This story was originally published on Sept. 18, 2009.
STUART, FL -- When Casey Jaworski reads news accounts of hostilities in Iraq he doesn’t have to imagine what it’s like. He’s lived it.
Not as a member of the military but as one of the thousands of American contractors who have worked in Iraq since the invasion.
"I was affected quite strongly when 9/11 happened. I had to do something. I refused to be terrorized," he said.
Jaworski, a utilities expert, didn’t just stay in the protected "Green Zone," he traveled the country to try and provide clean drinking water to the Iraqi people.
And even though he didn’t wear a uniform or carry a gun, he quickly learned he was a target.
His truck was destroyed by a car bomb while he was in a hotel.
"It was pretty chaotic. I jumped out the window after the smoke cleared," he said.
But it’s not the threats to his own life he remembers most, it’s the risks his Iraqi colleagues faced every day just to help him do his work.
Like the Iraqi woman he hired to teach English to children. She followed him to another city just to thank him.
"She went back to Amara, was caught by insurgents, they made her beg for her life and then they shot her just for working for Americans," he recalls.
Then there was his Iraqi interpreter: a petite woman who didn’t flinch when his group came under fire.
"My bodyguard jumped under the vehicle, the driver went running away, and this 85 pound woman jumps in front of me and shields me," he said.
This week the US government presented Jaworski with a medal for his work in Iraq.
He says he’s honored, but humbled when he thinks of the Iraqis who put their lives before his.
"We should be giving the Iraqis who helped Americans more support, more help," he said.