Home > Halliburton (KBR) workers in Iraq paid 50 cents an hour

Halliburton (KBR) workers in Iraq paid 50 cents an hour

by Open-Publishing - Friday 2 December 2005
36 comments

Edito Un/Employment International USA

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 (UPI) — While the United States spends billions on troop support in Iraq, the people serving the meals, scooping the ice cream, and washing the dishes make as little as 50 cents an hour.

The U.S. military has paid Halliburton subsidiary KBR about $12 billion so far for so-called logistics support to U.S. military personnel in Iraq, the largest contract of its kind ever. Around 80,000 troops are served meals at dining facilities every day under the contract — the other 60,000 or so fend for themselves in field kitchens or by eating military issue "Meals Ready to Eat."

KBR in turn hires that work out entirely to subcontractors whose job it is to recruit, transport, house, feed and pay "third-country" nationals to stock, prepare, serve and clean up at the dining facilities at 43 bases across Iraq.

Those workers are recruited from countries with already low wages, where jobs are scarce. And as pressure to keep the logistics contract cost down has increased, subcontractors have moved from country to country in search of cheaper labor markets.

That is what brought around 770 workers from Sierra Leone, Africa, to Iraq in July to work for ESS Support Services Worldwide, A British-based food service company specializing, according to its Web site, in "remote site, defense and off-shore locations."

Most of the workers are deemed unskilled and work seven days a week for 12 hours a day, according to their contracts, one of which was obtained by United Press International. In practice, workers said in interviews, most only work six days a week.

There is no provision for sick leave. Any employee who threatens a strike or attempts to organize is subject to immediate dismissal and the employee required to pay for his return plane ticket.

For this they are paid $150 a month, roughly 45 cents an hour.

Salaries are deposited in bank accounts in Africa so the money is available to the workers’ families.

The workers also get a $40 a month cash allowance on top of that, but the contract states the money is a gift, and the amount discretionary and may be eliminated. Their housing — three to a standard size trailer — laundry, food and uniforms are provided free.

Employees are prohibited from discussing the contract and "ESS internal issues or complaints" with anyone outside the company, including the military and media. A copy of the contract was provided to UPI by an ESS employee via e-mail, with the assistance of a U.S. military officer. The worker quit Iraq and has now returned to Sierra Leone.

Neither the U.S. military nor prime contractor KBR sets a minimum wage standard for workers employed by any sub-contractor under the Logistics Civilian Augmentation Program — known as LOGCAP. Jana Weston, the deputy program director of LOGCAP, told UPI in September she was unaware that some workers were being paid $150 a month.

"KBR’s subcontractors are required to comply with all applicable labor laws and provisions in the country in which they work. KBR’s non-U.S. subcontractors operate within industries and geographic regions that are highly competitive in regard to recruiting and retaining employees. As such, the subcontractors are driven to pay market wages and benefits," said Melissa Norcross, a spokeswoman for Halliburton in Houston, Texas.

The dining services subcontracts, like LOGCAP overall, are cost-plus arrangements, meaning the contractor is reimbursed for its costs and then paid a percentage on top of that for profit.

As a result, the sub-contractors’ costs are closely guarded propriety information and no details of wages and contract arrangements for other LOGCAP sub-contractors could be obtained to compare them to those paid by ESS.

Previous to the Sierra Leone contract, ESS employed workers from Sri Lanka who were paid about $400 a month for the same work, according to a U.S. military officer who oversees the logistics contract at one of the bases where ESS provides dining services.

Paul Kelly, ESS group corporate affairs director, acknowledged previous workers were paid more in an interview in October with UPI. He tagged the higher wages to less competition for the LOGCAP subcontract. When more companies entered the fray, ESS found cheaper labor to improve its pricing to the government.

"Initially wage rates were higher because there were fewer companies bidding (on the subcontract)," said Kelly, declining to confirm the old wage. "As more companies competed for contracts — labor is one of those areas companies have been targeting" to drive down the bids.

The switch to cheaper labor came as Gen. George Casey, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, launched an effort to drive down the costs of LOGCAP.

"Increasing expenditures in theater ... jeopardize our ability to maintain public support as the costs associated with our operations continue to rise," he wrote in a memo issued to commanders this summer, and exclusively reported by UPI. "Our spending in theater not only affects us directly, it has a ripple effect throughout all of the services."

