Family dealing with challenges of Tampa contractor's death

Nov. 13--TAMPA -- When Mark Rose heard the news that his friend James Damon Creach had been killed in a shooting rampage in Jordan, he knew he had to do something to help the family.

So with Cathy Valenza, best friend of Creach's wife Heather, Rose started a GoFundMe page.

The goal was to raise $100,000 to help pay expenses and offset loss of income and the projected delay in insurance payments, which require a conclusion to any investigations before they can start.

With both Jordan and the U.S. conducting the investigations, it could take a long time for insurance payments to begin.

"There eventually comes a time when emotions run dry and the truth of a practical life with financial obligations become reality," Rose wrote on the GoFundMe page. "This fund is for the many who know the family and are asking what they can do, or for others who want to support a good man, a former Police Officer, an American Hero, and a family in time of great need."

For Rose and Valenza, Creach's death is both a tragedy and an introduction to the shadowy world of private contractors, tens of thousands of whom risk their lives every day in dangerous places.

Along with Creach, a 42-year-old father of three who lived in New Tampa, Lloyd "Carl" Fields Jr. of Cape Coral and four others were killed and six people were wounded when a Jordanian police captain opened fire at a police training center in Amman.

Creach and Fields are among more than 3,600 U.S. contractors killed overseas since the jihadi attacks of 9/11.

The deaths come at a time when companies are scaling back benefits packages to reduce costs in an age of sharp competition for diminishing government dollars, placing financial burdens on families of contractors who have been killed or injured overseas.

Creach's employer, Minnesota-based DECO Inc., said it exceeds stadards but would not elaborate.

"The benefits DECO provides its personnel is proprietary, however I can confirm DECO goes above and beyond industry standards," said owner Derek Dorr.

Rose said he knew nothing of the world of contracting nor of his friend's role in it.

"We knew Damon the husband, the dad," Rose said. "I know him as a guy that worked out with me, brought his kids to their lessons and picked them up. That is the Damon we know. This whole international thing? That's not the Damon I knew."

But when he found out, Rose did what he thought his friend would want -- take action to help the family.

"Next month there will be a mortgage payment," Rose said. "Next month there will be utility bills. Sign-up fees. Next month there is the normal stuff that goes on and next month Damon Creach won't be bringing home a pay check. It just rips your heart out."

Though the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are over, and the U.S. has a limited force on the ground in the fight against Islamic State, the number of U.S. troops there is dwarfed by civilian contractors who do everything from provide security to intelligence analysis to training.

There are currently about 3,500 troops in Iraq and about 10,000 in Afghanistan. In the Middle East alone, there are nearly 44,000 civilians working as contractors, about 17,000 of them U.S. citizens, according to the latest figures from Tampa-based U.S. Central Command.

The bulk of all civilian contractors in the region -- about 30,000 of them -- are in Afghanistan with another 1,400 in Iraq.

The State Department, which paid for the contract Creach was working under, says there are about 40 contractors in Jordan, working at the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement. The department could not provide figures for the total number of contractors it uses.

The overall number of contractors used by the federal government is hard to pin down.

In March, the Congressional Budget Office told Congress it "is unaware of any comprehensive information about the size of the federal government's contracted workforce." However, using a database of federal contracts, the office determined that federal agencies spent more than $500 billion for contracted products and services in 2012.

But one thing is certain: The work is often dangerous.

The Department of Labor tracks deaths and injuries among U.S. civilian contractors working overseas on all U.S. government contracts through a mandatory insurance program it runs and companies are required to use.

More than 47,000 contractors lost four or more days of work because of injuries. But the Labor Department acknowledges its numbers are not complete. A recent study by Brown University suggests that nearly 7,000 contractors have been killed since 9/11 -- nearly double the official figure of 3,600 and similar to the number of troops killed.

Those who have had the job say the work is similar to what their uniformed colleagues do, but the way they are treated -- while overseas and afterward -- is often quite different.

Many contractors are veterans who see more combat as civilians than they did while in the service, said Scott Neil, a retired Green Beret master sergeant living in Tampa who worked as a contractor after leaving the service. An improvised explosive device or other deadly threats don't make a distinction between troops and civilians.

