First I know I am in the completely wrong part of the forum. If a moderator can move it, that would be great.
I have been out of the Marine Corps for 3 years now (infantryman,2 deployments to fallujah, the city not the nice base, Tons of convoy operation,dismounted patrol,cordon search) and the world has not been to great to me. I have attended school, moved to a different state and still unable to find a good job, so at this point I want to go back. I have always wanted to do contracting but tried the outside for a while. Now to the main point I know that is a lot of guys that do contracting on forum and I wanted to know if someone could point me in the right direction.
Contracting in warzones is pretty broad… I assume you mean “security” but there’s a civilian job in IQ/AFG for just about everything. What are you thinking about?
I manage construction projects and specialize in contingency operations. I only build the camps, but between former active duty and contractor time, I’ve spent a lot of time with the other contractors that do all the services. Tell us what you’re interested in and if I can I’ll PM some details that might help.
BTW, some of the best construction managers I’ve known were former Marines.
Since I have been doing this for a few days, let me throw my .03 cents in (adjusted for current gold prices).
Though there are still jobs in Iraq and A’stan, many of them are disappearing due to the drawdown. Iraq has changed dramatically since you were there and the old “wild west” mentality is gone. The Iraqis run the country and they make it well known to contractors.
The same could also be said of Afghanistan as well. In both countries the DoD mission is slowly fading so that means for any longevity you need to look at DoS or OGA. They are both highly competitive due to a variety of factors.
One thing to remember about convoy/ mobile security especially in Iraq. If you fire your weapon, justified or not you face a high probability of being detained by the Iraqis and potentially being charged in their legal system. You can only imagine how well this will work for you. Just something to consider.
I really had thought about this when I first Got out of the Military,
I wish I would have followed through ,I have a CDL and was going to Drive a Big truck For KBR But they Fucked Me Because if some Back taxes I owed . when I got that straighten out they said all slots where Full:( (Cough Bullshit Cough)
A friend of Mine did it But only Completed Half of his year contract and Had to pay the Taxes on the Money he had made .If you Pulled the full year it was tax exempt some how .
His Convoy Got Lit Up Pretty Bad and it Spooked Him really bad.
He did Go back and Helped Up armor Hummers and made some really good Money .But he Never went outside the wire.
Good Luck ! I hope You can find something It Makes Me sad that so Many of our Soldier Come back to Nothing .It is just not right
You’re “tax exempt” if you spend 330 days or more outside of CONUS, and only up to a certain amount (IIRC it’s 87K, but I could be wrong).
You still pay S/S and any state taxes (if applicable).
Best bet is to use the services of a CPA who is experienced in dealing with expats. Doing so can save you alot of heartache and can help you avoid any tax issues.
87K sounds about right, but they can also pay you per diem living expenses above that amount and it is also exempt. There are some other “looholes” to get around this, but I hesitate to write them down so I don’t give Big brother any ideas on how to collect their “cut”!!:mad:
One more thing to consider. The more versatile that you are, the more marketable that you are. Right now there is a demand (from what I have seen across the board) for good medics. I believe that the minimum is EMT-I with EMT-P being the preference.
Also, logistics jobs can still be found. You can’t work in country without logistics.
I put out about 15 job applications with various companys doing personal security and embedded law enforcement type work. Heard back from two of them and I didnt meet their minimum requirements for time on the job and Dyncorp apparently wont accept an application if you are under 26 years old and I wont be till January.
My new job with the local pd is about to start after 3 months of getting the run around so I am not that worried about the other applications I put out.