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Related: About this forumFormer drone operator says he's haunted by his part in more than 1,600 deaths
please visit: www.markparhampolitics.com
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Former drone operator says he's haunted by his part in more than 1,600 deaths (Original Post)
markparham
Jul 2013
OP
He is the lowest on the command chain. Do you think others higher on the chain should
rhett o rick
Aug 2013
#6
Link Speed
(650 posts)1. Who is the interviewer?
Obviously, I don't get out much.
Response to Link Speed (Reply #1)
rug This message was self-deleted by its author.
Link Speed
(650 posts)13. Thanks, I don't see much network teevee. nt
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)14. I haven't watched teevee since 2001. :-| n/t
Arctic Dave
(13,812 posts)2. Not able to watch the video but I can say this,
Fuck him.
He is a mass murdering shitbag.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)4. So does that mean you are against the drone killings? nm
Arctic Dave
(13,812 posts)5. Murder is wrong.
That is what he did.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)6. He is the lowest on the command chain. Do you think others higher on the chain should
also be held accountable?
Arctic Dave
(13,812 posts)7. The entire system is a factory for murder.
He and all the command are murderers.
bahrbearian
(13,466 posts)11. It goes to where the Buck stops
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)8. K&R
Former drone operator says he's haunted by his part in more than 1,600 deaths
Published on Jun 6, 2013
A former Air Force drone operator who says he participated in missions that killed more than 1,600 people remembers watching one of the first victims bleed to death Brandon Bryant says he was sitting in a chair at a Nevada Air Force base operating the camera when his team fired two missiles from their drone at three men walking down a road halfway around the world in Afghanistan. The missiles hit all three targets, and Bryant says he could see the aftermath on his computer screen -- including thermal images of a growing puddle of hot blood.
"The guy that was running forward, he's missing his right leg," he recalled. "And I watch this guy bleed out and, I mean, the blood is hot." As the man died his body grew cold, said Bryant, and his thermal image changed until he became the same color as the ground.
"I can see every little pixel," said Bryant, who has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, "if I just close my eyes."
Bryant, now 27, served as a drone operator from 2006 to 2011, at bases in Nevada, New Mexico and in Iraq, guiding unmanned drones over Iraq and Afghanistan and taking part in missions that he was told led to the deaths of an estimated 1,626 individuals. .In an interview with NBC News, he provided a rare first-person glimpse into what it's like to control the controversial machines that have become central to the U.S. effort to kill terrorists.
He says that as an operator he was troubled by the physical disconnect between his daily routine and the violence and power of the faraway drones. "You don't feel the aircraft turn," he said. "You don't feel the hum of the engine. You hear the hum of the computers, but that's definitely not the same thing."
At the same time, the images coming back from the drones were very real and very graphic.
"People say that drone strikes are like mortar attacks," Bryant said. "Well, artillery doesn't see this. Artillery doesn't see the results of their actions. It's really more intimate for us, because we see everything."
A self-described "naïve" kid from a small Montana town, Bryant joined the Air Force in 2005 at age 19. After he scored well on tests, he said a recruiter told him that as a drone operator he would be like the smart guys in the control room in a James Bond movie, the ones who feed the agent the information he needs to complete his mission.* {my emphasis}
He trained for three and a half months before participating in his first drone mission. Bryant operated the drone's cameras from his perch at Nellis Air Force base in Nevada as the drone rose into the air just north of Baghdad.Bryant and the rest of his team were supposed to use their drone to provide support and protection to patrolling U.S. troops. But he recalls watching helplessly as insurgents buried an IED in a road and a U.S. Humvee drove over it.
"We had no way to warn the troops," he said. He later learned that three soldiers died.
MORE
Published on Jun 6, 2013
A former Air Force drone operator who says he participated in missions that killed more than 1,600 people remembers watching one of the first victims bleed to death Brandon Bryant says he was sitting in a chair at a Nevada Air Force base operating the camera when his team fired two missiles from their drone at three men walking down a road halfway around the world in Afghanistan. The missiles hit all three targets, and Bryant says he could see the aftermath on his computer screen -- including thermal images of a growing puddle of hot blood.
"The guy that was running forward, he's missing his right leg," he recalled. "And I watch this guy bleed out and, I mean, the blood is hot." As the man died his body grew cold, said Bryant, and his thermal image changed until he became the same color as the ground.
"I can see every little pixel," said Bryant, who has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, "if I just close my eyes."
Bryant, now 27, served as a drone operator from 2006 to 2011, at bases in Nevada, New Mexico and in Iraq, guiding unmanned drones over Iraq and Afghanistan and taking part in missions that he was told led to the deaths of an estimated 1,626 individuals. .In an interview with NBC News, he provided a rare first-person glimpse into what it's like to control the controversial machines that have become central to the U.S. effort to kill terrorists.
He says that as an operator he was troubled by the physical disconnect between his daily routine and the violence and power of the faraway drones. "You don't feel the aircraft turn," he said. "You don't feel the hum of the engine. You hear the hum of the computers, but that's definitely not the same thing."
At the same time, the images coming back from the drones were very real and very graphic.
"People say that drone strikes are like mortar attacks," Bryant said. "Well, artillery doesn't see this. Artillery doesn't see the results of their actions. It's really more intimate for us, because we see everything."
A self-described "naïve" kid from a small Montana town, Bryant joined the Air Force in 2005 at age 19. After he scored well on tests, he said a recruiter told him that as a drone operator he would be like the smart guys in the control room in a James Bond movie, the ones who feed the agent the information he needs to complete his mission.* {my emphasis}
He trained for three and a half months before participating in his first drone mission. Bryant operated the drone's cameras from his perch at Nellis Air Force base in Nevada as the drone rose into the air just north of Baghdad.Bryant and the rest of his team were supposed to use their drone to provide support and protection to patrolling U.S. troops. But he recalls watching helplessly as insurgents buried an IED in a road and a U.S. Humvee drove over it.
"We had no way to warn the troops," he said. He later learned that three soldiers died.
MORE
- So they convinced him to take a job remotely killing people because it would be like he was the smart guy helping James Bond. The secret agent with all the sexy babes from the movies.
I am obviously way too old for this shit......
K&R
countmyvote4real
(4,023 posts)10. Thanks or the highlights.
And me, too.
90-percent
(6,828 posts)12. seen it b4 on DU, but it bears repeating
http://www.democraticunderground.com/11794063
This poor guy is perhaps the most prolific mass murderer in history!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1179&pid=4069
-jim
This poor guy is perhaps the most prolific mass murderer in history!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1179&pid=4069
-jim