"When we started there were a handful of companies competing. Now there are probably 20 or 30, which does drive price down, and of course that’s what LOGCAP wants," said Kelly.

Kelly said the monthly wage offered to the Sierra Leoneans is far higher than what they would earn at home. According to the Sierra Leone worker, some 7,000 candidates showed up to apply for the 750 jobs ESS offered in June 2005.

"The important thing to bear in mind here is that it is a little bit too simplistic to compare pay scales as we might look at them from a U.S. or U.K. perspective," Kelly said. "You have to look at job type and how does this compare with what an employee would earn it in its own country."

"What we don’t do is pay them less than what they earn in their own country," Kelly said. "We take employee welfare very seriously."

Sierra Leone is an extremely poor country, with a market-based economy and a per capita income of less than $100 per year. For the last decade a violent insurgency has destroyed the local economy. The government approved a minimum wage of about $4 a week for a 40-hour work week, according to the State Department’s 2004 human rights report.

Kelly added that even mid-level government officials in the country earn only about $40 a month, although that would be a for a 40 hour week.

Kelly said, however, that ESS’ recruiting of workers in Sierra Leone does not only have to do with competition under LOGCAP and low labor costs. Geo-politics has played a role as well.

"The catalyst for having to go to Sierra Leone to recruit in the first was that the respective governments of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the Philippines have all put an official ban on their nationals working or traveling in Iraq," states an e-mail sent to Kelly from the Sierra Leone recruiter.

According to Kelly, the Iraq LOGCAP subcontract is not profitable enough to warrant the risk and difficulty of fulfilling it, especially given the fact the company must insure its workers in a very hazardous war zone.

"We’ve already flagged that we are very heavily scaling down our presence in the Middle East simply because the margin we can earn does not justify the logistical complexities and the risk," Kelly said. "The question is do you want to put employees into a position where it’s still very dangerous out there and logistically very complicated?"

Acknowledging the Sierra Leonean workers agreed to work for the advertised pay, military personnel interviewed in Iraq still expressed surprise and discomfort at the wages paid to those feeding and cleaning up after them every day, with whom many say they are quite friendly. Two Army officers alerted UPI to the issue and arranged the first meeting with the Sierra Leone worker.

Workers’ living conditions on bases with dining facilities in Iraq are inherently hazardous, owing to the violent insurgency, but materially good — most have hot showers, electricity and air-conditioned sleeping quarters.

http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerroris...

Forum posts

  • The oil for food scandal was only a distraction to keep the public away what’s really happen. Iraqi people get nothing and on top they are fooled by greedy American companies.

    • Pay attention to what’s been written, you tool.

      They’re non-Iraqi’s.

      Once again a person trying to drive their mouth whilst their brain is still in neutral.

      The Iraqi security guys I work with get paid approximately US$500 a month.

      The average daily wage for Iraqi’s is US$6 a day.

      What you should have said is that the greedy American companies are paying foreign workers less than Iraqi’s.

    • Good comment-KBR calls the people they exploit "third world nationals". That’s also why KRB is hoping for less restrictions on illegal immigrants here in the states-they wish to exploit them too.

      KBR should be fined heavily to pay the taxpayers back for the rip-off-Cheney and Bush should have their personal assets conficscated to pay for the war on Iraq and to restore what they have ordered destroyed there.

      The war is illegal, and so it everything associated with it-including KBR’s unbid 5 year contracts!

    • *looking at the news this week , you wonder why do the bushites call it "free press" when just as they did here in the states with bought-off journalists like sex escort jeff gannon and sellout armstrong williams , they obviously paid iraqi "reporters" to write propaganda articles clearly slanted in the bushites favor—if it is ’free press’ , why do the bushies insist on always paying for it ?

      to that travesty of blatant hypocrisy add the fact that halliburton is making a fortune ($12 billion in usa taxpayer dollars already ?) subcontracting the job of feeding and cleaning up after usa troops to a company that imported africans from sierra leone to iraq to work for 45 cents per hour ,12 hour shifts , six to seven days a week .

      a capitalist ’globalist’ formula in its purest form :

      a. secretly promote civil wars (ethnic conflicts ) in africa to drive down the price of raw minerals , like diamonds for instance (back in the 1500s it was slaves—war captives—sold to be field hands—stolen labor on stolen lands— instead of today’s diamonds )

      b. as the africans slaughter each other and their nations degenerate into chaos you sit back and from your cold war era of obsolete weapons stockpiles ,sell arms and set up ’private companies’ to rent military expertise to the rebels AND at the same time to the african government they are fighting against , while publicly condemning the violence you are constantly feeding from both sides—violence that would itself most likely subside without your continuous supply of weapons and ’experts’ in "organization" , psychological warfare , logistics and ’training’ .

