NEW YORK – When a private contractor works at the U.S. Army base at Fort Dix, N.J., all its employees must be fingerprinted and undergo background checks.

Not so for the pizza guys.

An experienced pizza delivery guy was one of six suspects arrested on charges of plotting to launch an attack on the highly secure military base.

“Kind of ingenious, but I guess they do a lot of planning,” declared Wayne Thomas, a 54-year-old delivery guy for Domino’s Pizza who regularly infiltrates Fort Dix with pie in hand.

At Super Mario’s Italian Cuisine and Steakhouse in nearby Cookstown, N.J., a former delivery guy, Serdar Tatar, was accused of being part of the Fort Dix assault plot.

Workers at Super Mario’s noted that when delivering pizza to Fort Dix, security measures change, depending on the level of alert.

When the base is on normal alert, pizza guys must show a driver’s license and vehicle registration, and display a weekly pass issued by the Army on the dashboard. On a random basis, security will also search the vehicle.

When the base goes on high alert, all stops involve a vehicle search and IDs are scrutinized more carefully, the workers said.

For contractors, it’s a different story. Jack Gafford, a 61-year-old contractor for United Communities, says when he works at Fort Dix, he’s fingerprinted, submits to background questions, and is issued a government photo ID and a vehicle pass.

“The security guys do a great job here, but this sort of thing is going to happen if you’re going to have life on the base,” he said. “They’re very careful. They do the best they can.”

Fort Dix officials insisted security was already on high alert, but they agreed stricter measures would now be imposed, including more random searches and more stringent ID checks.

“We are viewing this as a reminder, a real headsup, that we are definitely a nation at war,” Fort Dix spokeswoman Carolee Nisbet said. “We need to pay attention to security needs in our personal lives as well as at military installations.”