Drone pilots are quitting in record numbers.

[Trajan]

Are pilots deserting Washington’s remote-control war?

The U.S. drone war across much of the Greater Middle East and parts of Africa is in crisis and not because civilians are dying or the target list for that war or the right to wage it just about anywhere on the planet are in question in Washington. Something far more basic is at stake: drone pilots are quitting in record numbers.

There are roughly 1,000 such drone pilots, known in the trade as “18Xs,” working for the U.S. Air Force today. Another 180 pilots graduate annually from a training program that takes about a year to complete at Holloman and Randolph Air Force bases in, respectively, New Mexico and Texas. As it happens, in those same 12 months, about 240 trained pilots quit and the Air Force is at a loss to explain the phenomenon.

In theory, drone pilots have a cushy life. Unlike soldiers on duty in “war zones,” they can continue to live with their families here in the United States. No muddy foxholes or sandstorm-swept desert barracks under threat of enemy attack for them. Instead, these new techno-warriors commute to work like any office employees and sit in front of computer screens wielding joysticks, playing what most people would consider a glorified video game.

They typically “fly” missions over Afghanistan and Iraq where they are tasked with collecting photos and video feeds, as well as watching over U.S. soldiers on the ground. A select few are deputized to fly CIA assassination missions over Pakistan, Somalia, or Yemen where they are ordered to kill “high value targets” from the sky.

Pilots log 900-1,800 hours a year compared to a maximum of 300 hours annually for regular Air Force pilots. And the pace is unrelenting. “A typical person doing this mission over the last seven or eight years has worked either six or seven days a week, twelve hours a day,” General Welsh told NPR recently. “And that one- or two-day break at the end of it is really not enough time to take care of that family and the rest of your life.”

Some say that the drone war has driven them over the edge. “How many women and children have you seen incinerated by a Hellfire missile? How many men have you seen crawl across a field, trying to make it to the nearest compound for help while bleeding out from severed legs?” Heather Linebaugh, a former drone imagery analyst, wrote in the Guardian. “When you are exposed to it over and over again it becomes like a small video, embedded in your head, forever on repeat, causing psychological pain and suffering that many people will hopefully never experience.”

"It was horrifying to know how easy it was. I felt like a coward because I was halfway across the world and the guy never even knew I was there,” Bryant told KNPR Radio in Nevada. “I felt like I was haunted by a legion of the dead. My physical health was gone, my mental health was crumbled. I was in so much pain I was ready to eat a bullet myself.”

http://mondediplo.com/openpage/are-pilots-deserting-washington-s-remote-control

 

[Nomadum]

telling you, people think taking a life is some easy shyt. only in movies do a dude snuff out 30-40 'bad guys' then go back home, fukk his super model wife and then sleep peacefully. taking a life is some truly life altering shyt.

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

So why aren't fighter pilots quitting?

 

[rapbeats]

So why aren't fighter pilots quitting?

Because they dont work those insane hours like these guys for one. for two they dont see up close the damage they cause. those drone cameras are giving the drone pilots a zoomed in up close and personal view of whats going on when they fire a weapon or even when they are in just watch mode. seeing a real bomber, or chopper, chop someone down. think about it for a moment. unless you're in close combat only a sniper will see what actually happens to people when hit with artillery. at least until they roll up on the people and see the aftermath. these drone dudes are watching people's legs get blown clean off. heads busted wide open like its a video game....but its not. that can mess up anyone.

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

Because they dont work those insane hours like these guys for one. for two they dont see up close the damage they cause. those drone cameras are giving the drone pilots a zoomed in up close and personal view of whats going on when they fire a weapon or even when they are in just watch mode. seeing a real bomber, or chopper, chop someone down. think about it for a moment. unless you're in close combat only a sniper will see what actually happens to people when hit with artillery. at least until they roll up on the people and see the aftermath. these drone dudes are watching people's legs get blown clean off. heads busted wide open like its a video game....but its not. that can mess up anyone.

I know this stuff...but I find this article's goal to be different from what people are thinking.

I just think the anti-drone stories are a bit nefarious.

See, the bombs are really the issue.

The technology isn't going anywhere...so if reform needs to be done to training and utilization of pilots, then lets talk about that...

But this article seems like its just another notch in the belt of the "anti-drone" camp as a way to win favor of acting like the removal of pilots from the actual threat of warfare doesn't come as a compromise.

 

[Nomadum]

I know this stuff...but I find this article's goal to be different from what people are thinking.

I just think the anti-drone stories are a bit nefarious.

See, the bombs are really the issue.

The technology isn't going anywhere...so if reform needs to be done to training and utilization of pilots, then lets talk about that...

But this article seems like its just another notch in the belt of the "anti-drone" camp as a way to win favor of acting like the removal of pilots from the actual threat of warfare doesn't come as a compromise.

Anti-drone stories are immoral or evil? lol what?

Bombs aren't the issue, because if you remove all the bombs in the world man will still devise other methods of slaying his neighbor. the true issue is war itself, on a biological tier of thinking, war is perfectly in line with survival and makes all the sense in the world. but on a social level, war is pointless.

 

[Mowgli]

Theu don't want to kill under a black man.

They feel like it's only a righteous cause when a cac tells them to kill.

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

Anti-drone stories are immoral or evil? lol what?

Bombs aren't the issue, because if you remove all the bombs in the world man will still devise other methods of slaying his neighbor. the true issue is war itself, on a biological tier of thinking, war is perfectly in line with survival and makes all the sense in the world. but on a social level, war is pointless.

Drones aren't the issue. The bombs are the issue.

Its like saying Kevlar and armor piercing round aren't fair

 

[Futuristic Eskimo]

Naw, because debating with you is like arguing with a brick wall. even if I knock your weak decrepit arguments and logic down you'll just sit there, in a pile of your own bullshyt logic arguing about how you're right. fukk off.

This attitude would be more appropriate if he addressed you originally.

 

[Nomadum]

This attitude would be more appropriate if he addressed you originally.

Naw fam, he is a troll user. I got's no love for trolls

He like this kid getting dominated in dodge ball

 

[Nomadum]

Drones aren't the issue. The bombs are the issue.

Its like saying Kevlar and armor piercing round aren't fair

 

[Liu Kang]

@Nomadum, don't start a fight with @Napoleon, it's not necessary. I deleted some of both of your posts because it was not relevant to the topic.

 

[Nomadum]

@Nomadum, don't start a fight with @Napoleon, it's not necessary. I deleted some of both of your posts because it was not relevant to the topic.

respect.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

I know this stuff...but I find this article's goal to be different from what people are thinking.

I just think the anti-drone stories are a bit nefarious.

See, the bombs are really the issue.

The technology isn't going anywhere...so if reform needs to be done to training and utilization of pilots, then lets talk about that...

But this article seems like its just another notch in the belt of the "anti-drone" camp as a way to win favor of acting like the removal of pilots from the actual threat of warfare doesn't come as a compromise.

Anything that doesnt honor the hegemony is to be questioned rite

Even PTSD from watching bombs kill innocent bystanders over and over is not enough for you to get off the MIC's dikk

Is there anything the US govt can do that you would be against? You must be one of those "slavery worked out for us" clowns

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

Anything that doesnt honor the hegemony is to be questioned rite

Even PTSD from watching bombs kill innocent bystanders over and over is not enough for you to get off the MIC's dikk

Is there anything the US govt can do that you would be against? You must be one of those "slavery worked out for us" clowns

These "pilots" are living the most privileged lives of ANY soldiers in the history of war, wouldn't you say so?

Collateral sucks.

But this article does nothing to reign in its disdain for technology.