Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma

San Francisco Chronicle reporter Anna Badkhen tells the story of civilian workers in Iraq. Many are suffering from combat trauma, but they lack the support systems available to military personnel. Badkhen writes:

No one knows how many of them have been injured and killed. No one keeps track of how many contractors there are in Iraq. And when they come back, many find themselves abandoned.

"Nobody ain't doing nothing for us," said Thompson, 43, who for six months in 2004 drove a supply truck in Iraq for Halliburton subsidiary KBR, the largest corporate contractor in Iraq.

Thompson was paid $1,850 a week while he was there -- far more than he had been earning before the war. "And I'll tell you right now, it wasn't worth it," he said.