BRATENAHL, Ohio — As the nation pauses on Memorial Day to honor its war dead, one woman is working to keep alive the memory of her son, who was killed in Iraq while serving as a civilian contractor.

Donna Zovko wants Americans to remember her son Jerko “Jerry” Zovko and other contractors along with the fallen members of the nation’s military.

“How will Americans treat or remember my son as a contractor that was killed?” she asked. “It’s their choice, but he was there to protect our freedom and to help the Iraqis. He was not there for the money.”

Along with the more than 3,400 American military members killed since the March 2003 start of the Iraq war, more than 900 civilian employees of U.S. government contractors have died.

Jerry Zovko, 32, an Army veteran, was working for Pentagon contractor Blackwater USA hauling food to American troops when he and three other contractors were killed in a March 31, 2004, ambush in Fallujah. Their mutilated bodies were burned and two were hung from a bridge.

His mother has since waged a campaign for tighter oversight of military contractors, appearing in a documentary film, “Iraq for Sale: the War Profiteers,” and testifying before a congressional committee.

While the military takes care of its own, Ms. Zovko said, “In private contracting, no one is responsible. They put it under the carpet and go on. It’s not talked about. It’s not answered to.”

Occasionally sobbing as she talks about her efforts and her lost son, she said she understands the honors accorded military victims but hopes people also remember the contributions made by those hired by the Pentagon to free soldiers and Marines for combat duty.

She rejects the suggestion that contractors in Iraq are only motivated by big paychecks.

“I prefer to think of [Jerry] the way he told me,” Ms. Zovko said. “That he was needed there and the skills that he learned in the military were needed and he went.”

But the contractors, she said, think more about profits than the safety of their employees.