Benton man heading to Iraq as truck driver for Halliburton

[Robbien]

BENTON — Matt Tulley is a father determined to provide for his young family. That's why he is headed for Iraq next month. Tulley, 33, landed a job with Halliburton, the controversial company that Vice President Dick Cheney once headed. The process required a week of research, a marathon phone session and help from Maine's congressional delegation, particularly Sen. Susan Collins' office.

Tulley made the effort, he said, because employment opportunities for independent truck drivers like himself decrease by the day, and job losses in this country, at least in the manufacturing industry, seem to be a daily occurrence.

"There is absolutely no money over here any more, and it is sad," Tulley said. "People are losing jobs here every day."

Tulley said he is willing to risk the dangers of Iraq for a year because as a truck driver for KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton, he can earn as much as $125,000.

http://www.pressherald.com/news/state/031220halliburton.shtml

comment: the article describes the hiring process one has to go through, plus the paperwork needed and also mentions this trucker will be given WMD training. Interesting read

[benfranklin1776]

1. "In Houston, he will have training related to weapons ofmass destruction"

Interesting is right. This begs the question what exactly is the purpose of this type of training as even Mr. Kay cannot find these phantom weapons? Also he will have to take smallpox and anthrax shots and be exposed to their potential side effects. Sad that people have been forced to risk being shot at, blown up and subjected to experimental mixtures injected into their bodies and depleted uranium dust inhaled into their lungs, just so they can earn a living and feed their families.
Obviously those vaunted tax cuts haven't trickled down to him I see.

[revcarol]

2. Does he get a free Kevlar vest?

Just asking...are Haliburton people better outfitted than our troops?

[Robbien]

5. Don't know, but just read an Asia Times Book Review

called The secret world of corporate mercenaries

The review states some interesting facts:

Currently, PMC personnel are working, and dying, in places like Iraq, helping to provide security for its oil fields, provide training to the army's new Stryker brigade which has just been deployed there, and train Iraqi police and prison guards. They are recruited as operatives for the Central Intelligence Agency's paramilitary division. They are piloting drug fumigation planes in Colombia, where they have been killed and captured by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. They are training the Saudi National Guard, serving as bodyguards to interim President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, and providing security to US diplomats (where three of them, working for the firm Dyncorp, died in a bomb blast in October). They are recruited from big states like the US and Great Britain and microstates like Fiji. There are probably 10,000 to 20,000 private contractors working overseas just for the US Defense and State departments alone.

<snip>

Singer makes a number of valuable points. First, the sheer global scope and range of activity of PMC activities. As he notes they "have become active on every continent but Antarctica, including in relative backwaters and key strategic zones where the superpowers once vied for influence".

Second, they are now indispensable to Washington. The US may be the world's only military superpower, but thanks to the wave of privatization and outsourcing, which has been sweeping the US for the past 20 years, the Pentagon finds itself in the somewhat disturbing position of not being able to deploy overseas without their assistance. Much like the American Express credit card motto, the Defense Department finds it can't leave home without them. Singer notes that from 1994 to 2002, the US Defense Department entered into more than 3,000 contracts with US based firms estimated at a contract value of more than US$300 billion. The areas being outsourced are not just minor ones but include a number of areas critical to the US military's core missions.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/EL20Aa01.html

[MaineDem]

3. GH Bass, the shoe company, announced its closing yesterday

Another Maine firm moving out of state...or out of the country...taking the jobs with it. Manufacturing in this state is rapidly disappearing.

I think Tulley's approach is rather drastic but I can understand what's behind it.

[SoCalDem]

10. That sucks..Bass weejuns were the best loafers around

Now they will probably be el-cheapo shoes..:(

[NNN0LHI]

4. $125,000 to drive a truck and I bet Halliburton charges an equal...

...amount for their cut. So we are talking a quarter of a million of our tax dollars for a guy to drive a truck in Iraq. I wonder how much an Iraqi would charge to do the same job?

Don

[0007]

7. Probably a dollar three eighty and water for his camel.

[benfranklin1776]

8. Good point.

And think what the 87 billion flushed into Mr. Bushs gaping black hole of waste and cronyism created by his Iraq misadventure would have done here at home towards rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and providing employment right here to people like this truck driver and the many others similarly situated.

[NNN0LHI]

12. A top Iraqi police officer gets $240 a month, or $2880 a year

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/chitrib_ts/20031221/ts_chicagotrib/policerecruitinghobbledbyfear&cid=2027&ncid=1480

<snip>Every member of the Iraqi army now receives $60 more each month, which doubles the salary for new recruits and lifts top officers to $240 a month, said Marine Col. Allen Weh, chief of staff of the Coalition Military Assistance Transition Team.

[0007]

6. Y'mean there ain't no truck drivers in Iraq?

Are Americans Halliburton workers cleaning the johns for the soldiers also? Is the paid around 55k per year to keep the latrines clean? Plus all the toilet paper and soap they can steal.

Now I can understand why the Iraqis are pissed.

[Blue_Tires]

9. lol

Back in the 90s, i felt like the only person who didn't strike it rich through the internet boom...Now i feel I'm the only one not making an OBSCENE profit from the invasion

[pinto]

11. Halliburton will charge him $60,000 room and board...n/t

[dbt]

13. Such eloquent testimony to the bu$h recovery!

"People are losing jobs here every day." No shit, Mr. Tulley. Here's wishing you a safe journey!

:scared:
dbt

[cap]

14. so... instead of using GI's to drive trucks at $20K

we are using $120K truck drivers....

Yeah, right...