thedrifter
05-27-07, 05:45 AM
Service doesn't end with loss of limb
Published Sunday May 27 2007
By LORI YOUNT
lyount@beaufortgazette.com
843-986-5531
Just a month ago, former Goose Creek police officer and current DynCorp employee Shaun Stiltner was riding in the back of a Humvee on his way to train Iraqi police officers when a bomb exploded. He slipped out the door without noticeable injury as fire quickly engulfed the Humvee, but the Iraqi interpreter sitting next to him didn't -- his legs were blown off.
Stiltner rushed back to pull the man from the approaching blaze.
He "didn't want to see him burn to death," he would later say.
Stiltner suffered second- and third-degree burns to his hands as he and an airman in the convoy dragged the interpreter to safety.
Since then Beaufort resident Tim Newman, who started the employee assistance program at DynCorp this year, has been in constant contact with Stiltner and his wife as Stiltner undergoes outpatient rehabilitation in Augusta, Ga. Newman is even helping Stiltner and his wife work through workman's compensation insurance issues.
"He's one of those guys if I was back on the road and he was back on the road, he's one of those cops I'd want backing me up," said Stiltner, who is planning to return to Iraq with DynCorp once his wounds heal.
Such feelings of police officer camaraderie are exactly what Newman said he had in mind when he went to the president of DynCorp last year to begin a support program for the hundreds of officers injured and the almost 20 families that lost a loved one while they were training police overseas.
Texas-based DynCorp is contracted by the Department of State to hire experienced police officers to train civilian police in areas such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo. Since 1994, about 5,000 officers have worked for the company's civilian policing program.
And being experienced law enforcement officers, they have become accustomed to a certain level of care and fraternity, which Newman said is something the private contractor is just beginning to understand.
And Newman -- who lost his left leg and suffered substantial internal injuries after his law enforcement tour with DynCorp -- would know.
"What I didn't have was the personal outreach like in the states," he said.
'BLOWN UP'
After 18 years with the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office, Newman, a training officer with the rank of master sergeant, decided he felt he had accomplished his goals there, and a contract with DynCorp seemed a promising opportunity.
"I had a challenge," Newman said last week while reclining on his couch, both legs -- one puckered with scars and one titanium -- propped on the coffee table in his Lady's Island home. "I didn't go for the money. You go to do something different."
But the pay DynCorp offered wasn't bad, either. He signed a $75,000, one-year contract in July 2004. Now, annual salaries start at $134,000.
"You don't get paid for danger," Newman said, adding that service members are paid much less to face the same perils. "What you're getting paid for is expertise."
A few months after training Iraqi police, Newman, with his SWAT training, found himself promoted to captain of a team that ferried police and military officers in armored Suburbans down Baghdad's notoriously violent airport road.
When his contract came up for renewal, he signed on for another year.
"I felt like I was doing a great job," Newman said. "It was a fun job."
But his overseas work abruptly ended Sept. 2, 2005, when a roadside improvised explosive device -- now commonly to referred to as an IED -- tore through the front passenger door of the Suburban he was driving. The passenger in the front seat, L. Vince Kimbrell, a former Spartanburg police officer and Newman's good friend, was killed. Newman was thrown from the vehicle, with pieces of the armor lodged in his torso and left leg and his right leg shorn off at midthigh.
"The wild thing is I was conscious for the whole thing," he said, adding that he remembers feeling little pain. Once at a hospital in Germany, though, he was put in a drug-induced coma for 22 days.
Months of rehabilitation followed when he returned to the United States and received treatment at Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah. During this time, Newman said he had no complaints about how DynCorp handled his case -- his wife was flown to the German hospital even before he got there -- and the paychecks came on time and medical bills were paid.
However, Newman said he wished there was something more.
RECOVERY
So, after a year of rehabilitation, Newman decided to get back to work, and he sat down with DynCorp officials to pitch an outreach program.
It turned out to be just what the company was looking for, and the CIVPOL Employee Assistance Program launched in January.
"The inspiration behind the whole program is Tim Newman," said DynCorp support manager Mike Warren, a former Texas police officer who oversees the program and worked with Newman in Iraq. "We wanted to improve on our assistance we provided to police officers."
The program focuses on outreach to injured officers and visiting them and helping them find all the benefits available to them, Warren said.
Besides being an employee advocate available to injured officers and their families, Newman spends at least a week or two every month in Virginia teaching at new-officer orientations to inform them of the program and their benefits.
Newman said at first he was concerned dealing with the distressed families would be depressing, but it has ended up helping in his own recovery.
"One of the best things for (post traumatic stress disorder) is recounting your experience, or when I teach in Virginia, I relive the experience," he said. "There's a fulfillment I get from dealing with families, with spouses that have so much bravery and courage."
REACHING OUT
However, Newman isn't stopping his mission with DynCorp's program. He has helped organize a CIVPOL Alumni Association that will offer support and fight for recognition for international police officers.
DynCorp has made donations to get the organization on its feet, but Newman said association leaders hope to register it as a nonprofit that will be supported by donations from several independent contractors.
