Interview as of June 9th to 10th, 2009 in Berlin

1.  Christopher, tell me a bit about yourself. What have you been doing lately?

I am currently completing my certification as a brewmaster through the Versuchs- und Lehranstalt für Brauerei here in Berlin. Before this, I studied civil engineering at the Virginia Military Institute and joined the US army as a Quartermaster Officer (Supply Logistics) where I began working in the area of multifunctional and large scale logistics. In 2003 I became a military contractor where I handled diverse jobs such coordinating logistics and managing projects in places such as Turkey, Iraq, Kosovo, and Afghanistan. I did this till the end of 2008 because I decided a while ago, that I wanted to become a certified brewmaster and therefore relocated to Berlin for school as of January 2009.

2.  So, how do these two professions fit into the greater picture?

Well, being a contractor for war related logistics and having finished my brewing certification as of today, I do not have any standing relationship apart from setting aside funds for being able to attend this brewery school and later on going to Bornholm, Denmark for my internship. But the actual reason for choosing this path was, that I found the intensity of my last job absolutely enriching. I met great people, I saw a lot of places and worked in very diverse fields, but I think living this way made me want to come back to a long-term stable job environment and a normal civil lifestyle. While I was in the army I started home brewing, I love the process of making beer and I like the beer culture. So this 2009 is my personal year, since I have been deployed in crisis areas and war zones for the last six years.

3.  Why is it, that you were exposed so much longer crisis and war than a normal soldier would be serving?

A lot of it is personal choice actually; there are some soldiers and a lot of other contractors who have been in places like that for longer.  The Employment Agreements we sign allow us to leave whenever we want and we can extend them as long as the company we are working for will keep us.  Looking back at the time in actual war zones it was about the same as normal deployments for military personnel; the time in Turkey or Kosovo was away from home but were not really difficult assignments because the areas were actually pretty friendly for Americans and we were able to take more time away from work as the missions allowed.  In Iraq or Afghanistan it was different.  Contractors are taking care of the logistics and would normally not envisage fights, unless they were security contractors. A contractor drives trucks (which can be pretty dangerous when going ‘outside the wire’ or works at the base) and is taking care of the power generation for instance. The hardest thing I had was that I actually experienced the loss of a person and the injuries of several others who were on my project while they were installing an electrical system on a base in Afghanistan.