# Overseas plumbing



## tnoisaw (Jun 16, 2009)

I'm writting this on my iPhone so it probably will be full of errors-spelling ect. 

I was asked to write about my experiance when I went to Afganastan to plumb. I was not there long-about one month. I had to move to Florida from Montana to help my dad. 

I worked for KBR. I ended up at Bagram AFB in Kabal, Afganastan. I slept about a half mile from where we kept the terrorists. I will first discuss my KBR experiance. 

KBR paid very good. A lisenced plumber got 120g's a year- tax free if you are in country for more than 330 days in a year. Besides the pay, KBR pretty much sucked. 

My sleeping quarters reminded me of those third world home I see in National Geografic. My room was about 7x7, all plywood and uninsulated (it gets cold there). You had one outlet and no light. You had to buy a lamp at the BX but good luck finding a lightbulb. I used my flashlight. I did not have a door- I bought a blanket to use as a door. 

The food was good. It was cooked by KBR. Much different than Kandhar-the food was prepared by a United Nations company. Talk about nasty! It was the kind of food my dog would rub in but not eat. 

The job. Twelve hour days, seven days a week of almost complete boredom. I mostly rode with another guy around the base hoping to get a call. If you got a call good luck fixing the problem. The shop had about 120 fittings bins with about twenty fittings total. Part to repair the problems were very hard to come buy. To top it off it was old Soviet plumbing. It was like schedule 80 plastic with a threaded connections. 

We had a job at the tower once to fix a screw up by another company. It was a one man job. We had three lisnced plumbers and ten locals for this one job. 

We replaced a bunch of toilet tanks once. The tanks were made in Egypt and made of thin plastic. Yikes!

We had about a dozen locals working with us. They were good workers too. They made five bucks a day which was goog pay for them. They lived in mud houses with no running water or electricity. Their was one guy I didn't trust. I didn't like the way he looks at us. The others were good and spoke English. 

We stopped in Dubai UAE on the way there and back. We were put up in a very nice hotel with excelant food. In Dubai we took a charter flight into Afganastan. 

Living arrangments can vary depending where you were. In Kandahar you shared a twelve man Army tent- no privacy. If you get the roving job you go to work via helicopter and sleep where you find a place- often outside. I did talk to one plumber who worked that way and often went into SF camps. He said he tagged along on some missions. Weather it was true or not I don't know. 

Danger- it's a war zone- it's dangerous. I heard a lot of gun fire at Kandahar but I think it was an Army firing range. Kanahar often got rockets, a few lnded near plumbers. Luckily they didn't have time to arm them so nothing was damaged. 

This is going long so I'll stop there. If anyone has any questions please ask. Like I said, I wasn't there LNG so I'm not an expert and mt experiance will very from others.


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## uaplumber (Jun 16, 2008)

I was in Kandahar for 8 months. Lots of boredom for sure.

I was in the O&M shop there


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## Pipedoc (Jun 14, 2009)

Holy smokes! All that and a paycheck too!

What was your overall experiance? Would you do it again?


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## Optimus Primer (May 20, 2009)

Incase I missed it what's KBR? Did you work as a cilvilian or in the military?


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## tnoisaw (Jun 16, 2009)

house plumber said:


> Incase I missed it what's KBR? Did you work as a cilvilian or in the military?


Kellog Brown and Root
civilian


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## tnoisaw (Jun 16, 2009)

Pipedoc said:


> Holy smokes! All that and a paycheck too!
> 
> What was your overall experiance? Would you do it again?


I'm looking into going to Dubai to work. It would take a little more desperation to go back with KBR. 

Another thing that really bugged me was not being able to have my cell phone. They said it was due to security reasons because the enemy may trianglated our position. Problem with that excuse was that about every soilder I saw had a cell phone.


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## Optimus Primer (May 20, 2009)

tnoisaw said:


> Kellog Brown and Root
> civilian


 
Oh crap. I have an uncle that worked for Brown and Root. Didn't the become Enterprise Construction? I first became a plumber's helper at a prison my uncle was running for Enterprise in Hardee County, Ivey's Mechanical. And they were going to Kuwait after the first gulf war. Are you allowed to take weapons there, or do they give you something?