The association will debut in July with a PTSD conference in Irving, Texas, in which the organization will fly about 200 former officers who trained overseas to talk about and expose the civilian police to resources to deal with possible emotional trauma.
Also at the top of the association's agenda is to have about 20 contracted officers who died while training police in combat areas added to the National Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington, D.C., that has typically been used to officers killed in the U.S., Newman said.
IMAGE CHANGE
Through the DynCorp employee assistance program and the alumni association, Newman wants to accomplish a larger mission -- to change the way people see police officers who work for independent contractors.
"They'd say, 'They're contractors or mercenaries,'" Newman said.
Newman said law enforcement agencies often show bias against police who resign to take a job as an overseas trainer for an independent contractor and are reluctant to hire them once they have returned.
Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner said he discourages deputies from signing up with contractors.
"I prefer them to stay; I tell them to look at the big picture," he said, adding that he refuses the contractors' recruiters access to the Sheriff's Office because he sees them as preying on often underpaid deputies. "If they want to recruit, they're not going to recruit my troops out of my office."
However, Tanner said that if a deputy does decide to work a tour with a private contractor, he doesn't hold it against him and has hired some back.
Beaufort Deputy Chief of Police Matt Clancy said his department has had four officers choose to work overseas and hired back the two who reapplied when they returned.
"I don't have anything against it," Clancy said. "They were good officers when they left and good officers now."
Newman said the association is working with police organizations to show them the upside to the experience.
"They trained people who don't speak the same language they do," he said. "They'll end up being top-notch when it comes to safety and not being complacent. They have those tools in the tool bag."
RECOGNITION
About a week ago, Newman and Stiltner were awarded Quilts of Valor at a surprise ceremony at The Citadel in Charleston. There they found out they also will receive the National Law Enforcement Citation from the Military Order of the Purple Heart, which is presented to police, firefighters and emergency personnel injured or killed in the line of duty. Recipients are nominated by a Purple Heart recipient.
Butch Bumgardner, who works with Stiltner's wife at Berkeley County EMS, nominated the two men because he said he didn't feel recognized after injuries he suffered in Iraq forced him to retire from the Army, and he wanted to make sure others felt appreciated.
"They left this country to take the war back to the terrorists," Bumgardner said. "It'd be nice if somebody said 'thank you.' They may not have been soldiers, but in a sense, they were."
Although Newman won't be able to patrol the streets of Baghdad or Beaufort County again, he said he doesn't regret his choice.
"Everybody would expect mine would be a life ended," Newman said. "But the only thing it did was made everything better. My only regret is losing Vince."
Ellie
Published Sunday May 27 2007
By LORI YOUNT
lyount@beaufortgazette.com
843-986-5531
Just a month ago, former Goose Creek police officer and current DynCorp employee Shaun Stiltner was riding in the back of a Humvee on his way to train Iraqi police officers when a bomb exploded. He slipped out the door without noticeable injury as fire quickly engulfed the Humvee, but the Iraqi interpreter sitting next to him didn't -- his legs were blown off.
Stiltner rushed back to pull the man from the approaching blaze.
He "didn't want to see him burn to death," he would later say.
Stiltner suffered second- and third-degree burns to his hands as he and an airman in the convoy dragged the interpreter to safety.
Since then Beaufort resident Tim Newman, who started the employee assistance program at DynCorp this year, has been in constant contact with Stiltner and his wife as Stiltner undergoes outpatient rehabilitation in Augusta, Ga. Newman is even helping Stiltner and his wife work through workman's compensation insurance issues.
"He's one of those guys if I was back on the road and he was back on the road, he's one of those cops I'd want backing me up," said Stiltner, who is planning to return to Iraq with DynCorp once his wounds heal.
Such feelings of police officer camaraderie are exactly what Newman said he had in mind when he went to the president of DynCorp last year to begin a support program for the hundreds of officers injured and the almost 20 families that lost a loved one while they were training police overseas.
Texas-based DynCorp is contracted by the Department of State to hire experienced police officers to train civilian police in areas such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo. Since 1994, about 5,000 officers have worked for the company's civilian policing program.
And being experienced law enforcement officers, they have become accustomed to a certain level of care and fraternity, which Newman said is something the private contractor is just beginning to understand.
And Newman -- who lost his left leg and suffered substantial internal injuries after his law enforcement tour with DynCorp -- would know.
"What I didn't have was the personal outreach like in the states," he said.
'BLOWN UP'
After 18 years with the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office, Newman, a training officer with the rank of master sergeant, decided he felt he had accomplished his goals there, and a contract with DynCorp seemed a promising opportunity.
"I had a challenge," Newman said last week while reclining on his couch, both legs -- one puckered with scars and one titanium -- propped on the coffee table in his Lady's Island home. "I didn't go for the money. You go to do something different."
But the pay DynCorp offered wasn't bad, either. He signed a $75,000, one-year contract in July 2004. Now, annual salaries start at $134,000.
"You don't get paid for danger," Newman said, adding that service members are paid much less to face the same perils. "What you're getting paid for is expertise."
