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Contractor Combatants: Tales of an Imbedded Capitalist
The enemy is everywhere in war-torn Iraq, and suppliers and construction workers run the same risks as uniformed guerrilla attacks, suicide bombings, rocket bombardments, and road mines. This is the compelling story of Carter Andress and the unique methods his multinational team used to deliver vital supplies to coalition forces and help rebuild the devastated country. Armed to the teeth with AK-47s, sidearms, and bags full of grenades, these "contractor combatants" engaged in deadly firefights with the enemy while attempting to fulfill their mission and defend their own lives. Some gunned down insurgents. Others were themselves killed. This riveting war story is the first to define the role of this new breed of private warrior and to do so in a gripping and highly graphic narrative.
305 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2007
11 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 3, 2016
This reviewer spent nearly two years in Iraq 2003-2005, moving by helicopter and Humvee to all parts of Iraq, Fallujah, Basra, Mosul, Ramadi, Sadr City in Baghdad, and many others, with both US troops and Iraqi Security Forces, meeting with Sunnis, Shia and Kurds, US Marines and soldiers of all ranks.
So I think I can measure “Contractor Combatants,” by Carter Andress.
Andress has spent four years in Iraq, 2004-2008, taught himself Iraqi Arabic, never spent a night in the Green Zone, and has gone back many times each year to oversee his approx. 1,000 Iraqi employees (his company has employed over 10,000 Iraqis since 2004).
Why did he write this book, and why should you read it?
Andress writes:
“The books that focus on the war in Iraq were, for the most part, written by people who had come to the subject with a built-in bias and had constructed an artificial war to reflect their own ideological perceptions…they found unrelieved despair where I found an abiding sense of hope. They found nothing but hostility toward Americans where I found friendship and admiration. Our experience of working with Iraqis of all sects and ethnic groups was successful because it was grounded in trust and pride of performance.”
What is a “Contractor Combatant,” and why did the US Army and Marines, and the Iraqi Forces, need them?
In answering that question, Andress’ book gives the reader an insight into the new way of America’s war-fighting and peace-keeping capability.
In World War II, the U.S. had millions of men and women in uniform, with only a small percentage “at the tip of the spear.” The vast majority were doing logistics, transport, base and port construction from Normandy to Iwo Jima, and, as Napoleon said “an Army travels on its stomach,” feeding those millions of troops three times a day, seven days a week, from 1941-45.
Who does that today? The answer is Contractor Combatants, men and women who are daily on the front lines, feeding the Combatant Marines and soldiers, bringing them ammunition, building their camps, and executing the thousand and one things the uniformed Combatants need.
If you don’t like the notion of Contractor Combatants, either get a million more Americans to enlist as uniformed Combatants, or bring back the draft and compel that million to put on the uniform of the Marines or Army and go into combat.
Gripping as Andress’ account is of the ambushes, convoys through the “Triangle of Death,” feeding of the Iraqi Army in the 2d Battle of Fallujah (and a host of other perilous actions), that he and his Iraqi partners and colleagues experienced, the epilogue is the most valuable to readers anxious to understand both what happened, and most importantly today, at the outset of 2012 with U.S. troops withdrawn, what is likely to happen.
Andress anticipated General David Petraeus’s successful Surge strategy, writing before General Petraeus and his Corps Commander (now Army Chief of Staff) General Ray Odierno arrived in Iraq to implement the Surge:
“The insurgency in Iraq would collapse if the Sunni tribes turned against nihilistic killers of Al Qaeda and the proponents of a violent return to the minority sect’s ruling status in Iraq…The Sunnis seek to leverage that threat against the popular weight of the Shia and Kurd supermajority, which constitutes 80 percent of the Iraqi population.”
The Petraeus-Odierno Surge got the Sunnis to do just that, and Andress, from his on-the-ground work as a “Contractor Combatant” saw that this was the key.
The strength of this book is that Andress worked and lived with the full spectrum of Iraqis, in all parts of Iraq, and thus you will see what that was like, and equip yourself for what will come.
So I think I can measure “Contractor Combatants,” by Carter Andress.
Andress has spent four years in Iraq, 2004-2008, taught himself Iraqi Arabic, never spent a night in the Green Zone, and has gone back many times each year to oversee his approx. 1,000 Iraqi employees (his company has employed over 10,000 Iraqis since 2004).
Why did he write this book, and why should you read it?
Andress writes:
“The books that focus on the war in Iraq were, for the most part, written by people who had come to the subject with a built-in bias and had constructed an artificial war to reflect their own ideological perceptions…they found unrelieved despair where I found an abiding sense of hope. They found nothing but hostility toward Americans where I found friendship and admiration. Our experience of working with Iraqis of all sects and ethnic groups was successful because it was grounded in trust and pride of performance.”
What is a “Contractor Combatant,” and why did the US Army and Marines, and the Iraqi Forces, need them?
In answering that question, Andress’ book gives the reader an insight into the new way of America’s war-fighting and peace-keeping capability.
In World War II, the U.S. had millions of men and women in uniform, with only a small percentage “at the tip of the spear.” The vast majority were doing logistics, transport, base and port construction from Normandy to Iwo Jima, and, as Napoleon said “an Army travels on its stomach,” feeding those millions of troops three times a day, seven days a week, from 1941-45.
Who does that today? The answer is Contractor Combatants, men and women who are daily on the front lines, feeding the Combatant Marines and soldiers, bringing them ammunition, building their camps, and executing the thousand and one things the uniformed Combatants need.
