Iraq’s forgotten warriors

Monday, Nov. 27, 2006 | 7:18 a.m.

Contractors are finding themselves to be the forgotten warriors of the War on Terrorism.

Lured by good pay, truck drivers, mechanics and others sign on to work in Iraq or Afghanistan and often quickly find themselves in combat zones, usually unarmed and untrained.

And now they're finding once they get home they're left without the benefits or support they should be getting.

"Nobody ain't doing nothing for us," 43-year-old Steven Thompson, a former contract truck driver for Halliburton subsidiary KBR, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Thompson was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, the same thing that roughly one in six of the American troops returning from the battlefields in Afghanistan and Iraq have.

The difference: Thompson isn't eligible for the Pentagon's support network for soldiers with PTSD, and his claim with his private insurance company was denied.

Government contractors working outside the United States are required by law to have a generous insurance policy that covers workers for injury, but PTSD doesn't often get covered, Thompson's lawyer, Gary Pitts of Houston, said, because it's "not like having a leg blown off."

Two doctors diagnosed Thompson with post-traumatic stress disorder, but he told the Chronicle his claim was turned down by American International Group, the insurance company for KBR, because there wasn't enough medical evidence of trauma.

In the war effort the government is relying on contractors - who are exposed to some of the same situations members of the military are, including improvised explosive devices and gunfire - yet contractors don't receive the same support when they come home.

More than 670 civilian contractors, Americans and foreigners, have been killed in Iraq since March 1, 2003, according to the Labor Department. It's not clear how many have been injured or suffer post-traumatic stress and face situations similar to Thompson's.

Our country has called on civilian contractors to aid in the fight against terrorism, and the government needs to step in, cut through this nonsense and fully support them.