Posts Tagged ‘Ryan Maseth’

I have been very ill for the last week, high fevers kept me to my bed.  Slowly recovering, re-gaining strength and all, will and imagination are lagging somewhat.  So, I give you a guest-blog by my son.  He was motivated to this particular little rant by a recent pair of news stories about KBR and supplying troops in Iraq.  The non-potable water they are in charge of, for instance, has been found so disgustingly polluted that even showering in it has given skin ailments and eye infections and possibly been to to blame  for at least one death.  So, why was the water SO bad?  Because the contractors had been too goddamned lazy to even UNPACK, much less use the water filtration equipment that they had been been paid to operate.  Perhaps they had better things to do that day—like drug and rape a co-worker and then lock her in a cargo container while they decided how to shut her up?

As if poisoning people in their showers with nasty water isn’t enough, now it appears at least a dozen service members, including a young man named Ryan Maseth, have been electrocuted because of electronic gadgets in said shower complexes. (http://tinyurl.com/38k8cs) Apparently, the responsible contractor couldn’t be bothered to remove or even check the electronic devices after the first electrocution.

Contractors are a growing cancer upon the military body.  The control the lives of military families, since “maintenance” of quarters is entirely out of military hands now and in the hands of civilians who act much like slum lords on every military post in the nation.  The Jester offers a brief rant, but I beg you all to consider writing to your Congressional critters—tell them the military services is capable of their own supply and maintenance.  Bring back the Quartermaster Corps….tell the bloodsuckers draining the Pentagon pockets and doing a lousy job for the money to peddle their inferior wares elseware.  The Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines deserve better than Walmart on steroids.

THE PROBLEM WITH CONTRACTORS (Pickled Jester)

Since the inception of our nation, prior even to the birth of this nation, our military has used civilian contractors. For the most part the use of independent, profit driven civilian companies to supply the essential needs of an army has been both fruitless and expensive. That dismally depressing tradition has continued for over two centuries now, with the same success rate. Even more depressing is the fact that the use of contractors by our government has increased in recent years, with disastrous effect.
When I first joined the service in April of 1997 I was in the logistics field with the Air Force. During my four years in the Air Force I saw the very beginnings of a drastic and quite unnecessary change. My chosen (not preferred mind you) career field was slowly being phased out; the absolutely indispensable services provided now were to be awarded to civilians. The logistics world wasn’t the only one affected by this change, certain aspects of military recreation were also being gutted and handed over to civilian companies.
I argued against this change from the very beginning. At least what I saw as the beginning, I’m fairly certain that the arrangement had been years in progress by the time I was privy to such information. Regardless, I argued against it to absolutely no effect what so ever. I found that the military, whichever branch you like, doesn’t listen to the people on the ground, especially when it came to nationally awarded contracts.
The effects of this transfer were relatively minor at first, serving as little more than a small inconvenience to all of us military types. We soon found that the section responsible for the issuance of personal gear was no longer in the hands of our fellow airmen. All that really meant was that no more freebies were to be forthcoming. (Beware–honesty here, did you think the Pickled One would LIE about a time-honored military tradition?) Some of you out there may think of that as a good thing being that the military could now more easily keep track of equipment and would be able to save the tax payers a little money. Perhaps so, but one of the very old benefits of military service was (and sometimes still is) the theory of ‘you scratch my back’. In other words people were willing to help people out in exchange for services offered and so forth. With the Personal Equipment section now in civilian hands we were all a little more screwed in a secluded world that already had more than its fair share of screwjobs for those of who lived there 24 hours a day. Not too mention the fact that no money was saved to our nation; the civilians simply got all the free shit that military members once were gifted. And I must tell you, those overpriced pricks did not deserve that particular benefit. Additionally, a great deal more money was spent employing a handful of civilian employees. Civilian contractors get a salary far and above what members of the military receive. Think about that the next time you are deciding who to vote for.
Now with two wars occurring in relatively the same section of the world our nation, for the first time in our history, has more civilians in a war zone than we do military members. I might be wrong, but I find issue with that. Your average military member at the pay grade of E-4 makes roughly forty thousand a year; that amount is increased when the service member is deployed to a war zone. Your average contractor on the other hand is given a minimum salary of one hundred thousand. So, your lowest paid military contractor serving in theatre makes more than double what a soldier makes. Anyone else see a problem here?
Now, as if the salary alone weren’t enough to make you stomach turn, consider the following:
1. As far back as 1783 our government saw the pitfalls of contractors; poor quality, poor service, and the innate desire of contractors to look after their profit margin first and foremost.
2. Contractors in theatre are not bound by any contract. In other words they can pack up and leave whenever the hell they want too. Every one of military members serving in theatre is held subject to long deployments and don’t go home until the military lets them. A civilian on the other hand can leave when ever and for whatever reason they like, with no penalties of any sort.
3. Our contractors in theatre at the moment are immune to any law, including our own law.
4. Contractor services are at best, poor quality. At worst they are responsible for injury and or death or U.S. military personnel and Iraqi’s, or Afghani’s as the case may be. And they are not held responsible for these damages.
So, four rather disturbing reasons argue against the use of contractors for almost any purpose. Yet our government forces them upon our military, as it has done for over two hundred years. And worse, they show no signs of ceasing this expensive habit in the foreseeable future.
The point of this little diatribe is thus: contractors’ providing services to our military is not a new thing. In some cases the use of a contractor can be of benefit to the military and to local economies. But most of the time contractors are nothing more than a blight to both military and our nation. The reason for the continued use of such a morally misguided, profit driven system is rooted in money gifted to politicians. Defense contractors donate massive sums of money to our politicians each and every year, to both the Democratic and Republican parties. These contributions keep these pathetically inept and thoroughly corrupt politicians in power so that they may ensure beyond doubt, that corporations may become successful war profiteers.