Knucklehead,

Just wanted to know if you ever made it to work with KBR? My husband is also employed with them but in Afghanistan as support for the Army. He is a Heavy Equipment Operator. The reason he ended up doing this is in support of the troops and so we would get our life back.
Due to the price of fuel, the mortgage market and construction in general he has been out of work more in the last 2 years than he had been in 15 years totalled. I am disable so I'm not able to work and help out financially any more.I am in and out of the hosital a lot lately. My husband has 30 + years in construction. He is a USMC Viet Nam Vet that still has shrapnel and then he went into the Army 82nd Airborn. In the Army he was trained as A Equipment Operator. When he got out after 10 years due to a family tragedy, he went to work as a operator in the private sector.
He heard about KBR through a friend and applied in 01/08. We had lost our home and were fixing to lose our vehicles also. This is thanks to the enconomy. All our savings have been used up trying to hold on.Without healthcare through work, there was now way we could afford my medical bills nor medicine.He doesn't see any other way for us to get another home or for him to take care of me like he thinks I should be taken care of. We have had to move in with family friends for the time being as with unemployment you can't pay for much. All our children are grown with children of their own but they also have ties with the construction or mortgage business one way or another. They are all on the borderline themselves financially.
The KBR pay is only $14.90 an hour and it is a 7 days a week job for a 78 hour work week for 4 months straight before you get time off. You do not get overtime paid as you are overseas and the same laws do not apply there as they do here. He had been making $32.00 an hour as a foreman in the private sector, but that doesn't do much good when you don't have work and the companies are closing like crazy.
I applaud any man or woman that is willing to go into any war zone in support of our troops and to better their families lives. My husband had 3 tours in Nam in the Marines and was in several conflict areas when he was in the 82 Airborn. He is no stranger to war nor unfavorable living conditions. Anyone that has negative thoughts on the Military or US citzens in these areas needs to look at it this way. If the civilan contractors weren't there in support capacity then the draft would be reactivated to fill the positions that the civilians are filling at this time. Sure the civilians go for money but how many of the ones protesting them going would be willing to work the required hours or live in the conditions that they are willing to live in for the betterment of their families futures?
Saying the children would be better off with a live father than a dead one, sure every child is better off with a live one. The only thing is just how many live deadbeat dads are there are in this country. The dads that were killed in 9/11 would probably appreciate the civilians supporting the military.
My father was a Marine Fighter Pilot in WWII, Korea and Viet Nam. My husbands father had been in the Navy during WWII and ended up with a steel plate in his head, he then joined the Air Force and gave 28 more years to that branch of the service having served in all 3 wars also. The way our fathers see what my husband is doing, as admirable for the country and for his family. We have made sure through the years to have plenty of life insurance in case something ever did happen to my husband. This was while he was working and living in the USA. We never did imagine he would ever be going into something this dangerous again. I support my husband in everything he does in life and the decision was discussed for 14 months before he applied with KBR.
Good luck to our troops and to the brave civilians that go to work in these war zones. They need all they can get.

God Bless you Knucklehead and your family.

KBRWIFE