The Danger Zone
This is a war where traditional military jobs, from the mess hall cooks to base guards and convoy drivers, have increasingly been shifted to the private sector. Many American generals and diplomats have private contractors for their personal bodyguards. And along with the risks have come the consequences: More civilian contractors working for American companies than American soldiers died in Afghanistan last year for the first time during the war.
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CONTRACTOR SUPPORT OF U.S. OPERATIONS IN THE USCENTCOM AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY, IRAQ, AND AFGHANISTAN
BACKGROUND: This update reports DoD contractor personnel numbers in theater and outlines DoD efforts to improve management of contractors accompanying U.S. forces. It covers DoD contractor personnel deployed in Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)), Iraq, and the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) area of responsibility (AOR).
KEY POINTS: In 1st quarter FY 2012, USCENTCOM reported approximately 152,000 contractor personnel working for the DoD in the USCENTCOM AOR. The number of contractors outside of Afghanistan and Iraq make up about 9.6% of the total contractor population in the USCENTCOM AOR. A breakdown of DoD contractor personnel is provided below:
DoD Contractor Personnel in the USCENTCOM AOR
|
Total Contractors |
U.S. Citizens |
Third Country Nationals |
Local/Host Country Nationals |
|
|
Afghanistan Only |
113,491 |
25,287 |
34,811 |
53,393 |
|
Iraq Only* |
23,886 |
11,237 |
9,445 |
3,204 |
|
Other USCENTCOM Locations |
14,618 |
6,070 |
6,995 |
1,553 |
|
USCENTCOM AOR |
151,995 |
42,594 |
51,251 |
58,150 |
* These numbers are as of December 9, 2011 and do not reflect the continued contractor drawdown in anticipation of the end of military operations in Iraq.
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Cargo gets loaded in preparation for U.S. troops to leave their base in Northern Baghdad. With just over three months until the last U.S. troops are currently due to leave Iraq, the Department of Defense is engaged in a mad dash to give away things that cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars to buy and build.
The giveaways include enormous, elaborate military bases and vast amounts of military equipment that will be turned over to the Iraqis, mostly just to save the expense of bringing it home.
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