Soldier turned contractor explains Blackwater training, security detail in Iraq

This week on Force for Hire we're taking a step back from the politics and controversy surrounding private military contracting and talking to a man who knows what it's like to be both a soldier and a private operator.

Adam Gonzales was an Army infantryman who served in a long-range surveillance detachment for a brief time in 2003 before deciding to look at other opportunities. One arose in the form of a security job with the then-relatively unknown contracting firm Blackwater.

His journey took him from the Army to a Blackwater training facility in North Carolina. There, the one-time Army grunt had to compete against members of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, SEALs, Rangers and force recon Marines for a spot at Blackwater – and a $15,000 a month salary.

The job? Protecting U.S. ambassador Paul Bremer, America's chief representative in Iraq and the man who decided to disband the Iraqi Army.