McCaskill: Drone warfare taking toll on pilots

[unhappycamper]

http://www.ksdk.com/story/news/politics/2015/06/25/mccaskill-drone-warfare-taking-toll-on-pilots/29274157/

McCaskill: Drone warfare taking toll on pilots
Deirdre Shesgreen
11:48 a.m. CDT June 25, 2015

WASHINGTON – Sen. Claire McCaskill has asked Air Force leaders to address a "unique form of combat stress" suffered by drone pilots engaged in remote surveillance and killing U.S. enemies.

These pilots are not physically on the battlefield in Iraq or Afghanistan; they operate instead from installations in the United States, including Whiteman Air Force Base.

But just like a pilot flying an F-16, drone pilots conduct deadly strikes on militant fighters abroad — often watching the resulting carnage unfold on live video. Then, they go home to their families or interact with the civilian world in ways that deployed soldiers do not.

A drone "pilot could be sitting down to a meal with his or her family less than two hours after killing Islamic State or Taliban fighters on the other side of the world," McCaskill, D-Mo., wrote in a June 18 letter to Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, the Air Force's chief of staff. "They could be playing with their children shortly after witnessing up close and in graphic detail the effects of a 500-pound bomb or Hellfire missile on a soft target."

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military.com also had an article today on the same subject: http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/06/26/mccaskill-drone-pilot-stress-is-unprecedented.html?comp=7000023317843&rank=8

on edit to add: http://www.dodbuzz.com/2015/06/25/general-atomics-readies-drone-for-european-skies/

[cantbeserious]

1. Predictable Outcome Of Remote Control Warfare - Why This Was Not Recognized Sooner Is Beyond Me

eom

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

2. My first reaction was to scoff, or to think about 'carpal tunnel'. But there is a real point here.

Drone pilots 'sitting down to a meal' with their families 'less than two hours' after murdering people across the world have to face a high level of cognitive dissonance. They can't use the excuse that they're personally in danger to justify such murders, and they know they're killing large numbers of civilians as well, people who otherwise would be going home to sit down to dinner with their own families. It sounds like the military could stand to use better psychological screening, and and select their drone pilots from those who already have psychopathic personalities, who won't be bothered by being serial killers whose targets have no real chance to defend themselves from death from afar.

[unhappycamper]

4. If you've ever had the 'pleasure' to see body parts after an explosion,

you can understand why these guys are experiencing PTSD.

[djean111]

3. Maybe they could replace those poor pilots with GOPers and DINOs.

Wouldn't bother them a bit. IMO.