Private security contractors aren’t just finding work guarding mainland U.S. military bases and protecting U.S. diplomats and generals in Iraq.

Bases in Hawaii and Guam are also in line to have civilians guarding their gates.

Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, and Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, will be included in the next contract phase which “has yet to be awarded but is due to stand up in December,” said Lt. Col. Randee Preston, Force Protection Commodity Council deputy director at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.

Preston said Pacific Air Forces currently contracts with USProtect, based in Silver Spring, Md., to guard gates at Elmendorf and Eielson Air Force bases in Alaska.

Contracting gate guard duties, she said, is being considered only at Air Force bases stretched for personnel “to best meet the security needs of the Air Force in consideration of current ops and national security.”

Preston said only entry-control point, and not other security detail, are part of the contracted duties, and contractors would work in conjunction with military personnel at the gates.

Naval Base Guam also is studying a proposal to contract a portion of its security force to civilian personnel, according to base spokeswoman Lt. Arwen Chisolm. “We do not know exactly when or how many billets will be involved,” she said.

Currently, all force-protection duties, including physical security and law enforcement, are performed by members of the Naval Security Force Detachment, Guam, which Chisolm said is comprised of just active-duty military and civil service personnel.

On Guam, at least since 1974, the Navy has not used civilian contracted guards for security, she noted.

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