Blackstone man injured by bomb in Iraq

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.milforddailynews.com/homepage/x1029521647

By Aaron Wasserman/Daily News staff
GHS
Tue Dec 11, 2007, 12:41 AM EST

BLACKSTONE - With her husband in Iraq for the second time in two decades, Christine Johnson tried not to think of the dangers he might encounter.

"You don't think about it," she said last night, sitting at her kitchen table. "I have three children to raise throughout the day - just that he's staying safe, hope you don't see police at your door. It's the last thing you want to see at 7 a.m."

But Johnson faced that exact situation Sunday morning, when police arrived at her door and said her husband, Billy Johnson, 39, a former Framingham Police officer, had been seriously wounded in Iraq, where he is working for a private security contractor. His vehicle, the lead in a protective security convoy, hit a roadside bomb.

Billy Johnson's right leg has been amputated below the knee, he suffered head trauma and a collapsed lung, but he is expected to survive, his wife said.

Three co-workers in the vehicle were killed, reported the security contractor, SOC-SMG Inc. of Minden, Nev.

[Marrah_G]

1. I started to reply to this

and then I erased it.

I lived the next town over from Blackstone for 12 years. It is a tiny, tiny little town on the Mass/Rhode Island border.

Then I saw he was a security contractor and now I don't know how I feel. I feel badly that he was hurt...but he was there by choice, being paid alot of money, alot more then our soldiers are making.

I don't know how I feel and that bothers me.....bleh

[I work for workers]

5. Our Soldiers and Marines are there by choice too.

The man was a former Marine and police officer trying to defuse a bomb. Too many innocents are killed indiscriminately by bombs in Iraq, and anyone trying to stop one has done good in my book. This is tragic any way you slice it.

[Marrah_G]

6. They aren't there by choice in the same way

They also get paid a HUGE amount more then our soldiers.

Yes it is tragic and he may have been a really great guy. I just really have an hard time with understanding how someone could go there by choice, willing to participate just because the money is good. I'd feel the same if this were my brother. Many mixed emotions. I wish the whole damn thing was over.

[I work for workers]

7. I know a few guys in Iraq who have looked into contractor work after they get out of the service.

They want to stay because they want to win, but they realize they will have an easier job and make more cash if they go into the private sector. Contractors also get more perks then the military does. To quote one friend, "A lot is banned on the military servers, that's why we try to hang out with the Blackwater guys."

My point is, a lot of people aren't doing it for the money, they are doing it because they support the mission. They just realize that actual military personal are getting a raw deal when it comes to money, and many of them have loved one they want to be able to support. If you want to do something to cut back on contractors, make sure your Congressional Representatives know you support an increase in military pay. Higher pay for the military = fewer people wanting to go the contractor route.

[Aviation Pro]

2. SOC-SMG Inc., yet another one of these pop-up security contractors currently....

...running amok in Iraq. Hey, has-beens and wannabes you can rejoin the service up to the age of 46. Oh, what's that you say? You were constrained by the UCMJ and abiding by the Geneva Convention? In other words, you couldn't hack the discipline, you steroid-enhanced, rogue jerkoffs.

[madokie]

3. sorry to hear that but you know

I have no sympathy for anyone who is doing anything to make life worst for the Iraqi people, which his being there is doing. sorry

call me whatever but he had a choice early on and he took the one he took which lead to where he is today

[Ian David]

4. I don't give a shit what happens to the mercenaries. I don't wish them harm.

Neither do I wish them well.

I simply couldn't give a shit what happens to them.

I wouldn't stop in the street to give a mercenary a pressure bandage if I saw one bleeding to death.