The Price of Sacrifice

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.

David Isenberg at Huffington Post  May 24, 2012

Please see David’s blog  The Isenberg Institute of Strategic Satire

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.

Please read the entire post here

Ronco Consulting Corporation named in Lawsuit for EEOC Violations

Ronco Consulting was named in the Defense Base Act Class Action Lawsuit against Defense Base Act Insurance Companies and some Overseas Civilian Contractor Companies.

The EEOC granted a former Ronco Consulting Employee and American Injured War Zone Contractor the Right to Sue under the Americans with Disabilities Act after investigating the complaint.

The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities.

Even those who were disabled due to the negligence of the company in question.

Al Qaeda attack on US convoy in Yemen hit civilian contractors

AFP at New York Post  May 21, 2012

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.”

Please see the original and read more here

At Least 49 Civilian Contractor Deaths Filed on in First Quarter 2012

WE ARE THE BEST KEPT SECRET OF THE WARS

According to the Department of Labor’s Defense Base Act Claim Summary Reports there were at least 49 Civilian Contractor Deaths filed on in the first quarter of 2012.

Keep in mind that these numbers are not an accurate accounting of Contractor Casualties as many injuries and deaths are not reported as Defense Base Act Claims.  Also, many of these injuries will become deaths due to the Defense Base Act Insurance Companies denial of medical benefits.

Many foreign national and local national contractors and their families are never told that they are covered under the Defense Base Act and so not included in the count.

At least 2, 580 Defense Base Act Claims were filed during this quarter

At least  49 were death claims  

(3  reported for Iraq compare to 1 coalition death,  36 for Afghanistan compared to 97 coalition, Kuwait 2, UAE 1, Columbia 1, Nation Pending 2)

At least 1008 were for injuries requiring longer than 4 days off work

At least 196 were for injuries requiring less than 4 day off work

At least 1433 were for injuries requiring no time off of work

A total of 84, 820 Defense Base Act Claims have been filed since September 1, 2001

Contact dbacasualty@yahoo.com for questions regarding these numbers

Jim St Pierre, Former Pasco County Deputy, dies in Afghanistan

My Fox Tampa Bay  March 26, 2012

Two years ago Jim St. Pierre told his girlfriend Nancy Kleinfelder he wanted to go to work in Afghanistan.

As you can imagine, she was concerned.

“I was just worried to death that he would be in harms way,” Kleinfelder said of where St. Pierre would be spending a majority of his time.

But she also understood.

St. Pierre, a retired Pasco County sheriff’s deputy and father of three, had dedicated his life to service and training K-9s.

In Afghanistan he would be doing both.

“He wanted to help people and those were the best times,” said Kleinfelder.

Friday Kleinfelder’s fears were confirmed, St. Pierre died in Afghanistan of a heart attack at the age of 51.

“I’ll miss him,” she said. “His family will miss him terribly.”

St. Pierre worked as a contractor in Afghanistan for American K-9 Detection Services as a narcotics detection dog handler.

The company says he and his partner Jowi had found drugs on numerous occasions during their two years in the country.

St. Pierre also worked with K-9′s with the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office, but his love for dogs started long before his work as an officer.

“When we were children, going to Sunshine Elementary School he had a shepherd here,” said David McConnell.

McConnell had known St. Pierre since childhood. They grew up together.

“He was more like a brother to me, basically all my life,” McConnell said Sunday.

He adds that St. Pierre’s parents are distraught over their son’s death.

Friend and family say he’ll be sorely missed.

“A terrific guy, great sense of humor but also a great sense of duty and honor,” said McConnell. “He was serious about his work but he didn’t take himself too seriously so that made him fun to be around.”

They also hope his death reminds folks of the many contractors who have died in the war-torn country.

“I just don’t want people to forget that there are thousands of men and women just like him who are serving and we need to remember them and honor them as well,” said Kleinfelder

Please see the original and read more here

Former Navy First Class Petty Officer, Civilian Contractor Paul Terrell, Quietly Murdered in Afghanistan

Editors Note:  A murder would be covered under the DBA, a suicide would not ….

Vicki Terrell  Comment left on November 7, 2010

I know for a fact the the CID in Afghanistan do not investigate all of the cases!

My husband, Paul A. Terrell, was murdered on base at Camp Phoenix on June 17, 2010 and they are trying to say that it was a suicide. It was NOT suicide! He had only been back on base for a few hours after a 2 week vacation home.

He was retired from the US Navy and on his third tour as a civilian contractor.

His passport is still missing along with his cell phone he had just called me from.

They have given me at least 5 places where his passport is and every place they say claims to not have it.

He was hung in his shop in the early hours of June 17.

When they sent me the list of evidence from the scene, the top of the list was a cigarette butt. When I told them that my husband did NOT smoke, they said they would do DNA on the cigarette.

Now they claim that the DNA matched and when they sent his things home they DID NOT send his shaving kit (obviously where I could have gotten DNA).

They waited to send everything home until he was cremated so I could not get his DNA.

Thinking I could trust the military to due a proper investigation

I WILL eventually find out what happened and clear my husband’s name, but until then there will not be any closure for myself or our 2 granddaughters that we are raising. I have contacted 2 of his friends there only to be hung up on or ignored.

It makes me wonder if they are afraid or been ordered not to talk to me.

If anyone out there knows of someone that will investigate this, please let me know.

