A Tribute to Civilians Who Have Served in Difficult Regions around the World

Floor Speech

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to personally thank and honor the civilians who faithfully serve in war zones and high threat security environments alongside our military in so doing further our national security and peacefully advance American interests.

I am especially grateful to those civilians who served side-by-side with members of our armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

These civilians, as well as contractors and former military who return as civilians work for and with the U.S. military and varied U.S. government agencies, deploy into conflict zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan and into high threat security posts.

Dr. Peter R. Mansoor, the Raymond E. Mason Jr. Chair in Military History and the former Executive Officer to Gen. David Petraeus, when he was commander of the multinational forces in Iraq had this to say about civilian service: ``The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been difficult ventures, but the nation could not have achieved its objectives in either conflict without the support of American civilians, who came to the fight with a number of critical specialties and who shouldered more of the load than their numbers would suggest. The Nation owes our civilian veterans a great deal of gratitude for their service in the nation's wars since 9/11.''

In September 2007 there were actually more contractors in Iraq than combat troops. According to a 2013 report of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR): ``In September 2007, the United States had more than 170,000 combat personnel in Iraq as part of the counterinsurgency operation, with more than 171,000 contractors supporting the mission.'' These contractors are credited in the report for supporting ``the counterinsurgency mission in unstable, yet strategically significant, areas such as Baghdad, Anbar, and Babylon provinces.''

More and more civilians are serving in conflict zone jobs traditionally held by the military. This proximity to dangerous and unstable security situations has come with a cost. The New York Times reported on February 11, 2012 that, ``More civilian contractors working for American companies than American soldiers died in Afghanistan last year for the first time during the war,'' reporting that ``at least 430 employees of American contractors were reported killed in Afghanistan: 386 working for the Defense Department, 43 for the United States Agency for International Development and one for the State Department.''

More recently, just last year four of these civilians became household names--U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, information officer Sean Smith, and CIA security contractors Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty--when they were killed in Benghazi, Libya. Other civilian contractors were seriously wounded.

As with the military, casualties and serious injuries only tell part of the story. There are other costs associated with prolonged wars, including PTSD, depression and traumatic bereavement.

I was pleased to learn of the recent formation of an organization called We Served Too--a group dedicated to honoring and supporting American and international civilian service in conflict zones and high threat security environments.

Writing in the Huffington Post, author and professor Anne Speckhard reported that when Major General Arnie Fields was asked to comment on the founding of We Serve Too, he remarked on how the shift to asymmetrical warfare now places civilian workers in the same danger that front line soldiers traditionally faced:

The dynamics of war have considerably changed in recent years. The past ten years have been most significant. The parameters that have heretofore defined the battlefield or battle space have been dramatically altered. Military commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan have learned early on that the conventional `front' and `rear'', which in earlier wars defined the most dangerous areas of the battlefield and the safest, respectively, do not exist. The enemy's threat is virtually omnipresent. Soldiers not in direct pursuit of the enemy are in almost as much danger as those who are. This new paradigm, often referred to as asymmetrical warfare, places civilians assisting in the war effort in about as much imminent danger as the traditional uniformed warrior ..... For. example, as a civilian department of State employee in Iraq and as the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, I wore my military flak jacket and helmet with more consistency while conducting my work than I did on active military duty in the Marine Corps.

Unlike soldiers who are trained and prepared to face armed conflict, civilians who serve alongside them are often ill-equipped for what they experience. This can have lasting implications even after their return home.

I am pleased to recognize We Served Too and commend their aim of supporting and honoring the civilians who served alongside their military counterparts.

While we don't often remember the sacrifices of civilian workers in conflict zones, we have an obligation to recognize that they too sacrificially served this country and their service is worthy of our gratitude.

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