A personal face on one of the 4 grisly deaths in Iraq.

[madfloridian]

Man's Death in Iraq Stuns Pals
Ex-Winter Haven resident one of four murdered in grisly attack.

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040403/NEWS/404030352/1134

SNIP..."WINTER HAVEN -- Killed in Iraq this week while on a dangerous mission of mercy, former Winter Haven resident Stephen "Scott" Helvenston is remembered as an adventurer and exNavy SEAL who stood solidly behind the war effort.

His friends are still numb to the news of Helvenston's grisly death Wednesday -- he was one of four American civilian security workers ambushed by rebels...."END SNIP

This is an article with mixed messages. The social and educational picture painted is that of a loner by choice and a rebel by nature.(MY comment)

SNIP..."He spent the latter part of his junior year at what is now the Bill Duncan Opportunity Center in Lakeland, an alternative school for students with discipline problems. (MY NOTE:all teachers know this school well.)

Twyford, 39, who was a year ahead of Helvenston in high school, said his friend was 7 when his father died.

"(Helvenston) had an edge to him," Twyford said. "He constantly had to prove himself."

SNIP..."Fun-loving and goal-oriented, the future SEAL didn't associate with too many people outside of his small group of about a half dozen teammates, he said....."END SNIP

[leftofthedial]

1. mission of mercy?

what bullshit.

[madfloridian]

2. You noticed that, too?

Strange article, mixed in its intent. Consider the right wing nature of our area I guess. Yes, it is BS.

[Cat Atomic]

3. Odd how foreign mercenaries are the lowest of the low.

But American mercenaries are angelic disciples of truth and mercy.

[BJ]

4. Gettin' Demi Moore fit 'n buffed for "G.I. Jane" wasn't enough.

$2,000 per day to strut `round tottin' a M16 an' wearin' a kevlar vest over yer "civvies" ain't nothin' ta sneeze at!

And, hey, Reinhard Heydrich was a family guy too!

[OneBlueSky]

5. the ones who deserve our scorn are the people that hired these guys . . .

and paid them ridiculous daily fees while our volunteer servicemen and women are making slave wages and having to buy their own body armor . . . just one more example of the evil that is BushCo . . .

[madfloridian]

6. Struck by his charisma....does not fit.

SNIP..."Helvenston served 12 years as a member of the Navy's SEALs, the elite commando force. As such, he was sought by dozens of American contractors in need of his military expertise, Twyford said.

That he selected a mission of good will was no surprise, Twyford said.

"If you spent any time around him, you were drawn to his charisma," said Twyford, a pharmaceutical salesman who lives in Winter Haven and spoke almost weekly with Helvenston...."END SNIP

He does not sound at all charismatic to me.

[billybob537]

7. Pharmaceuticals salesman?

I wonder if he knows Rush???:hippie:

[wtmusic]

8. Stood solidly behind $500/day to kill people

more like :eyes:

[madfloridian]

9. Military Advisor to Stars Killed by Iraqi Rebels

http://extratv.warnerbros.com/dailynews/extra/0404/04_02e.html

SNIP..."He's the former Navy Seal who whipped some of Hollywood’s biggest movie stars into shape, including Demi Moore as "G.I. Jane." But now, it’s been revealed that Scott Helveston has paid the ultimate price to serve his country. Working for a private security firm in Iraq, Helveston was one of the four victims killed this week by Iraqi rebels....."

[cliss]

10. I agree with everyone here.

Mission of mercy....OK....

for his employer's bottom line, maybe. I've noticed that the topic of soldiers of fortune has a very bad ring to it here. These men did not evoke a huge amount of sympathy. I noticed the Oregonian newspaper ran the article this week about the deaths, and they called them "contractors".

The only opinion I have of the whole affair is that this was obviously a secret. Unfortunately for the Pentagon, the 4 deaths brought the whole sordid affair out into the open. These men knew what they were doing. It was a highly paid job, but I'm not sure if that was the leading motivator.

Anyone who signs on in an operation like this knows the risks.

[FearandLoathing41]

11. Even the repub's are asking questions why Blackwater, was in Falujah

They Just kick'ed a guy off AR15.com for daring speak his mind and questioning the fact, that Hollywood Scott Helveston, might have indeed been over there in Fallujah, to test Blended Metal Ammunition on some live subjects. Here's a couple of the posts, It's instructive when the gun guys go after each other and provides us with a much better picture of just, what was going on over there, related to Blackwaters little corperate super ammunition safari.


