Six-figure bonuses retain US commandos (Special Forces Drawn to Private Security)

Yahoo! News (AP) ^ | 10/11/2007 | Richard Lardner

[Pyro7480]

American Navy Seals land on the main beach in Monrovia, Liberia in this Aug. 18, 2003 file photo.The Pentagon has paid more than $100 million in bonuses to veteran Green Berets and Navy SEALs in an effort to keep top commandos from heading to the corporate world where security companies such as Blackwater USA are offering attractive salaries. The figures gathered by The Associated Press and other research done by the Defense Department indicate there has not been an extended exodus of commandos to private security companies and other businesses that value their talents. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam, File)

[jwalsh07]

Money well spent on a cadre of men whose experience is irreplaceable. God bless’em, each and every one.

[RDTF]

short lived if this continues:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1909198/posts

General Rebukes Special Operations Forces - Lawmaker requests probe of Kearney’s actions
The Washington Times ^ | Oct 10, 2007 | Sharon Behn

Posted on 10/10/2007 11:01:25 AM EDT by RDTF

A crusading three-star general has sparked outrage within the Army Special Forces and Marine Special Operations Command by publicly condemning and twice bringing legal actions against members of their forces.

None of Lt. Gen. Frank Kearney’s actions has resulted in a conviction, but they have roiled the military community, led to the resignations of several top-trained Marines, and sparked accusations of improper command influence.

Rep. Walter B. Jones, North Carolina Republican, worried about the effect on the military, has asked Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to investigate Gen. Kearney, who currently heads the Special Operations Command. The case also has attracted widespread comment in military publications and blogs.

The general’s actions “have damaged the lives of many of our special operators and deserve to be investigated,” Mr. Jones said in an Oct. 3 letter to Mr. Gates.

Col. Hans Bush, special forces public affairs officer for the Special Operations Command, said yesterday that Gen. Kearney stood “ready to support any investigation directed by the secretary of defense in this matter.”

[Mr. K]

GOOD!! I would take a good payout to go there.

Anyone know where I cam market my 20 years of computer engineering skills over there?

[George W. Bush]

Defense Secretary Robert Gates remains so concerned over the lure of high salaries in the private sector that he has directed Pentagon lawyers to explore putting no-compete clauses into contracts with security companies that would limit their recruiting abilities.

Gates still impresses. The Blackwater contracts should be altered to include no-compete clauses.

Much as with industrial concerns, they should have and enforce non-competition clauses. Blackwater should not be allowed to poach highly trained personnel who have benefited from training and experience with rare and expensive military resources.

[JDPendry]

When you reduce the size of the active force so that it doesn’t have the people needed to perform the convoy and security work type tasks it creates opportunity for contractors like Blackwater. They pay well and it’s attractive to people who do more dangerous work for much less. They’re collecting on the Democrat, downsizing the military, peace dividend }:>)— and doing a valuable service for us.

[ConservativeMind]

What a great investment!

[redgolum]

This is going to be an unpopular post. With that said, I don’t like it that we are to the point were the US military can not do its operations with out mercenaries.

For me that is the real travesty of justice. And we are now over seven years past 911.

[DieHard the Hunter]

> Gates still impresses. The Blackwater contracts should be altered to include no-compete clauses.

The US Military should instead indenture all of its warriors against a bond equalling the cost of their training. The value of the bond decreases over, say, a ten-or-fifteen year period, after which the warrior should be free to go wherever he chooses.

Why shouldn’t a warrior be able to make good money after his military career is over? It’s not like anybody gets rich being in the military.

Either that, or the military should pay their warriors a decent, competitive and market-driven salary and be done with it.

[napscoordinator]

Gates still impresses. The Blackwater contracts should be altered to include no-compete clauses.
Much as with industrial concerns, they should have and enforce non-competition clauses. Blackwater should not be allowed to poach highly trained personnel who have benefited from training and experience with rare and expensive military resources.

