DynCorp International

DynCorp traces its history back to two companies formed in 1946: Land-Air Inc. and California Eastern Airways. Land-Air started as a maintenance contractor for the U.S. Air Force in 1951. That same year, Land-Air was acquired by California Eastern Airways Inc. (later California Eastern Aviation), which got its start airlifting supplies to Asia for the Korean War. The company, which in 1962 changed it name to Dynalectron Corp., received a variety of contracts from the Pentagon, including one to run the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

In addition to military contracting, Dynalectron got involved in other fields such as alternative energy sources, which in the 1970s meant synthetic fuels. In 1980 the company signed an agreement with Germany coal producer Ruhrkohle AG for the development of a process devised by Dynalectron for converting coal into oil.

The company changed its name to DynCorp in May 1987 in the wake of a bid-rigging case involving one of its subsidiaries. Later that year, an investment group led by the company’s chairman, Jorge Carnicero, launched a buyout effort to thwart a feared hostile takeover by corporate raider Victor Posner. Carnicero’s fellow directors snubbed the bid and put the company in play. This led to a drawn-out battle—complicated by a plunge in the stock market—that ended when the board accepted a competing offer from a group led by company president Dan Bannister. The restructuring of the company into a privately held firm included the creation of an employee stock ownership plan.

Although DynCorp was weighed down with debt from the buyout, the company managed to acquire a series of information technology companies (especially ones involved in federal contracting) during the 1990s. In 1998 DynCorp established DynCorp Technical Services LLC, which took responsibility for its aerospace services. Two years later, DynCorp International LLC was formed to handle the overseas part of the business.

By the early 2000s, DynCorp began expanding the range of services it provided to the federal government, both at home and abroad. When the United States started getting more involved in Colombia—purportedly as part of an effort to control the illegal drug industry—DynCorp was paid by the State Department to provide personnel such as pilots assigned to destroy coca fields through aerial spraying. In February 2001 DynCorp pilots participated in the rescue of the crew of a U.S. helicopter shot down by Colombian guerillas. A DynCorp pilot was later killed when his plane was shot down.

DynCorp employees also turned up as police trainers in places such as El Salvador, Haiti and Bosnia and as the security detail for Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The company helped position equipment and ammunition for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. It was chosen by the U.S. Navy to review background investigations of personnel and make recommendations on whether to grant security clearances.

In 2003 DynCorp and its subsidiaries were acquired by Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC). A press released issued by CSC boasted that the combined company was now the third largest information technology contractor to the federal government and among the top ten contractors to the Defense Department.

Shortly after the merger—and shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq—DynCorp won a contract to help the Iraqi government rebuild its national police force, prison system and judiciary. This was followed by a $1.75 billion contract awarded by the State Department in February 2004 under which the company would provide personnel to support civilian peacekeeping operations in “post-conflict” areas around the world. This was despite reports that the company’s security operatives in Afghanistan were antagonizing the residents with their heavy-handed tactics.

In May 2004 reports began to emerge that CSC was seeking to sell off parts of DynCorp, particularly the military-type operations conducted abroad. CSC apparently became uncomfortable with DynCorp’s increasingly controversial activities. In October 2004 the death of three DynCorp employees in suicide bombings in Baghdad focused more public attention on the role of contractors in the war zone.

In December 2004 CSC announced it had reached a deal to sell DynCorp International, DynMarine and selected portions of DynCorp Technical Services to the buyout firm Veritas Capital for $850 million. CSC retained DynCorp’s information technology operations. Veritas took the company public in 2006 but retained a controlling share of about 56 percent.

The new DynCorp, which receives almost 100 percent of its revenue from the federal government, wasted no time getting new contracts. It was hired by the State Department to train a new army for Liberia and got another contract for additional work on narcotics eradication and interdiction. In December 2006 the company won a huge prize when its joint venture with McNeil Technology was awarded a five-year Army contract worth up to $4.6 billion to provide linguists in Iraq. Six months later, DynCorp was chosen along with KBR and Fluor for a 10-year contract worth up to $150 billion to provide an array of support services for the Army. In 2007, a company executive proposed that DynCorp be hired to train and deploy 1,000 agents to help patrol the U.S.–Mexican border.

In April 2010 DynCorp agreed to be bought out by the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management in a deal worth about $1.5 billion.