An ‘absolute pacifist’ heads straight for the war zone

You’re settled in your career at a Snohomish car dealership. You live in a pristine place on the Stillaguamish River. You have grown children and grandchildren you adore.

Yet, yet … you have this feeling.

“I had to get out there in the world,” said Pam Wilkins, 58, who for 21 years has been selling cars at Bickford Ford-Mercury.

So, what does she do? Take a trip? Maybe a cruise? You probably wouldn’t do what Wilkins did.

In May, she started applying for jobs at www.halliburton.com.

Yep, that Halliburton, the Houston-based oil field services and construction company that was headed by Dick Cheney before he became vice president. The company’s engineering and construction group, Kellogg Brown &Root, employs thousands of civilian contractors in Iraq and around the world.

“Friends were saying, ‘No way, that’s not going to happen.’ But I had decided – I’m going,” Wilkins said. “Finally, they called.”

Wilkins signed on for a year’s stint as a civilian support worker in Iraq. She’ll be based at a U.S. Army camp to run a recreation center for troops. She leaves Aug. 29 for two weeks of training in Texas, and expects to be in Iraq by mid-September.

Sitting in the comfort of the dealership, Wilkins described the hourlong call from her future employer.

“They tell you how bad it’s going to be, horrible. You live in a tent, you get a cot and sleeping bag. Cold showers, if you get them at all, sandstorms, creepy-crawlers, nasty conditions. It’s seven days a week, 12 hours a day,” she said. “They were trying to weed out the wimps. I’m not a wimp.”

Why in the world would she do it? Money?

While civilian security workers and drivers might earn six figures, Wilkins will make about $80,000 in Iraq. It’s a tidy sum, and tax-free if she stays at least 330 days. But I don’t know – ever seen a camel spider? Check that out online for one reason not to go. Wilkins’ reasons for going weren’t at all what I expected.

She’s resolutely anti-war. An “absolute pacifist,” Wilkins is a practicing Buddhist associated with the Soka Gakkai International-USA World Culture Center in Seattle.

“Every human life is precious,” she said. “There’s something I need to do, and it will probably look so insignificant I won’t even know I’ve done it.”

People have the power to change hearts, she said. “It’s done one person at a time.”

“She’s very courageous, she always has been,” said Wilkins’ daughter, Kristin Greenleaf, 36, of Marysville. Wilkins’ son, Michael Brennand, lives in Taiwan.

Greenleaf has a 3-year-old and a baby who will miss their lively grandmother. When her mother began talking about Iraq, “I thought, ‘Yeah, sure, Mom.’ I never really thought it would happen.”

Despite the dangers, Greenleaf is sure her mother will be safe. “She’s lived a full life, and this is something she wants to do. You’ve just got to live,” Greenleaf said.

At the car dealership, General Manager Mike Bickford was surprised by his colleague’s decision. “I think she wants to support the people; she loves people,” he said. He’ll miss her sense of humor and will keep the door open in case selling cars looks good after a year in the sand.

Ironically, Wilkins loves the damp green of Western Washington. A self-described “military brat” whose father was in the Air Force, she lived in Japan and all over the United States as a child. All those moves and schools made her fearless.

“It’s such an interesting, cool world,” she said. “But I’ve never liked the desert. My landscape is going to be people.”

After our long talk, I still didn’t quite get it. Why, exactly, is this smart and charming woman, who doesn’t like deserts and hates war, going to work for Halliburton in Iraq?

“I need to do it,” Wilkins said. “I don’t know why yet.”

Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlsteinjulie@heraldnet.com.

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