If you don’t like the notion of Contractor Combatants, either get a million more Americans to enlist as uniformed Combatants, or bring back the draft and compel that million to put on the uniform of the Marines or Army and go into combat.
Gripping as Andress’ account is of the ambushes, convoys through the “Triangle of Death,” feeding of the Iraqi Army in the 2d Battle of Fallujah (and a host of other perilous actions), that he and his Iraqi partners and colleagues experienced, the epilogue is the most valuable to readers anxious to understand both what happened, and most importantly today, at the outset of 2012 with U.S. troops withdrawn, what is likely to happen.
Andress anticipated General David Petraeus’s successful Surge strategy, writing before General Petraeus and his Corps Commander (now Army Chief of Staff) General Ray Odierno arrived in Iraq to implement the Surge:
“The insurgency in Iraq would collapse if the Sunni tribes turned against nihilistic killers of Al Qaeda and the proponents of a violent return to the minority sect’s ruling status in Iraq…The Sunnis seek to leverage that threat against the popular weight of the Shia and Kurd supermajority, which constitutes 80 percent of the Iraqi population.”
The Petraeus-Odierno Surge got the Sunnis to do just that, and Andress, from his on-the-ground work as a “Contractor Combatant” saw that this was the key.
The strength of this book is that Andress worked and lived with the full spectrum of Iraqis, in all parts of Iraq, and thus you will see what that was like, and equip yourself for what will come.
April 5, 2014
5.0 out of 5 stars Businessman on the Front Lines, March 28, 2014
By malcolm mconnell
This review is from: Contractor Combatants: Tales of an Imbedded Capitalist (Hardcover)
During the early, pivotal years of the Iraq War, civilian security and reconstruction contractor Carter Andress played a vital role in preventing the initial Sunni Arab insurgency from deteriorating into a country-wide civil war. Andress was the operations manager of American Iraqi Solutions Group, an innovative and enterprising firm that worked all over the war zone to complete vital infrastructure and base building for the new Iraqi security forces who would soon defy and defeat the homicidal terrorists of al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). In this gripping narrative, Andress takes the reader on a wild and colorful ride across the IED-plagued roads, dodging AQI ambushes to get the job done--despite the danger and bureaucratic hurtles. Contractor Combatants is that rare combination in a book: an accurate and vivid first-person history that reads like a thriller.
Malcolm McConnell
Co-author, New York Times Number 1. bestseller American Soldier
By malcolm mconnell
This review is from: Contractor Combatants: Tales of an Imbedded Capitalist (Hardcover)
During the early, pivotal years of the Iraq War, civilian security and reconstruction contractor Carter Andress played a vital role in preventing the initial Sunni Arab insurgency from deteriorating into a country-wide civil war. Andress was the operations manager of American Iraqi Solutions Group, an innovative and enterprising firm that worked all over the war zone to complete vital infrastructure and base building for the new Iraqi security forces who would soon defy and defeat the homicidal terrorists of al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). In this gripping narrative, Andress takes the reader on a wild and colorful ride across the IED-plagued roads, dodging AQI ambushes to get the job done--despite the danger and bureaucratic hurtles. Contractor Combatants is that rare combination in a book: an accurate and vivid first-person history that reads like a thriller.
Malcolm McConnell
Co-author, New York Times Number 1. bestseller American Soldier
October 17, 2007
Carter Andress claims that he has a story to tell, and I'd probably tend to agree with him. Apparently he spent 18 months in Iraq building a contracting company from the ground up. The mere fact that he survived living in Baghdad outside the Green Zone for that period of time says that he probably had some exciting experiences. On the other hand, he has a clear vested interest in spinning the war in Iraq in a positive light, it seems to have made him rich. He's probably not nearly as nice of a guy as he makes himself out to be (he is, after all, a salesman), but it's definitely an interesting viewpoint. He actually had day-to-day interactions with the Iraqi business community for an extended period of time.
It's certainly worth taking a look at this book, although I wouldn't say it has changed my outlook all that much, it certainly sheds some light on the challenges facing government contractors in Iraq. Probably not on anyone's must-read list, but it'll definitely keep you interested for a plane flight.
It's certainly worth taking a look at this book, although I wouldn't say it has changed my outlook all that much, it certainly sheds some light on the challenges facing government contractors in Iraq. Probably not on anyone's must-read list, but it'll definitely keep you interested for a plane flight.
April 6, 2014
I read Contractor Combatants: Tales of an Imbedded Capitalist and it was a book that I could not put down. Carter Andress' first person narrative puts the reader in Iraq and gives an eyewitness account of what it is like to work and travel in war-torn Iraq. Carter's experiences dealing with a number of issues that Americans faced in Iraq explain the peaks and valleys of the war. Out of his tale emerges important lessons that Americans need to learn when conducting warfare and expecting to engender friendships with the local population while trying to put them to work in reconstruction projects to rebuild their nation. What I especially liked reading was his Ernst Hemingway approach to the events as they unfurled. Doubtless to say, Iraq was a complex war in which many people lost their lives, as the country emerged Post-Saddam Hussein. With or without the Americans, the struggle continues for Iraq's heart and soul.
Michael Cooper
The Eurasia Center
Michael Cooper
The Eurasia Center
January 5, 2015
Thank you "Carter Andress", for writing this book. You reminded me with the best boss ever I had in my life "Namir". after I review the book within five minutes I could remember every minute when I was working with Namir.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews