It's been a year. I think I need a change of pace...Follow

LOL, aaaahhhh Totem.

Why did I just flash on The Wild Geese?

I suspect you think I jest. I do not. An opportunity to fly gunships does not come along very often and doing it for major bank is simply a bonus.

Totem

Are you thinking about working for one of those "security companies" that operate in Afghanistan? I mean, I don't blame you for wanting to go to Afghanistan, and I commend your bravery in doing so, but... a mercenary? Really?

Duh. See Haliburton.

And who wouldn't want to work with a crack team like that?

If you get shot down, you could be the Afghan Chuck Norris.


MIA IV: The Bama Snake.

Has Mrs. Totem taken up with the pool boy?

Mercenary, private military contractor, toMAYto, toMAHto, they are all the same, just different names.

The job would be flying MI-8s (or the Hip for you Cold Warrior types) fitted with rocket pods and doorgunners doing cold insertions/hot extractions, poppy field eradication, USAID logistical support, and regular NATO troop movements and resupply. There are a number of contractors operating over there, of which Blackwater, now known as Xe or Presidential Airways, is only one of many.

To this point, prior to Iraq, it has been difficult, if not nearly impossible to get into this line of work. To do so required a background in SpecOps, and from my line of work, being formerly connected to TF 160, which I am not. But with our illustrious president's dithering on the Afghanistan issue, what with his royal CinC's forefinger properly wet to better guage the direction of the political winds, it is far more expeditious to send in private companies to do what normally would be the balliwick of our nation's military. This gives him the lattitude to do what needs doing and the wiggle room to not go beyond dipping his big toe into the war water.

Regardless, it gives me an opportunity to do something for which I was trained long ago, but never got to use due to a different geo-political situation. Now all that has changed and besides being tremendously fun from my contact's reports, it is quite lucrative as well.

All that aside, working in Somalia, as my dear friend and esteemed collegue from Chicago would have me do, is not an option for me, for no other reason than those positions are not available to lowly helicopter pilots such as myself. It pains me to say that, since I can in no way even dream of ever achieving the level of combat prowess that Jophiel has honed on his way to the office in his Pontiac Sunfire, studiously avoiding the glares of aggressive gangbangers staring at Mr. Whitebread from the pimped out Escalade next to him at the stop light. While he has developed some street cred from marrying a full fledged South American, thus blunting some of his more awkward honkiness, he cannot fully escape his suburban past. Fortunately for him, his forays into the city to engage in accounting or whatever dull career he is involved in has given him an edge against others when attacking others online. Were that an opportunity for me! Think of it-- I could utilize the evasive tactics he employs on a daily basis avoiding traffic and picking up his kid from day care and put them to good use. Or I could wield that fountain pen like the urban ninja he is and successfully stab a Talib to death in close quarters combat!

Sadly, I will never be the man among men that Jophiel is and perform my duties to his satisfaction in such far flung locales like Mogadishu or Chechnya. I suck.

/hangs his head sadly

Totem

Don't do it. Seriously. Do you really want your kids and grand-kids to see you as a mercenary?! You're too good for this. There's plenty of money to be made in crack dealing too, but what kind of an excuse is that? Being a Merc is a sordid business, everything I've read about it is pretty off-putting, and if anything happens to you they will wash their hands clean and leave all alone to dry. And if something happens to you, and you get caught by the ennemy... as a merc... You're well and truely fucked.

I'd be seriously disappointed if you were to become a merc.

And if there's one thing you don't want to do, it's to disappoint a Frenchman.


Edited, Sep 29th 2009 11:12am by RedPhoenixxx

You can't expect humans to all evolve at the same pace.

How would you find a helicopter strong enough to support your weight?





hahahahahahahahahaha

Get your own helicopter, attach some guns and put an advertisement in the Mogadishu Penny-Saver. Christ, I thought you Republicans were solutions oriented.

Goes without saying