- Wilson Menefee's face was beaming with the broadest of
smiles. Minutes earlier he had been offered a job as a forklift operator
paying five times his current wage. The year-long contract would allow
him to pay off any debts, help out his mother and put aside some money
for his two sons.
-
- The only possible drawback was the job's location: Iraq.
-
- "I'm not bothered [by the danger] - nothing bothers
me," said Mr Menefee, grinning. "The chances of something happening
are the same here. I could step out of the door and get hit by a bus."
-
- Mr Menefee, 50, is one of hundreds of Americans eagerly
applying every week for what must be some of the most dangerous jobs in
the world - supporting US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The vast majority
of these people are not careless thrill-seekers, nor are they attracted
simply by the large wages that these jobs offer.
-
- Rather they are lured by what they and their families
could do with that money and how they could use it to clear mounting debts,
help pay for their children's education and turn their lives around. They
know the dangers that come with the prospect of making these big wages
- dozens of US-employed contractors have been killed in Iraq and two are
still missing. Yesterday, five foreign contractors, among them two private
security specialists, were killed in Iraq, where they were working on the
country's electricity infrastructure.
-
- Yet with decent jobs scarce and with unemployment in
the US - currently 5.6 per cent - at one of the highest levels in years,
every one of those applying for jobs is making a calculated gamble they
will not be among the statistics.
-
- For the vast majority, the road to Iraq starts at the
sort of recruitment fair in Houston, Texas, where Mr Menefee was provisionally
offered a position on Saturday morning.
-
- Organised by Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), a subsidiary
of the oil services giant, Halliburton, these fairs are held across America
to recruit people to support the 145,000 US troops in Iraq - cooking their
meals, doing their laundry, driving supplies and a thousand other such
jobs. KBR employs about 24,000 people in Iraq for these tasks, 11,000 of
them from the US. The majority of KBR's US recruits come from the southern
states, and the company makes a point of holding job fairs where there
is known to be large military, or former military, population. In many
cases, new recruits get just one week of training.
-
- By 8am on Saturday, 100 people, most of the them men,
some wearing suits, others in jeans and workshirts and baseball caps, had
lined up on the fourth floor of a Houston hotel and were filling in forms
and handing them to the KBR recruiters. In a nearby ballroom, stirring
music was being piped from speakers while images of KBR's tent camps in
Iraq were projected onto a large screen.
-
- "I can tell you up front this is not for everybody.
We lose between 30 and 50 per cent of the people to who we make a contingent
offer," said Chris Ward, a KBR recruiter who gave a candid, hour-long
introduction as to what any new employees could expect if selected. "How
many people have been to the Middle East? It's not like Houston. It's not
like west Texas." The heat and the dust would be their worst enemies,
Mr Ward explained, as the screen behind him showed images of snakes and
spiders, some the size of a human hand.
-
- "I have heard of 150, 155 degrees in summer [68C].
It's hot," he said. "And if there are dust storms, it's very
dusty. Everything is tanned. We have lost 39 [people], tragically. We'd
rather it was zero. Will there be more? Probably. It's a war zone."
Aside from the heat and the dust and the danger of being killed or kidnapped,
KBR employees are expected to endure an exhausting schedule, working seven
days a week for at least 12 hours a day, with time off every four months.
"We eat, we sleep and we work," he said.
-
- "That's it." Mr Ward waited until the end of
his presentation before getting to the benefits of enduring all this misery.
Over a year, depending on the position, contractors could earn up to $100,000
(£55,000), $80,000 of it tax free. KBR would also offer medical coverage,
insurance worth $25,000 and 10 days off every four months, along with $860
in travel expenses.
-
- Sitting towards the back of the audience, Robert Nowlin,
53, listened transfixed to the presentation. A carpenter by trade, he had
been working in computer sales but he was struggling to get by. "I'm
not making much money at the moment to help my family," admitted Mr
Nowlin. "This would be a great chance to start again. My wife makes
double what I do. It's difficult. Like I said there are a lot of reasons
I'd like to go [to Iraq]. I could help my daughter through college. That
was the one thing I did not plan for. She has just graduated from high
school." It was not to be Mr Nowlin's day. The recruiters did not
call his name. He left the hotel downcast, but saying he would try again.
