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na unique was iraq and afghanistan were raging at the time and manpower for security was a premium now that the wars have drawn down national guard and local resources are more readily available for security work on natural disasters with that said i do not discount that kind of work and all it takes is a really bad disaster that requires a lot of security and resources to fire up that industry up again afghanistan what has changed over the last decade is the amount of troops there i worked in afghanistan for a couple of years as a contractor and it is america s longest war currently we have less troops and contractors there than the hey day of that war we also have more contractors there than troops with more contractor deaths there as well contractors are used to protect the bases and they have been called upon in greater numbers as we pull more troops out i constantly see ads for contracts in afghanistan doing static security on the bases erik prince was making the rounds on various channels offering a solution on how to approach afghanistan basically he wanted to use contractors instead of troops to stand up the afghan military that is still an ongoing process and he might get his wish in the next decade we are still in afghanistan still trying to negotiate some peace agreement with the taliban and it still gets jacked up of interest the afghanistan papers came out this last year and basically sent a shockwave through the military leadership establishment when it comes to the handling of the war basically the papers showed how bad of a strategy we had and what was really happening there most contractors and military knew what the real deal was but the higher ups in the pentagon or folks managing the war have continued to push narratives that we were winning or we are about to turn the thing around or whatever the papers say otherwise and it is this generation s pentagon papers this last decade in afghanistan the biggest news was when osama bin laden was killed also a few contractors were finally released from prisons guys like robert langdon or phillip young i give folks like lawyer kimberly motley a lot of respect and credit for fighting hard to get them out of those hell holes as for voices in afghanistan that i have listened to over the years guys like tim lynch of free range international were awesome sources and he is still actively doing the deed to this day michael yon is another guy that worked to get some ground truth over there the long war journal is another required reading source for contractors and they have been documenting afghanistan for a long time contractors are always referencing the latest news on lwj and their maps on territory lost to the taliban are good i imagine in the next decade we will finally leave that place until we get to that point contractors will be vital all the way to the end i could be wrong though and we could be there for another ten years or twenty years strategy books leadership for this category my mindset over the last decade is still boydian or i am a student of all things col john boyd it has been a passion over the years and all of my ideas about leadership and strategy have evolved from my study of what he worked on from maneuver warfare to mission command to ebfas etc i can find the roots of all of these highly important concepts of war fighting from my studies of john boyd and his friends guys like william lind or chet richards are folks that i all follow and read and my book selections have been focused mostly on this area for mission command i recommend reading anything donald vandergriff has put together the last decade i have been really focused on studying mc and boyd s secret sauce for the optimum company culture called ebfas please read chet s treatment of the subject once i went down the mc path i started reading works from all sorts of german military authors guys like general balck etc were very influential on the blog and facebook i still focus on the history of contracting and continue to find interesting stuff i have read books about the flying tigers or about frederick townsend ward or frederick russell burnham or even recent history like erik prince s book or eeben barlow s various books eeben s book called composite warfare should be required reading for contractors strategy wise i lean towards sun tzu but like a true boydian you take a little bit from everywhere so clausewitz and sun tzu get a good showing when it comes to my readings for business i still like reading what the big companies and big players have done to gain success guys like steve jobs or elon musk are fascinating characters as is the work of toyota i follow all the top business journals online and if you are not reading up on business stuff as a contractor you are doing it wrong with that said i use a rss reader called feedly to read hundreds of posts and articles every week i do this on contract if i have access to the internet and i do this at home it is a regular thing and reading is very important to me i also listen to podcasts watch youtube videos and any other sources of info that relates to this industry what has changed over the last ten years is how many resources have popped up that focus on jobs or just the day to day life of a contractor i am not running out of material to read or check out and that is good lol i should make mention of david isenberg whom has been vigorously writing and commenting about this industry well before i came onto the scene i read his stuff and anything else of interest out there google alerts is key to picking up on any contractor related news and i work the search tab like no other i even delve into translating articles in other languages i am constantly using google translate to get anything new about subjects of interest there are a lot of other sources of knowledge about military strategy and leadership other than english based western sources i suspect i will be doing more of the same into the next decade iraq and syria man as i write this the us embassy in iraq was being swarmed by hezbollah protesters we still have contractors there protecting the embassy and there are guys still protecting oil and gas interests there how long will we stay there is anyone s guess all i know is that we spent a lot of money on that embassy and it is the last remnants of the coalition presence there are contractors elsewhere in iraq like in balad and kurdistan and all eyes are on them whenever there is discontent locally when isis blew up on the scene in places like mosul or when they advanced south that was a big one in the contracting world now it is protests and the pmu s or iraqi militias that are controlled by iran returning from syria who knows how that will go but relations with iran is sketchy at best and that trickles down to actions against the guys and gals on the ground rockets and mortars are still be launched at remote sites and there was a contractor killed recently in iraq i was in iraq when the military left in 2011 and it seems like we keep going in and out of that country over the years based on whatever threat it is a mess iran seems to be the folks controlling the iraq government and into the new year and next decade we will probably continue to see iraq be a mess because of this too many sunnis there dealing with a shia controlled government with syria there has been an effort to get us out of there but we will see there are just too many players