      c. when both sides are exhausted and finally the fighting dies down , but the ethnic hatreds that you helped stir up, live on as a permanent barrier to national unity in the regions of africa—use the economic desperation of these same africans and hire them on as the cheapest labor—illegal mexicans in the usa won’t even work for 45 cents an hour—inmates in usa prisons can make that much

      d. put these desperate africans to work feeding and cleaning up after your troops in iraq as you try to crush an insurgency that stubbornly refuses to capitulate to the fact that you want their oil and you want control of their land and are willing to kill , spread lies and terror—spread depleted uranium dust , drop white phosporous and other chemical agents on civilians and exploit old ethnic hatreds while arming and training local militias in order to accomplish your goals .

      e. like the old "triangular atlantic slave trade" that promoted wars , an arms race and three centuries of catastrophe in africa , while providing western capitalism with the slaves and the cheap labor capitalism needs to maintain its consistent rate of profits , the corporations make big money at every corner of the triangle—the more things change— the more they resemble elements of the past—elements surprisingly similar to those that created this american ’empire’— with stolen labor on stolen , bloodsoaked land

      each human life is only made up of so much time and the resulting physical energy that each human body can generate . as we reach adulthood , each human becomes distinctly more aware of this fact of human physiology .

      remember that people do not willingly undervalue their precious time or their physical energy ---labor is ’cheap’ only to the degree that it is also desperate— why are so many people KEPT desperate ? ...so they will work 6 days a week , 12 hour shifts for 50 cents an hour ---d sekou

      http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/01/politics/01propaganda.html?hp&ex=1133499600&en =3af8aaf9fa1cb0bc&ei=5094&partner=homepage

      December 1, 2005
      U.S. Is Said to Pay to Plant Articles in Iraq Papers
      By JEFF GERTH and SCOTT SHANE

      WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 - Titled "The Sands Are Blowing Toward a Democratic Iraq," an article written this week for publication in the Iraqi press was scornful of outsiders’ pessimism about the country’s future.

      "Western press and frequently those self-styled ’objective’ observers of Iraq are often critics of how we, the people of Iraq, are proceeding down the path in determining what is best for our nation," the article began. Quoting the Prophet Muhammad, it pleaded for unity and nonviolence.

      But far from being the heartfelt opinion of an Iraqi writer, as its language implied, the article was prepared by the United States military as part of a multimillion-dollar covert campaign to plant paid propaganda in the Iraqi news media and pay friendly Iraqi journalists monthly stipends, military contractors and officials said.

      The article was one of several in a storyboard, the military’s term for a list of articles, that was delivered Tuesday to the Lincoln Group, a Washington-based public relations firm paid by the Pentagon, documents from the Pentagon show. The contractor’s job is to translate the articles into Arabic and submit them to Iraqi newspapers or advertising agencies without revealing the Pentagon’s role. Documents show that the intended target of the article on a democratic Iraq was Azzaman, a leading independent newspaper, but it is not known whether it was published there or anywhere else.

      Even as the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development pay contractors millions of dollars to help train journalists and promote a professional and independent Iraqi media, the Pentagon is paying millions more to the Lincoln Group for work that appears to violate fundamental principles of Western journalism.

    • Five-year contract? I work for the command that awarded LOGCAP, and it’s a ten-year contract - one base year and NINE option years!

    • The option years are based off of contractor ratings (scores) they recieve in quarterly evaulations from the customer (US Governement) and the client (DCMA)... how can you whine about KBR still being on the contract when they have never recieved negative ratings from the various commands they have supported? If the US military could house, feed, re-supply and provide their own logisitical support on everything from water to fuel then KBR wouldn’t be needed... now would they?

    • Alrighty...... First of all they aren’t called third world nationals idiot.... they are called Third country nationals..... this statement is self explaining to someone with a brain.... but because you have proven you don’t have one i will break it down..... we are Americans.... we are in Iraq..... we hire someone from sierra Leone.... hence they are not Iraqi or American.... that makes them what?? bingo a third country national or TCN.....

