Heading over for a year to work. Going to be working on and training soldiers on these MRAP's. Not going to be a fun year away from the family and my 19 month old daughter, but the $$ is too much to turn down. We'll get a 2-week R&R after around 6 months to come back home, so that'll be good. Plus they're giving us an additional 70% hazard pay. Gonna be working probably 7/16s, so that's like 144hrs o/t every 2 weeks.

 

Good luck over there! Mind if I ask what kind of money you will be making? Always been curious...

 

Good luck and God speed!

After about 4 months you will realize that you hate everyone that you speak to and that all you can think about is coming back home. That is when you just need to put your head down and focus on the prize at hand.

Been there, done that, shrapnel tore up my t-shirt.

Do you know which part of Iraq you are going to be in?

 

Oh yea, letters.

Write many letters home to your daughter. Even though she can't read, she will appreciate it more down the road than a phone call. Write some that are addressed just to her!

My son still gets me to read him the letters that I wrote to him.

 

Thanks. I was there in '04 for 4 months during the summer up-armoring FMTV's. Yea, after 4 months I was ready to come home. Rained mortars all the damn time. Almost got took out a few times myself. I was in Balad at Anaconda, more than likely going back there this time.

I'm an hourly employee, I make right at $22/hr right now. The money is one of the good parts.

 

Is there another good part about it?

 

Besides helping keep our soldiers safe, no. Everything else pretty much sucks. 150 degree heat in the summer is no joke. But I hear we're hiring like 800 more people to go over there.

 

Already got plans for a new jetboat and a little 632 BBC

 

I was in Basrah for my first year which is in Southern Iraq and we saw 163 for two days straight in August of '05. I loved standing in front of the A/C exhaust to cool off.

 

Damn. I dread that crap again.

 

Be carefull and good luck

 

We have a few of the MRAPs here and they are pretty kick ***. Way better then an up armor humvee.

Better bring some cold weather clothes.

 

Same place my dad is at. He's been working there for about 3 years now. He was also doing armor on the vehicles down there.

 

Best of luck to you man. Stay safe out there.

 

22/hr is not what your going to make there i hope????

 

im getting ready to finish up my 6 months here. im near Basrah. im attached to a British command training Iraqi's. I hated the heat, the cooler weather now is SO nice. Good luck bro! OOHRAH

 

22 an hour is probably what he will make for straight pay before his overseas uplift, hazard pay and his OT.

Like he said, his hazard pay is 70%, that adds up real quick when he is working 7/16's. His uplift is also an additional percentage probably.

He is about to make some really good money in the next year!

LS69, does your company pay time and a half for OT?

 

Are you at the airfield?

 

thats what I am hoping.
still ~37 an hour does not seem like much. I did not do the math and add it up so I could be wrong.

I would not go back for less than 200k or so. I was talking to a company that had some positions that were paying 300k. It was pretty tempting to try for one of those spots.

 

^^no im at Umm Qasr. its the Iraqi Naval Base. Like 10 minutes drive south of Camp Bucca. I go to Basra all the time though.