KBR Contractor, now deaf & incontinent, denied benefits--and dignity [View All]

[elehhhhna]

Who Cares?
By Margaret Downing


...Celester Hall, a man who had regularly played basketball and baseball and walked for exercise, a man who drove long distances on his truck routes to help support his wife and their blended family of three teenage children, was now deaf. His eyes weren't opening. He'd lost his balance. He'd had a stroke.

He had to be catheterized and eventually would graduate to wearing adult diapers. His hearing loss appears to be as permanent as it is profound. A cochlear implant did nothing to improve the condition -- it just made him more susceptible to infections, according to his wife.

Before he went overseas, Hall was handed some KBR literature, indicating that he and other contract workers had a special role to play in the Afghanistan theater.

"KBR employees are not contractors, we are Force Multipliers…We are as close to being soldiers as we can get without saluting and carrying a gun," ...

http://www.houstonpress.com/Issues/current/news/feature.html