    • I wish to seize the opportunity of introduce myself to you. I am a nation of Sierra Leone. we need the kbr company to come back on line for we the poor Sierra Leonean to get job in Iraq and counties. Please left the band that you put in Sierra Leone. and we the youth of Sierra Leone we are on it so that our Government will left the band soon very soon.

    • You are garbage. There is no way the service should cost 12 billion. I was there for more than a year and I know exactly how KBR works. At first they will put a few craftsman on a base thats fine. Then they will start piling on overhead. This is were kbr makes a freakin killing. The titles for some of these over head employees are as follows: logistics coordinator, material control, property, ( you should be able to combine all three especially on small bases) Hasmat ( We had three has mat guys on our base and they admitted to me that they weren’t even turned on to do anything in Iraq yet they were being paid 70,000 tax free to stand around) D-fac admin, opts 1, 2, 3, ( on a small base the size of the one I was on two would have worked just fine) , security ( we were surrounded by 800 to 1000 Marines why in the hell do I need to fat lazy security guys who aren’t even allowed to carry guns?), Vector control ( This guy puts rat traps out! Give me a freakin break anybody can set a rat trap and fly paper yet the American tax payers are paying this clown 70, 000 tax free) MWR girls and guys ( Mental well fare and recreation, these guys set up ping pong tables and make coffee for the troops and play video games with them. The MWR building probably measured 100ft by 50ft yet KBR managed to pile in 6 American KBR people all of which need there own personal computer of course) HR (feel good specialist, did almost nothing ), On some of the bigger bases KBR employees people just to wash there trucks ( yeah an American sits there for 12 hours a day and waits for people to come by so he can have his Indians wash there vehicles he writes down your name and mileage and sits back down and he to makes 70,000 tax free), Then there is the guy that passes out ice yep you guessed it 70000. I could fill up this page with all the bullshit jobs KBR charges the military/taxpayer for. There is a question I have that nobody in the 4 years since I left has been able to answer " if KBR is paying these parasites 70,000 a year. Then how much profit is KBR making off of them?" By the way I am a Master Electrician and was the only electrician on my base for approx 5 months!!!!! I worked my ass off for the military and even got an award letter from a Colonel for putting out an electrical fire and restoring power to half the base. It took me 30 straight working hours to complete. When I came out of that hole I was covered in carbon dust but when the generators started and the ac units came on all the surrounding military cheered me. That is why I stayed for as long as I did, but seeing the waste of KBR after 14 months finally took its toll. I survived countless Mortar and rocket attacks along with bullets wizzing around my head but that didn’t bother me nearly as much as KBR. My name is Mark Hanks and my phone number is 713-493-5174. If you have any problems with anything I have written here please call me and I will discuss these issues with you. I challenge you to do so.

    • why iraqi workers at KBR get too small salary ;
      I am work in KBR since 4 years now Iget 1.80$ per hr.

  • My question is what pay grade used to calculate the bid estimate that our government signed off on. I hasten to guess that the pay scale used for bid estimates are probably much higher... probably 1000% more than actual amount paid. That would mean that subcontractors and KBR are just making killing on this cash. Say if the the estimate called for $4 per hour per employee, with a 50 cent wage, that would mean a $3.50 per hour would be absorbed by the subcontractors and contractors as pure 700% profit.

    • They’re using the Barbara Bush approach: the Third Country Nationals (TCNs) are getting housing and food in addition to their hourly wage, which increases their total compensation. "After all, they were underprivileged before, so this is actually working quite well for them."

    • Um... maybe you didn’t read the part where it said that the contract was a cost-plus arangement. What this means is that KBR is paid the same % no matter what they bill the government. I bet you can’t guess what that % is? It’s 1%... Much MUCH less than you could make by going to your local credit union and pulling out a CD.

      So, if the subcontractor is making $.50 an hour they make $.005 if they make $4.00 then they make $.04 The only difference is that in the current case the US government and taxpayers are paying 700% less to feed our soldiers and the people serving them are making 18x the standard annual salary in their country. Read the article.

      Oh yeah, and about the 7 days a week 12 hours a day, that’s exactly what US citizens are working over there. Before you scream about profiteering maybe you should talk to some of those people working 90+ hour weeks 3000 miles from home without their friends, families, or a private bathroom and you would discover by and large they’ve there for an opportunity none of them could have dreamed of, sending their kids to college, getting out of debt, helping the sons and daughters in our military, and being more lonely than you could imagine.

