The Department of Defense (DoD) is looking for a few good civilians to work in combat zones and are in the process of gathering names and building a database of civilian employee volunteers with critical skills to be completed by April 2009.
Civilians are needed to take on jobs normally done by military personnel now stretched thin by a two-war front. Already, announcements have been posted for six month and year long positions in Kabul, Baghdad, and Guantanamo Bay.
Of course, enlisting civilians for military duties is nothing new. Approximately 3,800 DoD civilians currently serve in war zones (down from a high of 5,200 in 2006), as so do employees in other departments not normally associated with combat activities. Still, military planners typically use contractors for non-combat tasks abroad. But having an organized cadre of willing civilians from within the DoD should allow the department to more readily access its in-house talent. Would it save money? Perhaps.
Civilians deployed in combat zones get the same benefits the State Department provides to its Foreign Service Officers. That means danger pay of 35 percent of an employee’s base pay and an additional hardship duty benefit of 35 percent, allowing salaries to cap out at an impressive $212,100. Should the worst happen and the employee is killed, a death gratuity of one year’s salary is made to the next of kin.
Contractors in similar situations make, on average, between $400 and $600 per day, equating to annual salaries between $104,000 to $156,000. Still, some contractors are known to earn up to $1,000 a day, or $260,000 per year not including overtime pay. So, the savings that would come from hiring feds to do the work instead is entirely dependent upon the salary grade of the federal employee.
Health care is another factor to consider. Civilians wounded in the line of duty should receive the same care as military members in military facilities, but last year a number of civilians filed complaints alleging they were turned away were from such care. This confusion seems to have been cleared up with a recent memo stating all Defense civilians are entitled to medical care in military facilities both abroad and stateside.
At the moment, only DoD employee names are being collected, although the official spearheading the project has said that expanding the database to include employees at other agencies is something they would pursue.
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