Chilling KBR video
 

could not get the video to play

That's because it is a real player video. Real player is the most evil player around it will install all sorts of spyware to your system. There are now other players that play it, but I just don't bother with them. If someone wants to release a real player video I figure that means their video stinks and they don't want anyone to watch it anyway.

yea i have herd that before about real player

we might find the video on another website with WMP
 

Until then, some explanations:

After insurgents attacked the convoy and disabled several trucks, the video showed the armored Humvee racing ahead. "They left. They, I don't know where they went, they're nowhere to be seen," Wheeler said.

Wheeler told the television network it was almost 40 minutes before U.S. troops returned. By then, Wheeler said he had seen two drivers executed by insurgents, including Dagit and Sascha Greener-Case of Sierra Vista, Ariz....

KBR officials in Houston, Texas, issued a statement which said the U.S. military has command and control of all KBR convoys in Iraq, and is required to provide security for KBR's employees through the company's contract with the Army.

"Not one of our employees leaves the United States for Iraq without thorough and repeated briefings on the dangers in Iraq," KBR's statement said.

Gloria Dagit said one of Keven Dagit's co-workers asked Army officials after her son's death why the civilian contractors had been abandoned by U.S. troops. He was told that Army tactics called for U.S. troops to leave, then regroup, and then return later with a larger force.

"By doing that, three men were killed," Gloria Dagit said.

The U.S. Army has since announced that its tactics have changed and that U.S. soldiers will stand and fight when convoys are attacked, according to the March 31, 2006, European edition of the Stars and Stripes newspaper.

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pb...awkeye_insider

This is a really weird situation we have, fighting our wars with profit earning corporations. I don't think the civilian contractors get much consideration in the news media because people think they are mercenaries...you know, in it for the profit. Of course, love of county has to be in the mix of motives for the contractors. But, there was another article somewhere about Halliburton paying dividends...It's a corporation. All this from a guy who voted twice for our President and holds him in esteem.

Mini clip not in Real Player...
 

...but it's not the same as the 14 minute version.

http://www.abc4.com/mediacenter/defa...?videoId=49567

In defense of the guardsmen, the whole story...
 

Woolwine said he made the best decision he could at the moment under fire.

“They executed those men before we could get there,” he said. “It happened so fast. We were just pinned down.”

U.S. attack helicopters arrived sometime during the chaos, forcing the insurgents to take cover as they kept assaulting the convoy.

The last four civilian trucks pushed forward, accompanied by Woolwine’s gun truck and the rear truck.

When they reached Wheeler, Woolwine and Rick Wynne, the last civilian driver, pulled Wheeler from his truck. U.S. ground reinforcements soon drove off the last of the insurgents.

The Virginia soldiers said the truckers later thanked them for their actions, so they’re furious at Wheeler for airing his complaint on national television.

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/86192

There are no dividends and I'm not sure you really want to go far with this thing-Learn the FACTS-Not repeat what you've Heard.
Curious Why are you posting this on O/O?

Read what's written, Yoopr, I never said the employees were getting dividends. Dividends, when they are paid, go to shareholders.

This is the only forum I ever look at.

Of course Large Companies who are in the Stock exchange pay Dividends (Most Do)but the way you worded it sounded like you were saying Contractors in Iraq were getting paid dividends.
By the way-The Military REALLY appreciates EVERYTHING done by KBR for what they do for THEM. I know they Really appreciated our JP8 Fuel deliveries from Base to base because without it they would get shut down or put their own people to do it and take away their ability to concentrate on the Mission at hand and the Meals furnished to them makes them the best fed US Military on record.
MRE's kinda suck day after day after day after day...................
Not trying to lessen the real effects of ambushes but it's just part of the Job that happens all the time.

It's a corporation, it exists to make a profit, it pays dividends or it retains it's earnings to reinvest them. What wasn't clear, unless someone doesn't know what dividends are, and that's not my fault?

Any politics in this was never my intention, I think that trivializes what's happened and what this man has captured on videotape. Our nation has decided to go with a smaller military and have civilians do things soldiers used to do. That's not something thrust upon us, that's the result of decisions we've made. I just think we've gone down a slippery slope when we're having combat service support done by a company established to make a profit and with employees lured, in part, by high wages. But, let me reiterate, a lenghty political debate is not the point. I thought the video was powerful, moving, and I thought some others in the profession might think so as well.

Companies have always been involved in combat zones from the Time I was in Vietnam to the Present. It's not a Recent development.

They pay good i heard, 170K+ w/o tax deductions, but even if they paid me three times that i'd turn it down in a sec....

you heard Wrong

I checked out KBR last January. The pay was about $80,000, tax free only if you stayed the entire year. I seem to remember it was very possible to earn more, they pay 'overtime', believe it or not. But, the work week was like 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, I don't remember how it is you can get in overtime with a schedule like that but you could somehow.

Yes, so, earnings isn't really a good reason to go there. It would have to be patriotism or just a wild sense of adventure. If the pay has increased dramatically I haven't heard.

I am headed over there in January as a mechanic. The workweek is 7 days a week, 12 hours a day. They pay is good. the 1st 80k is tax free, if you stay out of the USA for 330 days out of the year. There is little to spend your money on in Iraq, and room and board is paid for. Therefore, it is easy to save 90% of your pay.

The first $80,000 is Tax Free and then anything over that is Taxed at 20% and the time In Country is correct as stated above. Most take R&R's but they do NOT come back into the U.S and if they do you have to limit your time in the States.

they pay 'overtime', believe it or not

Sorry Cam-hate to bust your Bubble again but there is NO Overtime.

Again? When was the first time? You're not talking about your harsh, unjustified charge that I should get the FACTS and not repeat what I 'heard' in newspaper articles? I've already shown the problem was your command of English, not anything I wrote. :P

I believe you are wrong about the overtime as well though I can only base that upon what the recruiters told me and the fact that you've been away for awhile.

Thanks for the info, Acranger. Did you see the video of the ambush? Care to comment on your inspiration to do this? Driving looks especially dangerous compared to many other jobs they offer like cooking, and I'm guessing mechanics, anything that allows you to stay on base most of the time.

I have seen the video, its not a pretty sight. I am also a combat veteran of the Iraq war, so I know what to expect over there. As a mechanic I will be behind the wire at all times, unless I am changing locations to another post, which most times is done by helicopter. Different companies pay differently. I will be working for a base wage. 84 hours a week. I get hazard pay and other incentives on my first 40 hours. On my next 44 hours for the week I will be paid at the standard overtime rate, time and a half.

I am finishing up a 4 year enlistment in the army, and chose to get out and go contract in Iraq because it will give me the opportunity to generate a large amount of capital in a fairly short amount of time.

hhhmmm???? :P :P :P

Good. It looks crazy for the drivers. God bless you.

I'm NOT wrong-In case you didn't know I was a Tanker Driver there plus was involved with a number of ambushes-Particularily the one in '04
I Believe I DO know what i'm talking about and whatever your "Recruiter" told you is BS.