Meghann and Jeff Silverthorn met and married while attending the University of Colorado. Jeff had always been fiercely patriotic and even today wears a POW/MIA bracelet with the name of an Air Force Captain shot down in Vietnam in 1969. Both Husband and Wife are the type of smart kids that the smart companies seek out and employ. Jeff got noticed and recruited by SAIC. Founded by J. Robert Beyster, Ph.D., and a small group of scientists in 1969, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), a FORTUNE 500® company, and its subsidiaries now have approximately 45,000 employees with offices in more than 150 cities worldwide. Jeff didn't know what to expect but he was ready to dive in.
In 2006, the SAIC company made the decision to solve the problem of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in Iraq. The company president, Ken Dahlberg addressed his employess and stated "Our company needs to step up and do this. This travesty that is killing and maiming our military has to be stopped." The company then funded an all-out effort to take a systems appeoach to defeatng IEDs.
One of the methods used is for SAIC to oufit a small propeller driven plane with forward looking laser and infra-red sensors. The plane would fly fairly slowly down the middle of a road in Iraq and have the ability to see IEDs buried in the road. This worked splendidly.
The bad guys change tactics to avoid detection and this is where Jeff Silverthorn comes in.
Yesterday, October 17, 2009, Jeff Silverthorn began a six week orientation on this IED detection in actual use. After the course is over, he goes to Iraq and flies in the SAIC outfitted plane up and down the roads of Iraq. What he changes and what he learns will help untold numbers of our men and women in unifom from being killed or injured. He will be over there for four months. This is hazardous duty.
The modern military uses civilian contractors to fill roles traditionally handled by our men in uniform. Contractors "cook meals, do laundry, repair infrastructure, translate documents, analyze intelligence, guard prisoners, protect military convoys, deliver water in the heavily fortified Green Zone and stand sentry at buildings - often highly dangerous duties almost identical to those performed by many U.S. troops. Private Defense Contractors in Iraq have suffered at least 1,315 deaths between March 2003 and January 2009. An additional 10,569 have been wounded or injured.
It can be tough duty being a Defense Contractor. War is hell on the home front too.
Meghann is a candidate for the Douglas County School board. She is endorsed by the Douglas County Republicans and shunned by the AFL-CIO and its AFT local branch. As such she has been insulted, branded and dissed by the union and its cronies. All this while preparing for her husband to go off and help defend this country.
It is just another little facet of this year's School Board Election.
Mike Robinson is Senior Partner at
Robinson & Henry P.C., a Castle Rock Law Firm.