Free Republic

Female Security Contractors There are thousands of security contractors operating in high-threat environments and within that group there are a handful of women. They sport the same body armor and equipment, have to uphold the same physical requirements and are expected, by their male peers, to do the exact same work – protect people from danger, up to and including losing their own life. On the subject of whether women should be in elite military forces, the jury is still out; however females in high-level close protection who cover a range of clients from foreign dignitaries and ambassadors to...

On November 17, 2006, in Safwan, Iraq, a previously unknown group of insurgents used a phony check point to hijack a convoy transporting material from the Crescent Security Group’s home base in Kuwait to the Iraqi interior. Five security personnel—four Americans, and one Austrian national, all employees of Crescent Security—were captured and remain as hostages. Following an initial flurry of search-and-recovery activity, Paul Reuben (Minnesota), John Young (Kansas), Jonathan Cote (Florida), Josh Munz (California), and Bert Nussbauer (Vienna, Austria) dropped off the media screen as they were abandoned to the whims of their captors. Several home-town newspapers and conservative bloggers...