Torn between money and safety, some US workers flee Iraq

He went to Iraq for the money, he admits. But after a month of working while mortars dropped all around him, civilian contractor Clarence Fountain - shaken and "straddling the fence" about whether he should stay - called a close friend back home in Houston and asked him to help pray for an answer.

A day later, Mr. Fountain's decision was clear: a barrage of mortar attacks at Camp Anaconda that killed one person and put many others in danger convinced him it was time to go home.

"We were in the middle of an attack, with the alarms sounding and people heading for cover, and they told us to continue working. At that point, I knew it was time to come home," he says. "At first, it was about the money. Then it got to the point where I started questioning myself, 'When does it stop being about the money? When does my family start taking the front seat again?' "

Fountain's decision to leave came exactly a week ago. After several days of paperwork and plane flights, he is back home in Humble, just north of Houston. He's one of an untold number of contractors fleeing Iraq as attacks and kidnappings of civilians escalate.

Most who sign on as contract workers say the money is just too good to pass up. Fountain's cargo-document specialist job, for instance, pulls down $30,000 to $40,000 a year here in the US - and triple that in Iraq. Others say patriotism and a sense of adventure fuel their decisions to go.

The US military has long used civilian contractors to help cook meals, wash clothes, and collect trash during deployments. Outsourcing these mundane tasks frees up soldiers to concentrate on fighting. But the number of civilians needed - and the danger involved - has never been greater than in Iraq, analysts say.

Under its contract with the Defense Department, Halliburton has 24,000 employees in the Iraq-Kuwait region. Some 30 employees and subcontractors have been killed since the company arrived last spring. Now, as the first two weeks of April mark the deadliest of the war - with 87 US soldiers and contractors killed, and seven civilian contractors missing - many civilian workers say the money is not worth their lives.

"I saw it as an easy way to make money, but I'll figure out another way," says Stacy Clark, who returned to Houston the same day as Fountain, cutting short his year-long contract with Halliburton subsidiary KBR.

"I have two 16-year-olds who are fixing to need trucks and both are doing extremely well in school," he says. "I just wanted to pay off some of my bills and sock away some money for their college tuition; $80,000 tax free sounds real good, but I value my family more than I do money."

Doing a contractor's most dangerous work, this truck driver noticed an increase in violence about three weeks ago, and last Friday - the same day civilian Tommy Hamill was kidnapped - his convoy was ambushed on the road north of Baghdad.

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