"From AR15.com"

"I'm just praying that one of our young, low paided Marines, does not get hit, with a blended metal .556 meant for a Blackwater Training sales video.

I doubt the sales video would be quite as appealing, to Blackwater's future customers, if the film was taken in a U.S. Army Surgical Hospital, with a young Marine as the victim instead of an Iraqi and that Blackwater had to admit "Whoops our super mercinary product testers, got waxed and lost a few of these puppies, but look!!! They do go right through Intercepter Vests and turn the targets inards to goo."

I'm all for destroying Fallujah after what happened to these guys, But I also think they were out there for the greater glory and future sales prospects of Blackwater.

Scott Helveston was a face that had been on TV and offered sales name recognition, all Blackwater needed was some trigger time on him in Iraq, to start putting that name recognition to work selling Training and Ammo.

I'm a Conservative Republican, not a DU'er, But I can recognize when I'm being fed a line of ultra patriot horse hockey. Scott Helverson was a highy paid celebrity mercenary, who finaly went to far and got smoked, not a grand American hero as many here would hold him up to be."


I love it when a Repub stands up on his little hind legs. States that the Emperor, might not be wearing any cloths and then gets prompty wasted, by the conservative powers that be.

Here's anouther snippet

"From AR15.com"

"I just think, Blackwater would'nt have minded having a little more "Live" ballistic data and film of a few dead iraqi's with holes in 'em, that you could throw a cat though, narrated by former Navy Seal turned telivision face man...Scott Helverston...and they sent him to the perfect place to do it...Fallujah. Unlike the DU'ers, I don't think they were doing anything so melodramatic as just walking around shooting people to test new ammo, but then again, if you send the ammo to someplace like Fallujah, your almost sure to have an opportunity to try it out..unless the Iraqi's suddenly turn over a new leaf and become good world citezens over night...the chance to shoot somebody with blended metal ammo over there is better than nearly any place on earth that I can think of, right off hand. You don't have to be a DU'er to wonder about that.


And yet, There's more


"From AR15.com"

"Scott Helveston was an animal we have not seen much of in this century, but used to be common in the Salon's of Europe in century's past...The Celebrity Mercenary.

If Helveston had been this great American Patriot, going to Iraq for god and Country, He'd have been doing it in uniform. As it was he died for Blackwater's investment in his being able to make Training and Sales Videos Featuring the Great Scott Helverson (As Seen on the Combat Missions TV show) on his return from Iraq."


If we end up going into Fallujah and killing a bunch of people over this, Then by god, I want to see a congressional investigation, into just what a bunch of $100,000.00+ a year, non-uniformed, mercenary hired professional killers were doing tear assing around Fallujah, for Blackwater Training Inc with little or no supervision.

I want to see the people from BlackWater, called to task, by senators asking hard questions about their increadibly high fee's and see their books opened...After all, they'r not the military, their a private entity and subject to scrutiny.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

12. Uh, Welcome to DU, Fearandloathing41, I think... Thanks for being frank

and not trying to pass yourself off as some bogus Dem. I don't agree with wholesale slaughter of anyone for revenge. Mutilating these guys was not right. But some kind of vengeful slaughter of these people solves nothing.

[theHandpuppet]

21. I think folks might find this article...

... will shed some light on why some in Fallujah were feeling such rage the day the mercenaries came barreling down their streets:

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/04/01/1621223

Make sure to catch a transcript of the interview which accompanies it.

[madfloridian]

13. That is interesting....Celebrity Mercenary.....

More from the NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/03/national/03VICT.html?th

Long article, very long, but good. It has one very telling statement about Helveston.

SNIP..."Though Mr. Helvenston was involved in covert operations as a Seal, his brother said, he considered none of them risky enough to feel proud of. This was, after all, a man who broke both legs in a parachute jump yet tried to walk from the crash sight unassisted, Jason Helvenston said.

"He sometimes felt he never served his country because he didn't encounter enough danger," Jason Helvenston said "That's why he went to Iraq."

No comment, except God help the Iraqi people if this is what we are sending there. This is no disrespect to the dead, just observations on what our government is doing.

