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"There are a lot of assumptions about contractors, và a lot of the assumptions are wrong." Those are the words of a private macerafilmizle.com contractor who asked to lớn be referred to only as "Lloyd" for this story, because lượt thích most of his colleagues he is not authorized khổng lồ speak khổng lồ the truyền thông media.

By Lloyd's count, he has spent some 1,000 days working in Afghanistan in the past four years. He, lượt thích many other well-trained military men, decided lớn leave sầu his position as a Navy SEAL and take his chances finding employment in one of the hot spots around the world where highly skilled contractors were well-paid, & in dem&.quý khách đang xem: Anh security chất duy nhất quả đất

Very few people outside the contracting industry really understood just what a private macerafilmizle.com contractor did before March 31, 2004. That was the day four American macerafilmizle.com contractors accompanying a shipment of kitchen equipment through Iraq were ambushed, killed, phối on fire, dragged through the streets, and hung from a bridge before a cheering crowd in the đô thị of Fallujah.quý khách đã xem: Anh security chất độc nhất quả đất

As shochồng subsided, questions arose. Who were these American men? If they weren't members of the military, what were they doing in one of the most volatile regions of Iraq?

All four men were private macerafilmizle.com contractors working for a company called Blackwater. At the time the company, like many others, was just getting on its feet as U.S. demand for macerafilmizle.com services skyrocketed. The government needed armed, well-trained macerafilmizle.com personnel in hostile territories. The new push started when the United States went to war in a CIA-led operation in Afghanischảy in 2001. e CIA's early advance teams were not fully prepared for the pace of their own success. They quickly needed makeshift facilities khổng lồ hold hostile enemy combatants và establish secure operating bases. The military wasn't yet in a position to help, so the CIA hired Blackwater.

It was a similar story when the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003. A heavy presence of diplomats and reconstruction experts working in a hostile area meant they needed lớn be protected. Blackwater won a part of the contract to provide macerafilmizle.com services in the country. But being a private macerafilmizle.com contractor was a shady business, if not in the "legal" sense, in the "keeping off the radar" sense. Many of the contracts that were granted to companies such as Blackwater included clauses that severely limited the companies' ability to lớn talk khổng lồ members of the truyền thông media. Contracting was, by the thiết kế of the U.S. government, secretive sầu.

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It was also designed to be nothing more than a cost-saving, stopgap measure. But as U.S. troops leave sầu Iraq, there is an army of contractors staying behind, and 5,000 of them will be providing macerafilmizle.com services.

A contractor's experiences often don't draw a great giảm giá of attention, unless someone is kidnapped, or has done something wrong. As Congress began khổng lồ investigate the government's use of contractors several years ago, the issues that drew the most attention were the laông xã of clear rules governing contractors, & just how much money they were being paid. While it's true that money has always been a big draw, there are other parts of the job và lifestyle that rarely get reported.

"I rethành viên when I got out of the military and took my first job with Blackwater," says Lloyd, "I thought I was going lớn be a millionaire, but after working five sầu years in contracting, I can tell you I was chasing a carrot the whole time."

"Layoffs & breaks between deployments have sầu all affected my financial progress," says Lloyd. "It's two steps forward & one step back." He has a wife back trang chính who is awaiting the birth of the couple's first child và says he worries because he has no pension. He reports that he has $30,000 in a 401(k) và another $15,000 in A Roth IRA. It's nowhere near the million he thought he would earn.

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Another contractor, who worked for two of the larger private macerafilmizle.com companies before finding an office job bachồng home page, says it was a sense of duty after 9/11 that prompted hyên to lớn leave sầu his job as a SWAT team officer & go overseas. But the money wasn't bad, either.

"I got in so early that when I got inkhổng lồ it the money was good," says Carter, who doesn't want lớn use his real name out of fear that he will have sầu trouble getting hired for another contract if anyone knows he's spoken with CNN. "We were making $700 – $750 a day regardless of the contract. Some paid higher, some paid lower, but over time the company started paying less. They diluted the pool of skills. They lowered the qualifications 'cause they needed people. Six hundred dollars a day - pay dramatically dropped, then new companies came in - $500 day & it went from there."

Was it worth the money? "I had spent five sầu months not eating, not sleeping, because you'd have sầu death missions, seeing people get blown up all around me, going on dangerous missions where I could have died," says Carter. "I had so many cđại bại calls when we should have sầu been killed, dozens of times. Small arms fire, some RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades), some grenade attacks on the vehicles. It didn't happen daily, but it was dangerous."

"I have sầu even had people tell me that I'm not like they are, because I'm a contractor," said Lloyd. "As if a rocket attaông xã isn't just as stressful for me as it is for them, because I make "so much money."" As if (post-traumatic căng thẳng disorder) is only for soldiers và combat veterans, because I make so much money that I have nothing to lớn be stressed about."

Like many private macerafilmizle.com contractors working in Iraq & Afghanistung, Carter moved between contracts, sometimes working on CIA tasks và sometimes on DEA contracts. For a while, he provided base macerafilmizle.com at one of the most sensitive CIA bases in the region. On other contracts, he often had lớn accompany reconstruction officials khổng lồ meetings with Iraqi counterparts.

Carter recalls one night where he believed that there was a good chance that he wouldn't go trang chính to his wife again.

"Here I am sweating bullets because I know the next day I have sầu khổng lồ take someone khổng lồ a dangerous neighborhood, và it's me & another guy protecting someone & I'm scared to lớn death."

"I had no benefits, no veterans services, no college fund, no disability insurance. There were some limited benefits from the company, but we got no veteran's credit. That was a big downside. We were getting murdered on medical insurance. Couldn't get any life insurance baông chồng then," recalls Carter.

"I didn't bring home page one skill I could use," says Carter, who has been trang chính for three years now but is thinking seriously about going bachồng.

"I still stay in touch with all of my friends who are deployed. Every day they are a part of something that matters. Every day, I sit behind a desk và do nothing. I used khổng lồ be working along the border between Pakischảy and Afghanistung doing operations that the military wouldn't do - & now I come home và I have to answer khổng lồ some boob about what I'm doing. It's such an emotional and mental letdown. I'm literally rotting," says Carter.

But if he went bachồng now, depending on where he went, there could be even more dangers. The U.S. is still negotiating with the Iraqi government about whether U.S. contractors will be granted any diplomatic protections under Iraqi law. It's been a point of contention since Blackwater guards shot và killed 17 Iraqis in a Baghdad traffic circle in 2007. Given the unwelcoming position of the Iraqi government toward U.S. contractors in light of that shooting, it's another risk worth weighing before packing the duffel bag.