-
- Jackie Ford fared somewhat better. The 48-year-old had
a job with a Houston company as a construction inspector but work had been
slow in recent months. He had come with his son, Michael, 26, who was also
applying for a job. The recruiters had told him to fill in some more forms,
explained Mr Ford, but before he could accept any offer he would have to
discuss the matter with his wife, Terry.
-
- "I just called her to tell her what they told me,"
he said. "She wants to know the details. She encouraged me to come
and find out. Then we will make a collective decision." And how did
Mr Ford feel about letting his son go to Iraq? "I would let him make
his own decision."
-
- Despite the obvious dangers - about which KBR was very
upfront - the company says it is having little trouble persuading people
to go. Even to those who know from experience how badly wrong things can
go, this comes as little surprise.
-
- Thomas Hamill, a farmer from Mississippi, was kidnapped
by insurgents in Iraq on 9 April while working as a truck driver. He escaped
on 2 May and was picked up by American troops. He said he would consider
returning. Speaking from his home in Macon, he said Thank you: "I'm
not surprised that [there are people] willing to go. It's just ordinary
people getting up and doing what needs to be done."
-
- >From Mr Menefee's perspective, his contract could
not start soon enough. His job as a forklift operator at a Houston factory
was paying $1,200 a month. In Iraq, the recruiters had told him, he could
be making $6,500. "I'm a non-stop machine," he said. "This
is an opportunity to do something I want to do. They could ship me out
tomorrow if they wanted to."
-
- TEMPTED BY OPPORTUNITIES IN A DANGEROUS LAND
-
- THOMAS HAMILL
-
- Mr Hamill, 43, from Macon, Mississippi, did not attend
Saturday's job fair but he is one of the KBR's most famous contractors.
-
- Mr Hamill was driving a fuel truck on 9 April when he
was captured by Iraqi insurgents who killed four of his colleagues. He
spent 23 days in captivity before he escaped and was rescued by US troops.
Every day he would recite the 23rd Psalm - "Yea, though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil."
-
- Speaking by telephone, Mr Hamill, explained that he had
gone to Iraq to try and save his family farm, which was facing bankruptcy
after three generations. "It was a chance to pay off my debts quickly,
otherwise it would have taken me years," he said. Mr Hamill, a devout
Christian, said: "I think God was preparing me for this all my life.
This was always going to happen."
-
- Though Mr Hamill spent eight months away from his family,
he said he would consider returning to Iraq if his security could be guaranteed.
"Now I think I am a marked man and I might be a risk to others. I
have not talked to KBR about it."
-
- Mr Hamill's arm was injured in the attack on his convoy
and his captors carried out rudimentary surgery on him without any anaesthetic.
-
- During his time in captivity, Mr Hamill heard a US helicopter,
prised open the door of the hut in which he was being held and ran out
waving his shirt, but American patrol did not spot him.
-
- "When I escaped that first time and had to go and
put myself back in the building... I told myself the Lord doesn't want
the soldiers or anyone else to break in and find me," he told the
Baptist Press. "He wants me ... to get out and go to them. That's
exactly what happened."
-
- Back home with his wife Kellie, Mr Hamill remains positive
about what happened. "We're just country people. I can be gone for
months and come back in and it's just like I just walked from the day before.
That's pretty much how we are."
-
- WARREN BLADES
-
- Mr Blades, 55, retired in January after a career working
for the oil giant Exxon in Louisiana. He had travelled to Texas hoping
that, with his experience, he would be snapped up by KBR. "I was looking
for something else to do," he said. Mr Blades said he was surprised
how spartan the accommodation looked on the slides KBR showed and he was
not expecting that he would have to live in a tent. Married with three
children, Mr Blades said his family had been concerned about him going
to Iraq but that he had come to find out what might be available for him.
Mr Blades was not offered a position on Saturday. "I am not sure why
my qualifications were not enough," he said.
-
- MARK EMERY
-
- Mr Emery, 34, said he would have to consider any offer
he was made by KBR. He was working for a Houston company that made filters
and said he was ready for a new challenge and the chance to make some better
money. "I am not worried about the danger. I have a friend who has
been out there and he says that if you stick on the bases, things are OK,"
he said. "I figure that maybe I could spend a year or so there. It
would be a little more money, a chance just to get a head start."
Mr Emery attended the job fair with his girlfriend, Jennifer Nigbur, 22.
But she was not delighted by the prospect of Mr Emery going to Iraq. "I've
been through this before with someone else," she said.
-
- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=531657
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