Five years ago, Neil said, his friend retired Army Master Sgt. Robert Pittman was killed in Afghanistan while working as a civilian contractor.

Contractors who are injured often face great challenges, Neil said.

"The military system will patch you up, but it's not the same kind of medical pipeline for contractors, even if the contractor is side-by-side with a soldier."

Neil went back to Afghanistan in 2011 as a civilian contractor advising Army Gen. David Petraeus -- at the time, head of U.S. forces there.

The treatment for contractors, he said, "is 100 percent different" than those who wear the uniform. And afterward, there is no Department of Veterans Affairs assistance for those who have wounds seen or unseen from work in a combat zone.

Nor are there the kinds of charitable organizations that work on behalf of fallen and injured troops and their families.

The benefits contractors and their families receive are largely dependent on the employer.

Those benefits are starting to fall away in a stressed economy, said Bob Yuill, a retired Army colonel who runs Yuill Strategic Solutions.

"Everyone starts squeezing the tomato to get as much out of it as they can," Yuill said. "Everyone is becoming cutthroat. So benefits are things that go by the wayside. There is no other way."

A few years ago, Yuill, a member of the Tampa chapter of the National Defense Industry Association, helped create a scholarship program for the children of a contractor killed while helping test a new rigid hull boat for commandos.

"There's nothing out there to take care of contractors killed in combat or the line of duty associated with their jobs," Yuill said.

Local contractors who have personnel overseas say Creachs death hit home.

"Obviously, we are always worried about the safety of our folks out there, especially in some of these high-risk areas," said Greg Celestan, owner of the Celestar Corp.

Like DECO Inc., Celestar has contracts with the State Department to provide law enforcement training, similar to what Creach was doing when he was killed. According to the State Department, Creach -- a former police officer in Virginia Beach, Virginia, -- was helping train police officers from the neighboring Palestinian territory.

Celestan said his company tries "to mitigate risk as best as possible, by making sure they have as much safety equipment and course-of-action as possible."

One of the "occupational risks is that there is not a whole lot you can really do," he said. "You do not have the opportunity to vet everyone who has access to a certain area, so there is always risk involved."

Government contracts like those issued by the State Department require that companies like Celestan's carry what's called Defense Base Act insurance -- essentially, Workers Compensation coverage for U.S. civilians working overseas.

With 20 to 35 people overseas, Celestar also carries additional insurance, "to make sure if something happens, we take care of them and their family. Global medical insurance, evacuation insurance. We have had folks who had health and medical issues evacuated back to the states before."

Tim Jones, president of Cybrix Group, a Tampa information technology and data security firm, has contractors working overseas and says an investigation like the one in the Jordan shootings is complex. It will take time and no insurance payments can be made until it is completed.

Even when the reviews by the U.S. and Jordan are complete, no findings are final until the two countries agree on them.

Like Celestan, Jones said his company has plans in place in case of emergencies.

"First and foremost, worry about the family," Jones said. "Priority one is making sure that you bend over backwards to help family members."

Jones says there are a wide range of factors to consider.

"It could be a financial problem initially, but more important, their welfare and well-being. Making sure they get any psychological counseling and support they want. A lot won't want it, but they need it and have to work on that, so you have to make sure they get it."

Mark Rose met the Creach family a few years ago when Heather Creach brought the couple's two sons to the Mark Rose Sports Academy, an athletic program he runs in New Tampa. He got to know Damon Creach through their mutual interest in Crossfit workouts.

Now, Rose is serving as a spokesman of sorts for the family, which is "worn out and emotionally exhausted" from the ordeal.

Friday evening, the Damon Creach page at GoFundMe.com had raised more than $23,000 in 124 donations.

"That's great," Rose said. "It shows that people really care."

There will likely be a funeral service for Creach next weekend in his home state of Missouri. Rose was unsure what kind of memorial might be held in Tampa.

"We get disconnected from the stories of the conflicts in the Middle East and war," he said. "To us, he was just a guy. Just a regular guy. But the world he was in was connected to that and now he's not coming home. That's really sobering. It's hard to grasp."

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