    • The trouble is that the subcotractor companies to KBR are being paid one-half of an Amercian worker’s pay (in the area of $20 per hour), but they only pay their employees the $0.50 per hour. That is the exploitation, and KBR executives are aware of this. Someone in KBR is getting some profitable kick-backs for these "sub contracts" that they are being paid for American worker jobs and then sub-let out.

    • Idiot!!! What part of cost plus don’t you get? The company only gets reimbursed for what it spends on labor, material, equipment and consumables. There is no 750% profit on labor.... spend a dollar, get a dollar back.... that is the cost side. The plus side comes into play at the AFEB.

  • Those that you call Third Country Nationals are in fact Sub Contractor Workers (Scw’s) you should be better informed, but you have the balls to write something like this without knowing the real facts. I am a Third Country National, what does that means? That I was hired from a foreign country, yes as you said and we are being paid the same amount of money that any other American is being paid here. Now KBR hires companies to fulfill the labor, cleaning and laundry operations, but KBR does not set the quantities that the workers of this companies should get, that is the Sub Contractor’s responsibility, they decide how much they pay and from where they hire the people. The same happens with Dfac (dining facilities). I hope this illustrate you a little bit more on the proper terms to be used.

    • Relax buddy. Terminology is rarley important except to obscure. You say that you are a ’third country national’ so I would try to remind you that you are dealing, for the most part, with americans. These are people who are buried under false and twisted perception so deeply that when one attempts to turn on such subversion of actuality, to see with clarity, the ability to do so is almost completely atrophied. Take so patience, they are trying, perhaps your difference of perspective can be used to help this proccess in a more constructive way than critiscism and an insistence on meaningless (and therefor damaging) terms or propriety.

      peace, love, determination

    • In actuality, it doesn’t matter, when you work for "KBR" in Iraq, whether you are American, TCN (Third Country National) or SCW (Sub Contract Worker) you are denied as being an employee of KBR when it is to their advantage. The Americans, although "trained" in Houston, Texas and required to use "Halliburton" or "KBR" branding, are actually sub contract workers, wtih their payrolls coming from Subcontract companies called Service Empolyees International, that are in actuality based in Uzbekistan or Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. KBR employees do not work for KBR, so KBR has no responsibility for benefits, nor social security taxes nor with-holding for income taxes. Even though you are an American worker, supposedly working for an Amercian company, they will deny it through their obfuscative layers of distancing and subcontracting processes. KBR and Halliburton executives are worse than ENRON. They have the highest executives of the federal government protecting them. They cheat and lie to the taxpayers and their own employees. - Been there - done that - and got the T-Shirt: Operation Iraqi Freedom, ex KBR worker

  • What nobody is asking Bush is how the Quartermaster Corps got the door slammed in their face in favor of corrupt corporations. During all the 4 years of WWII when I served in Europe we never went hungry, even in the face of many thousands of Nazi troops and tanks. Sometimes the meals were not courment, K-rations, C-rations, etc. but even in the trenches and foxholes the Quartermaster corps fed us. HOw in H... did the President privatize a very fine system and replace it with corrupt, crooked, people who exploit menial help, but take off with large amounts of cash that "get lost". How come Bush has never ordered an investigation of Millennium? Did it have anything to do with Dick Cheney who was once CEO of Millennium. And how did they get in the act without usual stiff government contracts?
    The answer is obvious: Bush and his thugs are corrupt and want to share the loot with their buddies. Not a single Republican Senator has asked for a rigorous investigation as the corporations fill their campaign budgets with tons of money. The neo-cons feel no shame as they are getting wealth from corruption and are delighted to let the war continue as long as the money flows into their pockets. The values of our democracy are being eaten away by thugs, thieves, scam artists and no one seems to be doing much about it.

    • It all has to do with PRIVATIZATION, troop. It’s the Republican form of pillage. Mark my words, we’ll wake up one day to find out that the running of the government has been contracted out to a private firm.

    • The WWII vet makes a point. However in WWII, we had the draft and an almost endless supply of support troops. In today’s military, the troops fight and the contractors support the troops. It’s that way in all of the services on every base. In an all volunteer force, do you think that the smart recruit will sign up for three years knowing that 18 months will be spent on KP and guard duty?

      If we go back to the draft, we can reduce the wages and bonses paid to the troops and then the Military could afford to have it’s own Qmaster again. Personally, I think we are better off with the all volunteer / contractor approach.

