MOSUL (Iraq): Ruby Pierce was packed in body armour and a Kevlar helmet, ready for the 15-minute drive from the military landing strip to her new posting at Forward Operating Base Courage.
Four blue Ford Expeditions crusted with dirt to the roofline pulled up with her escorts: 14 hard-faced soldiers of fortune in black armour. The convoy, a private security escort hired by the US military, hit the streets of Mosul at 70mph, lights flashing and a siren screaming.
In the backseat, Pierce bounced and pitched as the SUVs speeded like getaway cars in a gangster film down narrow potholed streets lined by waving children. The convoy made panic stops to negotiate turns, zigzagged through traffic and went airborne over bumps. At last, the SUVs pulled up to their destination.
The wild ride was nothing new to Pierce. The 58-year-old widowed grandmother from Virginia was reporting for her second deployment in Iraq.
Pierce, the new secretary to the commander of the US Army Corps of Engineers in the north, is one of approximately 350 American civilians working in Iraq with the corps. In a war zone with no frontline, the civilians live on 31 US bases, working, dining, socializing and bunking much as soldiers do, and exposing themselves to many of the same risks.
Like Pierce, many are fiftysomethings who have left spouses, children and grandchildren back home to fight in the war the only way they can.
They are among foreign civilians working in Iraq whose numbers are estimated to be in the thousands. Some are contractors engaged in large construction projects or consulting with the US or Iraqi government.
Others, like the 14 men in the convoy that transported Pierce, are employed by private security firms.
An additional 1,000 American civilians and 500 foreign nationals are on the staff of the US Embassy in Baghdad. Hundreds more federal agents and private security contractors are assigned there.
Generally, the civilians undergo field training before arriving to learn how to cope with the dangers of the assignment.
Two State Department employees have been killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003, along with 14 American and four Iraqi security contractors working for the embassy. Several other embassy workers have been wounded.
Aside from the dangers they face, often the work done by employees of the Army Corps of Engineers is much like what they would do back home. When these secretaries, accountants, analysts, civil engineers and administrators volunteered, most were already working for the corps, overseeing the construction of schools, bridges, police stations, clinics, water tanks and sewage plants.
The northern region headquarters at FOB Courage is in one of the many opulent palaces built by former President Saddam Hussein. It is responsible for hundreds of reconstruction projects in seven Iraqi provinces. About 40 members of its staff of 53 are civilians, said public affairs officer Claude McKinney, a retired Army officer who signed up for this war as a civilian. More than half, including McKinney, are married. Ten are women.
The reasons they volunteered vary from patriotism to extra pay, from curiosity to a taste for adventure. Typically, they sign on for six months and often extend that for a year. Overseas and war zone bonuses boost the base pay by 50 per cent for civilians employed by the corps. Yet few put money ahead of other motivations.
“I’m one of those people that will always throw up my hand and say, ‘I want to volunteer for that,’” said Pierce, who had just arrived by what convoy drivers call the steeplechase through the streets of Mosul, among the most dangerous places in Iraq.
Pierce has been with the corps for 27 years, working her way up from keypuncher to office manager for a colonel.
She did a four-month tour in Baghdad in 2004 and was back for more.
“It seems like when you volunteer one time, you just have to do that second or third tour,” she said.
A small woman with short brown hair, Pierce has a wholesome smile and a quiet manner. But having tasted action, she likes it.
“There is something that happens to you internally, I don’t know what it is,” Pierce said. “You just have to come back.”
It was hard leaving her daughter, son and three grandchildren back home in Virginia, where she enjoyed weekends watching them play soccer and field hockey, and clog dance. But they supported her, and she said she was sure her husband, if he were alive, would have approved, too.
For many, the work opens a new dimension in life.—Dawn/Los Angeles Times News Service
