Report from Overseas:

30 Mar 08

This sage advice from a friend currently working as a contractor in the Mideast:

"Options are open to you only so long as you are alive. I know that sounds obvious, but you need to remind yourself that, when you're dead, you don't get to do anything! Where do dead people go? I really don't know. That is a curtain science cannot lift, and I frankly know nothing of that world. I do know something about this one, and I know enough to be persuaded that I want to stay in it, rotten as it is, for as long as I can!

DON'T OUT-SOURCE YOUR PERSONAL SAFETY. It's a fatal mistake! Depending upon others to keep you from getting hurt, kidnapped, or lost has been the foolish choice of many of the "frequent-deceased" over here. Just last week, several Dutch Contractors, retained to perform electronic maintenance, were kidnapped. The next day, they were all murdered, shot in the head, one-by-one. They were being "adequately protected" by local, "contract" security. Someone apparently forgot to ask for a definition of "adequate." Scant consolation!

DON'T TRUST ANYONE. When you want a faithful friend, get a dog! Don't naively expect others to care about you more than you care about yourself. You better understand that individual contractors over here are just so much cannon-fodder. With the money they're offering, they know they analways recruit more to replace dead ones. And, there is no "VA" to care for ex-contractors who find themselves blind, amputees, or saddled with a host of other permanent disabilities.

THE WORLD IS FULL OF "RULES" REGARDING PERSONAL WEAPONS. IGNORE THEM! Over here, one dare not be unarmed, at any time. You must be fully prepared to defend yourself with gunfire at every moment. There are no "safe" times, nor are there any "safe" places, not one! And, you don't get to know whom you' ll have to fight. It can be anyone, even those who are supposed to be on our "side!" I carry guns, blades, and plenty of ammunition on my person constantly, and I don't concern myself for a moment with technicallegalities, political protocols, nor company "rules."

KEEP YOUR HEAD UP! You can only deal effectively with threats that you see in time to form an effective plan of action. Amazing how many people over here, who should know better, don't pay attention. You need to bealert, without pause!

STAY IN MOTION. Keep them guessing. Don't be predictable. Don't set patterns. And, most of all, don't dither. When you're a perpetual, unpredictable, lethal whirlwind of motion, they'll never get you!

DON'T HESITATE. I don't know how else to put it, but you have to become accustomed to shooting people! You must realistically, ruthlessly seize the initiative and take decisive action against all threats, the instant they make themselves known. You need to squarely confront the reality that it really can't be any other way! We don't go around shooting everyone, but, those who threaten us with any kind of weapon are immediately engaged with gunfire. Sometimes, we're mistaken. It's a harsh world! We console ourselves with the fact that we're alive to be sorry!

GET OVER IT. The one time you're most likely to be compelled to shoot someone is the next instant after you shot the last guy! There is no time to gawk, nor congratulate yourself. When the first shots are fired, understand that the fight is probably not over. In fact, it may be just beginning!

HIT HARD. HIT FAST. HIT OFTEN. That's the advice Admiral Halseygave his commanders during WWII's Pacific Campaign. He was victorious! Wecan make short work of bad guys, only so long as we are heads-and-shoulders above them in competence. They're amateurs. We're professionals. We train constantly in order to keep it so!

YOU DON'T GET TO RELAX, NOT FOR A MOMENT, NOT EVER. This job is neither " fun," entertaining, nor relaxing! We don't party, nor get drunk, nor, for an instant, forget whom we are and what we're here to do. We are fully devoted to accomplishing our mission and getting back to the States, dying only from old age many years hence. There is no time for anything else!

It's a tough Country. Is's a tough world! I plan on living through it. Others may not."

/John