When most people think of the Bahamas, they picture luxury resorts and turquoise waters. But for U.S. contractors stationed on Andros Island, life looks a little different — quieter, tougher, and surprisingly fulfilling.

Whether you’re headed to support operations at the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC) or tapped for logistics, environmental work, or communications roles, here’s what you need to know before boots hit the island.

About a hundred yards into Iraq, we stopped to pick up weapons. A half dozen Kurds in white Citroëns met us in a trash-strewn lot just over the border from Kuwait. They were unloading the guns onto the trunk of one of their cars as we pulled up. The pile amounted to a small armory: German MP5 submachine guns, AK-47s newly liberated from the Iraqi army, 9mm Beretta pistols, and dozens of magazines of ammunition.

The Embassy compound in Beijing built-in 2008, is a safe, secure, and functional state-of-the-art facility.  The Beijing New Embassy Compound is the second largest overseas construction project in the history of the Department of State.  The multi-building complex is on a 10-acre (4-hectare) site, creating a secure and pleasant environment for approximately 950 employees. The NEC buildings represent the best in modern American architecture, while the landscape design borrows heavily from Chinese planning principles.

"There are a lot of assumptions about contractors, and a lot of the assumptions are wrong." Those are the words of a private security contractor who asked to be referred to only as "Lloyd" for this story because like most of his colleagues he is not authorized to speak to the media.

By Lloyd's count, he has spent some 1,000 days working in Afghanistan in the past four years. He, like many other well-trained military men, decided to leave 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, and in demand.

The last big plane left the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station on Feb. 14. Of the 150 scientists, technicians, and support staff, only 33 men and eight women remained for the winter: six months of darkness, no arriving supplies, average temperatures of -76F. Also: no Wi-Fi or cell phone service. At the South Pole, iPhones become expensive alarm clocks and music players. Sunrise comes on Sept. 21.

Sitting on the ice—as well as buried one mile beneath it—are telescopes and other instruments gathering data to help answer questions about the changing climate here on earth, as well as the origins of the universe. The first direct evidence of cosmic inflation—the idea that the cosmos experienced exponential growth in its first trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second—came from a telescope at the South Pole called BICEP2 (Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization.)

KBRwyle Powers Military Bases with Green Energy

KBRwyle powers military bases throughout the Middle East with solar and wind lights that protect the environment and reduce the cost of fuel and services parts.

"Based on our years of experience working in harsh environments, we were looking for ways to provide exterior lighting without the fuel and maintenance burdens of gasoline or diesel powered light sets," said Mike Flanagan, KBRwyle Vice President for the LOGCAP IV team.

By Ed O'Keefe — Interested in working for the U.S. government in Iraq? Though the dangers are obvious, the pay and perks can be pretty good.

Federal employees and contractors serving here face an almost-daily barrage of rocket attacks, the inability to travel freely, scorching hot temperatures and other cultural and linguistic limitations. But workers with the State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development and other federal agencies keep on coming, especially as the U.S. presence here becomes more of a civilian affair.

The Amundsen–Scott Station is located at the South Pole, the southernmost place on the Earth. It is the only place on the land surface of the Earth where the sun is continuously up for six months and then continued down for six months. (The only other such place is at the North Pole, on the sea ice in the middle of the Arctic Ocean.) Thus, during each year, this station experiences one extremely long "day" and one extremely long "night". 

Wes Bearden spent the last 18 months working in the Middle East as a Military Defense Contractor. After long hours providing help for American troops, he must make the adjustment to being back home.

Defense contracting has expanded dramatically over the last decade, particularly in the United States, where in the last fiscal year the Department of Defense spent nearly $316 billion on contracts. Contractors have also assumed a much larger on-the-ground presence during recent American conflicts: during the 1991 Gulf War, the ratio of uniformed military to contractors was about 50 to 1, while during the first four years of the Iraq War the U.S.

For the first time since Islamic State fighters advanced to within 25 miles of this Iraqi city last month, T Bar Sports Lounge is hopping. Jimmie Collins takes a sip of white wine and brushes back a loose strand of hair. "Can you kill the music?" she asks the bartender, who turns down the dial on the stereo and passes her a microphone.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to quiz night," Collins says to the 60 customers, mostly Americans, at the bar. "Tonight's the usual stuff. We'll have two spoken rounds and three picture rounds."

As an Army Ranger, Capt. Matthew Griffin never really believed military action in Afghanistan was a solution — a necessary heavy boot in the door, sure, but not something that would build lasting peace. After multiple deployments to that war-ravaged country, he saw plenty of death and destruction. But it was when he returned as a civilian contractor that he was blown away at how growth could come out of that mayhem.

“I was amazed at how businesses were thriving in areas that I never thought could be recovered. I came to this realization that if you can give them something worth protecting on their own, they’re going to do that.” He found himself asking: Why aren’t we doing more to promote small businesses in conflict areas?