Maybe if we didn't have just as many contractors consulting for the DOD making $160k+ as we do soldiers doing the exact same job ($40k when you include deployment pay) in the larger FOBs (BAF, JAF, KAF, Kabul) then we could save billions each year at war.
We had 1800 people working on the JOC. Half were civilians. It was ridiculous. I know not every FOB had as many as we did, but BAF had over 30k people across the whole FOB. 30 thousand.
Originally Posted by lilred_robin
Another point to your statement is that civilian contractors under arms during time of war fall into a grey area of the Geneva Convention. Such civilians can be and have been executed as spies. For example, ninety-nine civilian contractors, some who helped defend against the Japanese invasion, were killed by the Japanese on Wake Island during WWII
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Wake_Island. This “grey area” is what compelled the U.S. military to put every one in a hostile zone in a uniform so that they were protected, as much as they could be, by the Geneva Convention during WWII. Engineers, stevedores, railroad construction workers, etc. were put into uniform, whereas today, many people with these unique skills are civilian contractors. Another example are today’s FOB cooks. Mostly they are civilian contractors. Notably at Corregidor and at the Battle of the Bulge, as well as in other battles, the cooks were given rifles and helped defend against enemy attacks.
On the flip side of your argument (where the government thought it was going to save money), consider:
1) contractors are technically* responsible for their own health care and insurance.
2) contractors technically* will not be entitled to VA benefits.
3) contractors technically* will not retire with a pension.
*Those statements are qualified, because the reality is that very many if not most of today's contractors are former soldiers, sailors and marines who are otherwise entitled to those benefits.