how do i get into this poly? id gladly take the chance of doing that for a few years if it meant i could save up a couple hundred grand. if i get blown up oh well, it wasnt 'meant to be'. would i get to carry firearms?
Honestly I don't think it really would even require that much experience to land the job, I really think a few months prior experience could get you into the door.
Out of his "convoy crew" or whatever you want to call it there is about 30 drivers total and only 7 or 8 are from the United States. The remaining drivers are from Pakistan, parts of African and some other countries but he said those drivers are SO terrible that he has had to literally get out and show them how to back up a trailer or shift gears. Some of those same drivers have been known to flip their trucks because the embankment is so steep on their roads out there.
He has been fired at with guns but most of that is by young Iraqi's whose aim is notoriously terrible and the trucks are so well armored that it pretty much either misses the truck completely or bounces off the bullet proof windows. He also had a road side bomb go off under a truck directly in front of him but it was a pretty weak and did not do much damage.
Make no mistake alot of those towns want nothing to do with foreigners and they will literally shut off EVERY light when they see a convoy of trucks pulling up but my friend almost loves the adrenal rush. The last time I talked to him he was trying to get transferred to Afganistan where the money is better and the violence is also at a higher level.
If you really were interested I would check out these truck driver forums and look up the big companies over there like Haliburton, although there are also a few smaller outfits that are always hiring as well.