      Retired Navy Commander ...

    • I would expect that a "retired Navy Commander" would know that there was no draft during WWII.
      If the problem is getting people to sign up for KP duty then we should increase their military pay to do KP duty, it will still cost less than $12 billion.

    • Clinton did it you moron... he cut the military by 250,000 troops in the early 90’s... it wasn’t the trigger pullers that got cut... it was the logistical support elements. Bush was still the Governor of Texas when this went down...

    • Where did you get the draft for WWII? Are you sure you didn’t get the top of your head blown off in the nam? 12 billion dollars over the span that KBR has been in theater is absurd. Upper Echelons are making huge profits no matter which shell you try and stick the little red ball under.

  • America is creating its own ARMAGEDDON.
    Big dik is the one worth .50 cents per hour.

  • KBR is part of the skull and bones club..These boys take great pride in taking all they can grab...Power,money and oil are the gods of these lost souls..Let them take all they want...One day like the rest of us mortals,they will draw their last breath and be be faced with the greatest judge of all...Let see what their money buys then....

    • And what if there will not be a judge or if that judge already belongs to the skull and bones club? It’s easier to accept and preach a philosophy of justice after death than to do anything about the problems in the present.

  • I was there, KBR is ripping us off. the military paid $10 a meal three times a day. and all we usually got was a cold hot dog and condiments that were there for the week until we used them all up.
    We finally got ambassador bremmer involved and they started heating the stuff up and giving us some variety.

  • you guys are full of shit, i work for halliburton and your all liars, your mad because we are big and you are a small company, and your poor so come apply

    • hi i have nothing to do with all of the before mentioned i am just looking into KBR jobs
      could you give a ball park idea how much KBR would pay an electrician to work in afghanastan ????

  • how much does KBR pay its american workers in iraq? we make $6500.usd per month to watch the local nationals do the work. if you are a foreman you make $7400.usd per month to tell your guys to watch the local nationals work.

    • to KBR Human Resources Jan06.2007
      From:David B.Garcia Jr
      Applicant for United states
      as HVAC-Mechanics

      Sir,
      I had Recently sent My CV.thru Enternet
      and i just want to know if your office recieved it or not
      im very interested outmost desired to know the result
      if i have a change to be one of your Qualified applicant
      i had also applied in one of your project in Iraq
      a months ago but no responce at all.hoping for your
      responce on this matter.and happy new year to all
      KBR staff.hoping for your soonest reply.and hope to hear from your soon

      Respectfully yours
      David B. Garcia Jr.

    • I’m from Kosovo I believe you are aware that the recruiter are here in Kosovo.My proffesion is mechanic I have experience over 15 years I own my on garage.So mr.David I’m interested indeed to get a job in you company as a mechanic I believe I would be an asset field with the opportunity to advance my experience and job perfomance

    • how long does it take for kbr to respond back once you have filled out the paper work? money is good!!!!

  • 6B Mill Street
    Freetown
    Sierra Leone
    Dear, Sir/Madam,

    That Australia is internationally known for her high career standards and the ability to build ones career, is unquestionable. My desire for a solid career build up is the driving/Auto-Mechanic force behind my quest to work and live in Australia,

    Faithfully yours,

    Mohamed S Kamara

  • My son an American was cajoled w/stories of decent living conditions and a 7 day a week job,paying very well. He was groomed for months and believed his recruiter was his friend and mentor. He got there and after being promised at least a small 2 person trailer,sharing a bathroom,he was put in more or less a box. He was driven 1/2 hour each day to and from his 12 hour shift,wearing his bullet proof vest and helmet,that he was given first day there,to ride around the corner,which it was. There are no bathroom facilities available except some sort of latrine very far from the BOX. He had to walk 2 miles the other evening to get to BOX. He was to live on a military Base,but was stuffed in w/only other kbr workers....far off base. He was to spend one month in Dubai,being trained. He got there about 7 p.m.,laid down about 11:00 p.m,and received a phone call to b ready to leave at approx. 1 a.m. This is after the plans due to the UPS incident last week to go to UK,then on to Amsterdam,and on to Baghdad. It’s called.you messed w/my child!!! I am allowed to pray for your collapse,and their is a God,no matter what he is called around the World...thanks for the fact that,a good kid like him,will probably never trust anyone! P.S. He never thought this would be a vacation in anyway,just a job....something he could not find,here in America.