A few months after training Iraqi police, Newman, with his SWAT training, found himself promoted to captain of a team that ferried police and military officers in armored Suburbans down Baghdad's notoriously violent airport road.
When his contract came up for renewal, he signed on for another year.
"I felt like I was doing a great job," Newman said. "It was a fun job."
But his overseas work abruptly ended Sept. 2, 2005, when a roadside improvised explosive device -- now commonly to referred to as an IED -- tore through the front passenger door of the Suburban he was driving. The passenger in the front seat, L. Vince Kimbrell, a former Spartanburg police officer and Newman's good friend, was killed. Newman was thrown from the vehicle, with pieces of the armor lodged in his torso and left leg and his right leg shorn off at midthigh.
"The wild thing is I was conscious for the whole thing," he said, adding that he remembers feeling little pain. Once at a hospital in Germany, though, he was put in a drug-induced coma for 22 days.
Months of rehabilitation followed when he returned to the United States and received treatment at Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah. During this time, Newman said he had no complaints about how DynCorp handled his case -- his wife was flown to the German hospital even before he got there -- and the paychecks came on time and medical bills were paid.
However, Newman said he wished there was something more.
RECOVERY
So, after a year of rehabilitation, Newman decided to get back to work, and he sat down with DynCorp officials to pitch an outreach program.
It turned out to be just what the company was looking for, and the CIVPOL Employee Assistance Program launched in January.
"The inspiration behind the whole program is Tim Newman," said DynCorp support manager Mike Warren, a former Texas police officer who oversees the program and worked with Newman in Iraq. "We wanted to improve on our assistance we provided to police officers."
The program focuses on outreach to injured officers and visiting them and helping them find all the benefits available to them, Warren said.
Besides being an employee advocate available to injured officers and their families, Newman spends at least a week or two every month in Virginia teaching at new-officer orientations to inform them of the program and their benefits.
Newman said at first he was concerned dealing with the distressed families would be depressing, but it has ended up helping in his own recovery.
"One of the best things for (post traumatic stress disorder) is recounting your experience, or when I teach in Virginia, I relive the experience," he said. "There's a fulfillment I get from dealing with families, with spouses that have so much bravery and courage."
REACHING OUT
However, Newman isn't stopping his mission with DynCorp's program. He has helped organize a CIVPOL Alumni Association that will offer support and fight for recognition for international police officers.
DynCorp has made donations to get the organization on its feet, but Newman said association leaders hope to register it as a nonprofit that will be supported by donations from several independent contractors.
The association will debut in July with a PTSD conference in Irving, Texas, in which the organization will fly about 200 former officers who trained overseas to talk about and expose the civilian police to resources to deal with possible emotional trauma.
Also at the top of the association's agenda is to have about 20 contracted officers who died while training police in combat areas added to the National Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington, D.C., that has typically been used to officers killed in the U.S., Newman said.
IMAGE CHANGE
Through the DynCorp employee assistance program and the alumni association, Newman wants to accomplish a larger mission -- to change the way people see police officers who work for independent contractors.
"They'd say, 'They're contractors or mercenaries,'" Newman said.
Newman said law enforcement agencies often show bias against police who resign to take a job as an overseas trainer for an independent contractor and are reluctant to hire them once they have returned.
Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner said he discourages deputies from signing up with contractors.
"I prefer them to stay; I tell them to look at the big picture," he said, adding that he refuses the contractors' recruiters access to the Sheriff's Office because he sees them as preying on often underpaid deputies. "If they want to recruit, they're not going to recruit my troops out of my office."
However, Tanner said that if a deputy does decide to work a tour with a private contractor, he doesn't hold it against him and has hired some back.
Beaufort Deputy Chief of Police Matt Clancy said his department has had four officers choose to work overseas and hired back the two who reapplied when they returned.
"I don't have anything against it," Clancy said. "They were good officers when they left and good officers now."
Newman said the association is working with police organizations to show them the upside to the experience.
"They trained people who don't speak the same language they do," he said. "They'll end up being top-notch when it comes to safety and not being complacent. They have those tools in the tool bag."
RECOGNITION
About a week ago, Newman and Stiltner were awarded Quilts of Valor at a surprise ceremony at The Citadel in Charleston. There they found out they also will receive the National Law Enforcement Citation from the Military Order of the Purple Heart, which is presented to police, firefighters and emergency personnel injured or killed in the line of duty. Recipients are nominated by a Purple Heart recipient.
Butch Bumgardner, who works with Stiltner's wife at Berkeley County EMS, nominated the two men because he said he didn't feel recognized after injuries he suffered in Iraq forced him to retire from the Army, and he wanted to make sure others felt appreciated.
"They left this country to take the war back to the terrorists," Bumgardner said. "It'd be nice if somebody said 'thank you.' They may not have been soldiers, but in a sense, they were."
Although Newman won't be able to patrol the streets of Baghdad or Beaufort County again, he said he doesn't regret his choice.
"Everybody would expect mine would be a life ended," Newman said. "But the only thing it did was made everything better. My only regret is losing Vince."
Ellie