[oneighty]

14. Navy SEAL

I wonder. So many phony SEALs-Rambo types. As a former member of Special Warfare I tend to question each and every claim to having been A SEAL. Those I have known are not reckless adventurers.

Just an observation. 180

[madfloridian]

18. oneighty, I value your observation.

Where's the book? :hi:

[oneighty]

20. Book is

About ninety percent ready for the printers. I have edited and made some changes. it will be about 238 pages in paperback size. I am not sure what I can afford to have printed right now. I will send you one by fall I think. OK?

[leftchick]

15. more like Mercenary Mission! .....

for cripes sakes the press covering for the reality in Iraq is really putting me over the edge... :grr:

[FearandLoathing41]

16. I wanna know Just how much Money, we'er paying to Blackwater.

This seems like a cozy little, You Scratch My Back, And I'll Scratch Yours business deal, I just wonder who's getting the big kick back money for setting up a service, where guy's making $100,000.00+ deliver Grocerys. (Course, I have my doubts, thats what they were actualy doing.)

There ought to be a congressional Budget Commitee, Looking in to the free for all spending of American Tax Dollars on Mercenary's, thats going on over there right now.

Theres a Election issue for Kerry, I'd like to see Kerry Walk into Bremers office over in Iraq and say, " YOU SPENT HOW MUCH ON THIS LITTLE RETIREMENT SLUSH FUND FOR FORMER SPECIAL FORCES GUYS!!!"

[alcuno]

17. Does anyone remember who the Iraqi was before the war who said

essentially that they would behead Americans and do all sorts of other horrific things to them? I think it was Hussein or Aziz.

Does no one in our government pay attention to history? This is right from the end the British occupation of Iraq playbook.

These men were fathers, crothers, and sons and I feel very sorry for their families. I don't care if they were mercenaries, I can still feel for them and their families.

[VOX]

19. "Soldiers of Good Fortune"

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2003/05/ma_365_01.html

Mother Jones, May/June 2003 (not a typo)

<snip>
...Last fall {2002}, Blackwater signed a $35.7 million contract with the Pentagon to train more than 10,000 sailors from Virginia, Texas, and California each year in "force protection." Other contracts are so secret, says Blackwater president Gary Jackson, that he can't tell one federal agency about the business he's doing with another...
<snip>

[leesa]

22. What crap. Sounds like a 'let's kill all ragheads' asshole to me.

[madfloridian]

23. Letter from a local father with a son in Iraq, concerned about mercenaries

I have no idea if the facts stated here are true, but the father believes them to be so. I am just posting it to show the feeling many are getting about this.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi Everyone, ........(name deleted) sent me this today. He sent it to the Ledger but
just in case it doesn't get published, he said it was all right to send it
around. By the way, Bob's son is stationed in Bagdad. His name is Richard
and I thought we could remember him in our prayers.

Bob has given a lot of time and energy to Jeff's campaign.

Thanks,------

Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2004 4:34 PM

I sent this to the Ledger this afternoon. ..........

Subject: Possible Issue for Kerry

Mercenary Troops Defending the US Military This morning I learned of the
deaths of 4 American civilians in Iraq, who were employed under a contract
to the Pentagon to provide security for convoys that deliver food in the
Fallujah battle zone area.

From the newspapers, TV, Internet and radio, I learned that these Americans
were employees of an American contractor named Blackwater USA located in
Moyock, NC.

Although I am horrified by the nature of their deaths, I am also concerned
as to why our government is employing civilian mercenaries in a US military
war zone. According to the news reports, these mercenaries are being paid
over $500 per day to provide military security for the United States Army!

This must be very disturbing to our military personnel in Iraq as their
average pay is $70 per day.

No wonder "Senior American commanders and Pentagon officials are warning of
an exodus of the military's most seasoned members of Special Operations to
higher-paying civilian security jobs in places like Baghdad and Kabul, just
as they are playing an increasingly pivotal role in combating terror and
helping conduct nation-building operations worldwide." as reported in the
New York Times on March 29.

"Support Our Troops" sounds patriotic but I do not understand why our
government after recently reducing the combat pay and cutting the veteran
benefits for "Our Troops", hires mercenaries and at exorbitant costs.

Name excluded.