Please tell me you are kidding!!! Are you saying that a private company cannot come up to a military person and offer them a job six months before their contract is up? So what you are saying is that these guys MUST do 20 years? Perhaps I don’t understand what you are trying to say. These guy did their time and now have a choice to make. Either stay in or get out and make loads of money? You must be some sort of socialist or something...I don’t get it. Either that or you are against capitalism. Maybe if the military is that worried they should increase their pay to what the private sector pays. That should fix the problem right away. I am just surprised that you want more government intervention...

[Ramius]

Non-compete agreements are commonplace all over. These non-compete clauses would be with those companies that contract with the DOD. Nothing wrong with that.

That said, I think this bonus program for special operators is a great idea. They are highly valuable, and expensive to train. I’m all for paying them what they’re worth.

[Plains Drifter]

AMEN!!!

[napscoordinator]

Me too! I think for them only (and I am in too) that they should at least get six figures.

[JDPendry]

Blackwater is an American owned security company working on contract for the United States. That doesn’t quite fit the definition of a mercenary. There are civilian security contractors on every US military base in the United States because the military was downsized to the point that it can’t spare the people for those jobs just as it doesn’t have enoough to do those jobs in Iraq. Get the active strentgh back to what it was pre- Desert Storm and we can let the contractors go...

[Leisler]

The way the world is, and the way they work these guys, what you think your chances of getting a pension is? You might not think of it when you are in your twenties, but when you are working into your thirties, knowing you won’t be able to help your kids with even community collage, knowing your SF E8 pension is the same as (no offense) a supply E8 pension. Most likely you will have been wounded, bone broken here or there, and a couple of bouts or more with very interesting tropical diseases. From sleeping on dirt, out in the open and keeping up with the younger studds and officers with their ‘how to lead’ handbooks, you will be a caffeine addicted, skin cancer-ed, mal contented wreck that sees a dentist every other year. Any good stories you have, no one's going to believe them anyways, and your kids will run from the room screaming.

[JerseyHighlander]

THere is another problem here.
IF the US retains the top 2% of our military forces, Blackwater and the other contractors will go recruit from our NATO and other allies. And those NATO countries in the face of overwhelming budget problems realted to socialist spending policies, will be much more likely to never replace and retrain their own special forces, thereby increasing the US military’s needs to train and maintain elite forces in the future.

Especially true as Gordon Brown is now PM of the UK, and Howard won’t be AU prime minister much longer it looks.

[359Henrie]

I reenlisted and received a 96hr liberty.

[Ramius]

With that said, I don’t like it that we are to the point were the US military can not do its operations with out mercenaries.

I would argue with what I think is your definition of mercenaries, but that said: I think contracting is a great way for the DOD to farm out certain activities to others, leaving the armed forces to do the real work of fighting hostiles.

Of course it begins with everything from food service to logistics. There's no reason the army should have to cart another 100,000 REMF's along just to provide all the chow and mail and stock the PX. Contract it out. I think it works pretty well.

Now on to your "mercenaries"... I've got no problem with private contractors providing security services. This is a personal protection detail not unlike the Secret Service. It's actually a *very* different skill set and training plan and is quite apart from what Soldiers and Marines do, or should do. Combat troops engage in offensive operations to take and hold ground from the enemy. Hiring contractors to do *that* would make them "mercenaries" according to the definition, and that it *not* what contractors are being hired to do.

Personal protection details do not conduct offense operations. Their sole concern is to protect usually one individual VIP. The training for this is different, the tactics are different, and the operations are vastly different. IMHO the military shouldn't be bothered with these tasks. Contract it out, to the extent the VIP's are ours, and let the customers pay for their own VIP's. Done.

I think it is useful to observe that Blackwater, as one example, has never lost a person under their protection. A remarkable record to be sure, and one that speaks for itself. I won't deny that they've likely had some obnoxious cowboys in their staff from time to time. I'm sure there's some screening that might be improved. But on the whole I think it is only fair to say that they do a great job at what they do.

[JDoutrider]

A Krugerrand a day (or it’s equivalent)seems appropriate compensation for their highly regarded resumes...

[BerryDingle]

I have nothing but complete respect for SEALS and the hell they go through in training. They earn every penny they get on the battlefield and on standby.

Hillary’s recognition of former SEAL Jesse Ventura and Governer: “The circus side show is over!”