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• SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 1 NO MORE SAVES FULL

military wages the war on terrorism, it is increasingly relying on for-profit companies like Blackwater to do work normally performed by soldiers. “Is this happening? Yes, this is happening.”Īs the U.S. “To contemplate outsourcing tactical, strategic, firearms-type training -high-risk training -is thinking outside the box,” Jackson says. Their investment paid off: Since the attacks of September 11, the company has seen its business boom -enough to warrant a major expansion of its training facility this year.

Blackwater’s founders were banking on predictions that the military was eager to speed up the process, privatizing many jobs traditionally reserved for uniformed troops. During the Gulf War, the Pentagon had begun replacing soldiers with private contractors, relying on civilian businesses to provide logistical support to troops on the front lines. “This was a roulette, a crapshoot,” recalls Jackson, a former Navy SEAL. When Blackwater opened in 1998, the business of war didn’t look like such a sure bet. Last fall, Blackwater signed a $35.7 million contract with the Pentagon to train more than 10,000 sailors from Virginia, Texas, and California each year in “force protection.” Other contracts are so secret, says Blackwater president Gary Jackson, that he can’t tell one federal agency about the business he’s doing with another.

SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 1 NO MORE SAVES FULL

Every day, the Navy sends chartered buses full of trainees from Naval Station Norfolk to the company’s 5,200-acre facility in Moyock, North Carolina. armed forces to train soldiers and guard government buildings around the world. These days he is an employee of Blackwater USA, a private company that contracts with the U.S. But Torres no longer works for the military. They know that Torres, a Navy vet, honed his skills during nine years in the service, performing search-and-rescue operations and providing nuclear-weapons security. The only thing to do is move toward your threat.” “There’s not a lot of cover in this structure.

“You guys need to get your shit together,” he scolds.

That’s just fucked up.” When approaching a “bad guy,” Torres reminds them, a unit must move aggressively, fanning out to divert the terrorists’ attention. “That’s as shameful a thing as I can think of. “You had people hiding behind their teammates!” barks their instructor, Tony Torres, a compact man with freckles and salt-and-pepper hair. They return from the ambush with heads hung, covered in pink dye. The trainees, who have instinctively crowded together, prove easy pickings: Though they outnumber their enemy 3-to-1, every one of them gets hit. Suddenly, as they turn the comer, two “terrorists” spring out from behind a plywood barricade and storm the sailors, guns blazing. The men approach the front of the vessel in formation, weapons drawn, then silently walk the length of the ship. Their mission: recapture a ship -actually a three-story-high model constructed of gray steel cargo containers -from armed hijackers.

Dressed in camouflage on a January afternoon, they wear protective masks and carry nine-millimeter Berettas that fire non-lethal bullets filled with colored soap. sailors are gearing up for their part in President Bush’s war on terrorism. soldiers in the war on terrorism.ĪT A REMOTE TACTICAL training camp, in a swamp 25 miles from the world’s largest naval base, six U.S. They’re private military companies-and they’re replacing U.S. They fly helicopters, guard military bases, and provide reconnaissance.