the Foreign Secretary.
A wounded Huntsville solider is on his way home from Afghanistan and you can show your support for him this week.
Sgt. Colin Erwin is with the 203rd MP Alabama Army National Guard. He was working as a contractor supporting the Army when the gym he was in took a direct hit from mortar fire.
Sgt. Erwin’s mother said her son suffered injuries to the torso and right leg.
Sgt. Erwin will arrive at Huntsville Airport Thursday at 10:30 a.m. He will be escorted home by friends, family and patriot guard riders.
Anyone interested in welcoming home this wounded warrior is asked to be at the Huntsville Airport by 10 a.m. Madison Fire, Monrovia Fire and Heritage Elementary will line the streets along the route on County Line Road to Old Railroad Bed Road. The family invites supporters to also line the route.
Shortly after President Barack Obama left Afghanistan earlier today, blasts were reported in and around Kabul. According to multiple breaking news stories, the ‘Green Village’ was one of the intended targets of the suicide bombers.
The Green Village is owned and operated by Stratex Freedom Services whose two Uzbeki principals were once former partners with John Dawkins, one of the original founders of Ultra Services of Istanbul, Turkey.
Ultra Services was the logistics firm which employed Kirk von Ackermann and Ryan Manelick in Iraq.
You can learn more about the history of John Dawkins, Ultra Services and Stratex Freedom Services in an article at ePluribus Media, just shy of 6 years to the day since it was first published.
A South African security trainer was killed by his bodyguard in Somalia’s semiautonomous region of Puntland, officials said Saturday.
Puntland’s government said in a statement Saturday that it had launched an investigation into Friday’s killing. The statement identified the man as Lodewyk Pietersen, and said he worked for Saracen International, a security firm that trains anti-piracy forces in Puntland. The statement said the South African was 55 and married with children.
South African foreign ministry spokesman Clayson Monyela said Saturday no official word has been received from consular staff handling South African interests in Somalia.
“We have not yet been alerted to such an incident,” he said.
The statement said the trainer was killed while accompanying Puntland’s maritime forces on a government-approved mission targeting pirates near Hul-Anod, a coastal area favored by pirates who use it as a base to hijack ships for ransom.
Pietersen was shot dead by his Somali bodyguard after an argument, according to a Puntland official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the matter. The official said Puntland’s security forces were hunting for the killer
Daniel Brink of South Africa was severally wounded and disabled working in Iraq. His medical care and indemnity are the also the responsibility of the US Taxpayer under the Defense Base Act only no one has the integrity to be honest about it.
After more than a decade of continuous warfare, the cost of disability compensation for wounded veterans is surging to mammoth proportions.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs expects to spend $57 billion on disability benefits next year. That’s up 25% from $46 billion this year, and nearly quadruple the $15 billion spent in 2000, before the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began.
“This is the cost of going to war,” said Larry Korb, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress who served asassistant secretary of defense during the Ronald Reagan administration. “We’ve made so much progress in medicine [that] you’re going to have a lot of people survive their injuries who didn’t in the past.”
About 4,500 U.S. troops were killed in Iraq and about 1,800 have been killed in Afghanistan. Some 633,000 veterans — one out of every four of the 2.3 million who served in Iraq and Afghanistan — have a service-connected disability, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Capt. Billy Ross Blankenship, 43, formerly of Norman, was working in Kabul as a contractor for Intelligence Software Solutions Inc. when he died April 18. His cause of death is still under investigation.
Blankenship joined the Air Force Reserve as a senior at Bethany High School. He enlisted in active duty with the Army in 1989, during which he served in Desert Storm. After four years of active duty, Blankenship served in the Oklahoma National Guard and became a commissioned officer in 2001. He was mobilized for Operation Enduring Freedom in 2003 and served until 2010.
A database analyst for the U.S. Post Office, Blankenship retained his role in the Army Reserve. He left the Postal Service last fall to undertake contract work in Afghanistan, where he continued to perform his Reserve duties.
Blankenship is survived by his wife, Melissa, and four children, as well as his parents and two siblings.
Services are 10 a.m. Saturday at Havenbrook Funeral Home in Norman.
They too are the
