Halliburton subsidiary holds Richmond, Va., job fair to find workers for Iraq.

Byline: John Reid Blackwell

Nov. 11--Peter Howatt doesn't try to sugarcoat the work he recruits people to do.

"We talk about the heat; We talk about the snakes; We talk about the rodents," said Howatt, a recruiter for Kellogg, Brown & Root. Better known as KBR, the subsidiary of Houston-based Halliburton Co. provides support services to U.S. troops in Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries. It has about 40,000 workers there now.

Howatt is also upfront about the fact that 55 of the company's employees have been killed in Iraq, including a 43-year-old Spotsylvania County man who was fatally shot this month at the Abu Ghraib prison clinic, where he was working as a medic.

"We want [recruits] to understand, and …