there and that place is a mess it does seem to be winding down though and russia helped out big time with support for assad pmc wagner a russian pseudo pmsc played a roll as well the coalition did a lot of work in destroying isis there working with the kurds of note this last decade we did see the coalition get into a fight with pmc wagner with deadly results for the company as long as proxies like the wagner group continue to share the same space in conflict zones as states we will probably see more of this type of thing another thing to mention with iraq is raven 23 these men are still in prison and i am hoping and praying that they will be pardoned by the president president trump has already pardoned several soldiers the last couple of years and i sincerely hope he does the same with these men i think they got a raw deal and folks in this industry are angry that those men have been treated like that africa this is the new focus it seems the last decade more and more contractors have gone to africa to assist in supporting governments fighting jihadists the fear is that africa has all the elements jihadists need to really do well poor people oppressive governments weapons availability etc the next decade we will continue to see a focus on the continent and wherever jihadists pop up one thing of note is china and russia s focus on africa resources there are a huge interest to these countries and we are seeing more and more presence of these country s proxy forces on the continent i mentioned russia s pmsc in a prior post and it is fascinating to watch unfold these companies are not really private and are totally controlled by their home country if they were private we would see more of their companies interacting in the business world to be competitive as it stands now they act more like proxy forces kind of like iran s hezbollah is a proxy force and now russia has a group like pmc wagner to deploy as they see fit yet again for africa i pay attention to guys like eeben barlow his blog and facebook postings are fascinating and i highly recommend reading them my predictions for africa is that jihadists will continue to raise hell there and continue to ravage the un and weakened governments and their poor militaries the rule of thumb for contracting is that wherever the jihad goes the contractors go there might be military that is dispatched but private industry investors and everyone else that has interest in an area that is threatened by jihadists or criminals are gonna require the services of security contractors to protect that in which they cherish in africa we are also seeing pmsc s involved in both defense industry and offense industry i pay particular attention to what companies like sttep have done and pay keen attention to what pmc wagner is doing on the continent or what chinese companies are doing there libya is of interest recently and because manpower is a premium that place has turned into a mercenary war of sorts there are so many countries that have interest there and they are all sending private forces or proxy forces to fight there or assist the stakes are high and they want a place at the oil and gas revenue table when the smoke clears and a leader reigns supreme the question here is will we see pmsc s fighting pmsc s much like during the early history of mercenary warfare i continue to watch that space to see where it goes companies i have to give mention to the companies because it seems like they are getting better when it comes to keeping things in check or there are just less companies and contracts and so incidents have been fewer but it seems to me that things have gotten better and bravo to all the support staff and management for working hard on keeping contract compliant with that said leadership is still a focus that companies have missed out on i have not seen any hamburger universities like what mcdonalds came up with to train leadership and personnel within the pmsc companies it is why i continue to comment on leadership on the blog and facebook and unfortunately i keep hearing about horror stories of bad bosses i have experienced a few over the years and it is still a focus of mine with the blog look if companies cared about increasing value and lowering attrition then focus on leadership focus on the culture of the company as well to keep folks engaged and content as it stands i have yet to to see any companies in this industry put the necessary work into developing leadership and culture if they had i would have found out about it by now i would have pointed at it and said this is the model i was hoping that this would have been a focus last decade but it wasn t i tried to promote it and i put the ideas out there but nothing ever materialized i will continue to talk about it well into the next decade what i have been able to do is leverage my networks and promote good leadership and culture ideas that way i might have inspired the next star ceo that is currently working in the trenches one day that guy will come up and show everyone how it is done i want to see a pmsc make the cover of harvard business review one day promoted as the model company or how about pmsc ceo equal to a musk or jobs i can only hope another reason to focus on leadership and culture is that if companies transition into offense industry then all of these factors will really become obvious issues when people die in combat because of poor company policies and or leaders then that is when this stuff gets real i mentioned pay briefly up top but it is worth mentioning again salaries and daily rates have decreased the last decade but there are some nice contracts out there if you qualify and put the work into getting one of those gigs on the low end expect around 40 000 to 60 000 a year and on the high end a little over six figures for management or specialized gigs expect to make a lot more i always say though this industry favors those that are persistent in their pursuit of a good gig you have to do a couple of crappy gigs before you actually get a good one it seems don t give up and be relentless in your pursuit the companies have also had to adapt to the wars drawing down and the consolidation that comes with it if the wars end and all the troops are pulled back from these places then expect a shock within the companies always have a back up plan if you lose your contract because you just never know when it could end i have personally worked for 6 companies over the last 15 years and i expect to work for a few more into the future save your pennies so you can survive between contracts space this is another area i watch with the creation of the space force a new branch of the us military i think the contracting element of this deserves focus after all it is private companies along with nasa that are making rockets spacex is a big one to watch as is blue origin and ula there are others but as these companies get more involved in launching people and goods into space private contractors and this industry will be important to securing it will we see space contractors or spasec becoming a thing in the next decade who knows but i am definitely watching that industry as it evolves the last decade we saw a focus and expansion of private space flight and military related space stuff and that will only increase as we set up shop on the moon and mars and beyond active shooters this gets a mention because during the last decade we saw a lot of active shooter incidents overseas and at ho...