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## tnoisaw (Jun 16, 2009)

uaplumber said:


> I was in Kandahar for 8 months. Lots of boredom for sure.
> 
> I was in the O&M shop there


Eight months of eating that food and your still alive? I'd rather eat c-rations. Yes, I'm aging myself.


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## 422 plumber (Jul 31, 2008)

Thanks for posting, this is good info for those thinking of thanking the overseas plunge.


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## Plasticman (Oct 14, 2008)

I went to kbr's website a few weeks ago to see what it was about. I heard about it through a friend. After reading up on it I decided that if I have no work here, I can always pick up aluminum cans. Cans for sale, cans for sale!! Yall drink more beer!


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## tnoisaw (Jun 16, 2009)

house plumber said:


> Oh crap. I have an uncle that worked for Brown and Root. Didn't the become Enterprise Construction? I first became a plumber's helper at a prison my uncle was running for Enterprise in Hardee County, Ivey's Mechanical. And they were going to Kuwait after the first gulf war. Are you allowed to take weapons there, or do they give you something?


You are not issued a weapon nor can you take one. There are bunkles scattered about in case of rocket attack. Of course it's usually better to stay where you are and as low as you can go. Many people have been wounded or killed running for a bunker. 

I've heard stories of contractors (construction) be givin a weapon. For the most part I think are are just that-stories. Personally, if I were stuck in that knd of situation I'd do what I could to fight back. Putting my head between my legs and kissing my you know what goodbye without a fight is a non-option.


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## SlickRick (Sep 3, 2009)

Been there done that, got the "T" shirt 12 mo. to the day, Tallil A.B Iraq
Would i do it again? Not in this lifetime. KBR special forces plumber, me and my spider / scorpion killing, fly swatting, Hoji babysitting, sore feet having, sun burnt, sand eating, wind blown,camel riding, self waiting for my 3.200000 Iraqi Denar to be worth something, If I would have worked as much here I could be retired. We went from 25 KBR employees to 1200 and I had to do the plumbing for Tallil plus I ran the roads from Kuwait to Bagdad setting up and maintaining remote radio sites (8-10 man out post) met a lot of good soldiers and tried to get them (stole) materials they needed but could not get. The money was not worth being away from my family, but what I was able to do for the soldiers outside the normal channels was very much worth it, When we ran the roads we took a 3 humv , 9 shooters, 3 KBR , 1 plumber 1 elect. 1 power gen. mech. The military wanted us armed but KBR said we would be considered combatants, so to get around it the soldiers we ran with set up " test fire" at the remote bases so we would be familiar with the weapons in our convoy. When we left base the driver passed his weapon back to us,just in case we were hit by IED or RPG and needed to help lay down fire till help arrived .We only recieved small arms fire. no big deal,These were volunteer missions, and I was running with fellow Texicans from Fort Hood. I new they could shoot straight!! I hope this does not sound far fetched because I was there, or had one hell of a long bad dream.

Hence the nickname "Slick Rick" Tallil, Iraq 2004-05


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## Pipedoc (Jun 14, 2009)

slickrick said:


> ..... KBR special forces plumber.....


 
:laughing:




I think you should put that in your signature line.


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## samuelarby (Nov 9, 2009)

Do you have your recruiters contact info? Did you have your passport before you applied? Thanks so much!


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## SlickRick (Sep 3, 2009)

samuelarby said:


> Do you have your recruiters contact info? Did you have your passport before you applied? Thanks so much!


How about an intro..


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## samuelarby (Nov 9, 2009)

*Bad form.*



slickrick said:


> How about an intro..


Jumped right in, sorry, I did that a few times today. My name is Sam and I am plumbing in Seattle right now. I would like to work in Iraq or Afghanistan and was hoping to get some info from the fellas who have been there. I was contacted by a recruiter about a job in Djibouti, Africa today but I don't have a security clearance yet so it was a deal breaker. Did anyone else have to get a clearance before applying?


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