My husband was not depressed or unhappy. He was there to serve his country and make the money to send our girls to college. We were very happily married without problems. A few hours before he had even gone jogging and told these friends about us looking for a new home in Florida on his vacation!

I ask you…Is this a man that would have committed suicide? Absolutely not…He WAS murdered!!!

Thomas Lee Polanski, Civilian Contractor, dies in Afghanistan

 

Thomas Lee Polanski, 52, died on January 16, 2012 at FOB Lilley, Sharana, Afghanistan.

Thomas leaves behind a wife and seven children.

Insurance Companies buy Republican US Senator, among others, to Further Deny Your Rights under the DBA

S. 669: Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act Amendments of 2011

Here's Johnny !!

Johnny Isakson of Georgia has presented Bill S. 669 to the Senate which has been referred to a committee on which he sits, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, for deliberation, investigation, and revision.

TRACK THIS BILL

Bill S.669 was introduced AS IT WAS WRITTEN BY IT”S SPONSOR who is Senator Johnny Isakson, who is heavily supported by Insurance Companies and Attorneys who stand to reap ever larger profits than they already do if this bill were to become law.

Nearly every aspect of the Bill would be a huge present to the Defense Base Act Insurance business.

Johnny is looking out for the insurance companies and attorneys

This grim reaper sits on the Veterans Affairs Committee as well.

Johnny Isakson can be contacted at 202-224-3643.

1175 Peachtree St Ne
Atlanta, GA 30361
Phone : (404) 347-2202

The following is from the Johnny Isakson page at MapLight.org

Total Campaign Contributions Received by Johnny Isakson: $8,231,997

Interest	Contributions
Real Estate	$854,942
Lawyers/Law Firms	$449,582
Health Professionals	$298,416
Insurance	$251,650
Banks and Credit	$236,150
Lobbyists	$214,261
Securities & Investment	$200,500
Misc Finance	$178,075
Pharmaceuticals/Health Products	$167,500

Nation in a State: Meals ready, on America’s frontline pressure cooker

Youth from Odaipatti village in Tamil Nadu risk their lives to work as cooks in U.S. forward military bases.  It’s no cakewalk

Their pay did not include medical or life insurance, neither was there any clarity about compensation in case of death. That they could be summarily removed — sometimes with just three hours notice — in case of a health problem or vision difficulty was something the young men did not know about before taking up their jobs.

The Hindu February 16, 2012

Odaipatti may not be aware of it but the far-flung village, tucked away in the foothills of Megamalai in southwestern Tamil Nadu, has played a substantive role in subsidising U.S. war costs in Iraq and Afghanistan. For many years, this fertile village, along with neighbouring Govindanagaram, has provided an army of formally trained bakers, cooks, and other catering specialists to various U.S. military bases in active combat zones for salaries from as low as $550 to $700 a month.

Bharathkumar Sekar is only 25 years old, but he is already a two-war veteran. He served as a head baker at the U.S. Forward Operative Base Kalsu, located in Iskandariya, Iraq, and later at Kandahar in Afghanistan. The equally young B. Thangaraj managed dining halls at U.S. army camps in Kirkush, Iraq, before moving to Helmand in Afghanistan.

E. Srinivasan, K. Manikandan … the list is long. Villagers tell me that by now more than 100 youth from the two villages have worked at military camps either in Iraq or Afghanistan or both, and those with the right qualifications continue to be recruited by U.S. military contractors.

“We knew we were taking risks. There were many rocket attacks inside our army camps. At times rockets even landed on top of my kitchen, Bharathkumar said, explaining that “it was bombproof.”

Please read the entire article here

Families of dead Blackwater Contractors Settle Suit

Bill Sizemore The Virginian Pilot  January 6, 2012

Seven years after it was filed, what could have been a landmark lawsuit over battlefield accountability in an era of privatized warfare has been quietly laid to rest.

As a result, the security company formerly known as Blackwater has avoided a public examination of the bloody event that catapulted the company to worldwide attention and changed the course of the Iraq war.

The lawsuit was filed in January 2005 by the families of four Blackwater guards killed in a convoy ambush in Fallujah, Iraq, in March 2004. In what became an iconic image of the war, the four were shot and dismembered, and two of the bodies were strung from a bridge while a crowd of Iraqis cheered and chanted.

Televised images of the gruesome scene were flashed worldwide, prompting a devastating retaliatory assault on the city by U.S. forces that fanned the flames of the Iraqi insurgency.

The security company, now known as Academi, reached a confidential settlement with the families last week.

Two sources who insisted on anonymity said the company agreed to a total payout of $635,000 – a mere fraction of the legal fees in the long-running case, let alone the $30 million in claims and counterclaims at stake.

The settlement is in keeping with an aggressive makeover effort by Academi’s current owners, who bought the company from founder Erik Prince a year ago and are doing their best to distance themselves from allegations of lawless behavior at Blackwater, from the streets of Baghdad to the executive suite in Moyock, N.C.

Beyond any financial considerations, the Fallujah victims’ families never got what they always said they wanted most: an opportunity to hold the company publicly accountable for their loved ones’ deaths.

The four men – Wesley Batalona, Scott Helvenston, Michael Teague and Jerry Zovko – were traveling in two Mitsubishi SUVs, escorting a convoy of flatbed trucks to pick up kitchen equipment from a U.S. military base.

Please read the entire article here