The Winston-Salem Journal August 02, 2007
Tough Stuff: Man's quest for safety honors friend
By Sherry Youngquist
PILOT MOUNTAIN - Chris Berman was on his way to Baghdad in March 2004 with Blackwater USA, a private security company based in North Carolina, when the news broke that another team of contractors had been ambushed in Fallujah, Iraq.
Insurgents killed all four men, including Berman's good friend, Scott Helvenston. A cheering mob dragged their mutilated bodies through the streets and hanged two from a bridge over the Euphrates River. Photos of those killings were seen around the world.
It was Berman's duty to bring Helvenston's body home. From Kuwait he flew to Dover Air Force Base and from there to Clearwater, Fla., where he rented a car for the rest of the journey to the funeral home.
As the United States vowed that those killings would not go unpunished, Berman made his own vow: He would build a better armored truck, one that would have protected his friends from harm.
Today, three year later, Berman is making prototypes for armored trucks in a former textile plant, and working on winning a government contract.
Not much can get to Berman, a former Navy SEAL with serious, steely eyes and a thickset build who has made a career in Kuwait and Iraq in private security.
But his face softens as he opens the back door to one of the prototypes. He looks away and smiles, then starts talking about Helvenston, also a former SEAL who, like Berman, loved high adventure and people.
Helvenston wasn't feeling well the day before the attack in Fallujah, and Berman had offered to take his place. But at the last moment, as Berman was climbing into an SUV bound for Fallujah, Helvenston felt well enough to go.
"We were supposed to have a beer together in Baghdad that evening but that never happened," Berman said. "We were all professionals over there and we all knew the risks."
Helvenston was a talker, Berman said of his friend. Sometimes you could not get him to shut up, he said, and he was funny and had a way of being a brother to everyone.
Soon after Helvenston's death, Berman began Granite Tactical Vehicles in Kuwait. At first, he built vehicles for contractors. Late last year, he moved most of the operation here with plans to pursue more-lucrative government contracts.
Analysts say that it is a highly competitive industry right now and a key focus for the government.
Earlier this month, the Pentagon announced that it would buy more than 20,000 armored vehicles for the Army, Marines and other forces in Iraq and Afghanistan to replace armored Humvees.
"Basically, it was, 'Come on down. If you've got a design, if you've got the license for a vehicle that is in the ballpark that we're looking for, and if you can produce some of them and get them to Iraq for us, you've got our business,SSRq" said John Pike, the director of GlobalSecurity.org, an independent research group in Alexandria, Va.
Berman studied the existing vehicles on the market and came up with one that has thicker walls.
He starts with a Ford truck. Some of his vehicles have walls as thick as 20 millimeters, and the hull is V-shaped to deflect gunfire, bombs and mines. The design comes from Berman's years in the field, driving through enemy fire.
"Chris is an advocate of saving lives. He is also very hands-on," said Dan Decker, the plant-operations manager.
Berman and Decker came to know each other because they were both working in the government-contract industry. They became friends and realized that they shared an interest in designing a better armored vehicle.
Decker joined Berman's business last year after leaving his job with a competitor. He declined to identify that company.
When Berman decided to move the plant from Kuwait, where he has 22 employees, to the United States, he spoke with Decker, who had lived and worked in Surry County years earlier. Decker knew that Surry County had been hit hard by the loss of textile jobs. He hedged a bet that they would have their pick of empty plant buildings and an eager work force.
They found space in the old Intex building in Pilot Mountain near U.S. 52.
Berman's company has 12 employees, but things have not come as easily as he had hoped in filling positions for welders and workers with automotive and electrical backgrounds.
"We have a problem with finding enough skilled labor," Berman said.
Granite is working with Surry Community College on a program to train workers for the positions.
Berman is still in the process of shutting down his plant in Kuwait, where he was building about five vehicles a month but found it extremely difficult to do business.
He splits his time between his hometown of Laguna Hills, Calif., Pilot Mountain and Kuwait.
His new plant here could produce 20 vehicles a month, but he has yet to secure a government contract. The smaller vehicles he makes sell for about $175, 000. The largest start at $300,000 and sell for as much as $1 million, depending on what a buyer wants.
Berman had hoped to be in the running for a contract for 23,000 vehicles - a project that would require six assembly lines and as many as 400 employees.
It looks like his company may be prevented from bidding while awaiting security clearance, he said.
"Go figure," he said. "As a veteran, I have to struggle to get a clearance in time while foreign companies with big budgets have no problems getting theirs."
The attack in Fallujah is the subject of a lawsuit. Congress and the families of the men who were killed want to know what went wrong with the mission. They want to know more about a commander sending two teams that day through Iraq in groups of four, instead of six. And they want to know whether the teams were adequately armed.
Berman, who is not directly involved, said he can't talk about the lawsuit.
His focus right now is building an armored vehicle that would have saved his friend's life.
He thinks about how Helvenston would have loved going into business with him.
"One of the things that I regret is that he isn't here," he said.
© Copyright 2007, The Winston-Salem Journal is a Media General newspaper.
