Predator Pilots Suffering War Stress
 

I'm not sure WTF to do with this, but I think there is a big problem in Isle # 3??? This reads like some sort of sick joke?? Are we going award PTSD Purple Harts for troops that never leave home???

Hovering under my desk,, reaching for the TFH (tin foil hat) & my meds...

Predator Pilots Suffering War Stress

http://www.military.com/news/article...=1186032310810

August 08, 2008
Associated Press

MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE, Calif. - The Air National Guardsmen who operate Predator drones over Iraq via remote control, launching deadly missile attacks from the safety of Southern California 7,000 miles away, are suffering some of the same psychological stresses as their comrades on the battlefield.

Working in air-conditioned trailers, Predator pilots observe the field of battle through a bank of video screens and kill enemy fighters with a few computer keystrokes. Then, after their shifts are over, they get to drive home and sleep in their own beds.

But that whiplash transition is taking a toll on some of them mentally, and so is the way the unmanned aircraft's cameras enable them to see people getting killed in high-resolution detail, some officers say.

In a fighter jet, "when you come in at 500-600 mph, drop a 500-pound bomb and then fly away, you don't see what happens," said Col. Albert K. Aimar, who is commander of the 163rd Reconnaissance Wing here and has a bachelor's degree in psychology. But when a Predator fires a missile, "you watch it all the way to impact, and I mean it's very vivid, it's right there and personal. So it does stay in people's minds for a long time."

He said the stresses are "causing some family issues, some relationship issues." He and other Predator officers would not elaborate.

But the 163rd has called in a full-time chaplain and enlisted the services of psychologists and psychiatrists to help ease the mental strain on these remote-control warriors, Aimar said. Similarly, chaplains have been brought in at Predator bases in Texas, Arizona and Nevada.

In interviews with five of the dozens of pilots and sensor operators at the various bases, none said they had been particularly troubled by their mission, but they acknowledged it comes with unique challenges, and sometimes makes for a strange existence.

"It's bizarre, I guess," said Lt. Col. Michael Lenahan, a Predator pilot and operations director for the 196th Reconnaissance Squadron here. "It is quite different, going from potentially shooting a missile, then going to your kid's soccer game."

Among the stresses cited by the operators and their commanders: the exhaustion that comes with the shift work of this 24-7 assignment; the classified nature of the job that demands silence at the breakfast table; and the images transmitted via video.

A Predator's cameras are powerful enough to allow an operator to distinguish between a man and a woman, and between different weapons on the ground. While the resolution is generally not high enough to make out faces, it is sharp, commanders say.

Often, the military also directs Predators to linger over a target after an attack so that the damage can be assessed.

"You do stick around and see the aftermath of what you did, and that does personalize the fight," said Col. Chris Chambliss, commander of the active-duty 432nd Wing at Creech Air Force Base, Nev. "You have a pretty good optical picture of the individuals on the ground. The images can be pretty graphic, pretty vivid, and those are the things we try to offset. We know that some folks have, in some cases, problems."

Chambliss said his experience flying F-16 fighter jets on bombing runs in Iraq during the 1990s prepared him for his current job as a Predator pilot. But Chambliss and several other wing leaders said they were concerned about the sensor operators, who sit next to pilots in the ground control station. Often, the sensor operators are on their first assignment and just 18 or 19 years old, officers said.

While the pilot actually fires the missile, the sensor operator uses laser instruments to guide it all the way to its target.

On four or five occasions, sensor operators have sought out a chaplain or supervisor after an attack, Chambliss said. He emphasized that the number of such cases is very small compared to the number of people involved in Predator operations.

Col. Rodney Horn, vice commander of the 147th Reconnaissance Wing at Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base near Houston, said his unit went out of it way to impress upon sensor operators the sometimes lethal nature of the job. "No one's walking into it blind," he said.

Master Sgt. Keith LeQuire, a 48-year-old sensor operator here, said the 163rd asks prospective sensor operators whether they are prepared for the deadly serious mission. "No one's been naive enough to come in to interview but not know about that aspect of the job," he said.

Unlike Soldiers living together in the war zone, the Predator operators do not have the close locker-room-style camaraderie that allows buddies to talk about the day's events and blow off steam. But many Predator operators at Creech employ a decompression ritual during the long ride home, said Air Force Lt. Col. Robert P. Herz.

"They're putting a missile down somebody's chimney and taking out bad guys, and the next thing they're taking their wife out to dinner, their kids to school," said Herz, a Ph.D. who interviewed pilots and sensor operators for a doctoral dissertation on human error in Predator accidents.

"A lot of them have told me, `I'm glad I've got the hour drive.' It gives them that whole amount of time to leave it behind," Herz said. "They get in their bus or car and they go into a zone - they say, `For the next hour I'm decompressing, I'm getting re-engaged into what it's like to be a civilian.'"

Col. Gregg Davies, commander of the 214th Reconnaissance Group in Tucson, Ariz., said he knows of no member of his team who has experienced any trauma from launching a Predator attack.

Himself a Predator pilot, Davies said he has found the work rewarding. The Arizona Air National Guard unit flies Predators in both the Iraq and Afghanistan war zones. It has often provided protection for American convoys, and its personnel have seen insurgents planting roadside bombs.

"If we can have an effect there where we can take people out, that's a real plus in terms of saving American lives," Davies said. "Our folks look at it as they're in the fight, they're saving lives. They don't feel too bad about that."

Check out our PTSD resource page.

© Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Stress is Stress and needs to be dealt with but........

They do not have the luxury of the Fighter guys of drop and run. They do have to see the results and assess the damage they do. Well they are in the military and that is what we do. Hell no one ever asked me if I understood that there were lethal missions when I went to Infantry school. They may need a different pipeline for their operators of the sensors. Hell I bet you could get a lot of SF guys to go TDY and drop bombs in support of their Fellow QP's. Let the AF fly and we can be the bad guy that puts the bomb down the stove pipe.......... We already have to pull the trigger, do BDA and sty around the area after the Opn.

AF We are here to Help..............to relieve your stress :munchin

This has to be a joke?
 

Have you seen the graphics on these video games?

Stay safe.

Guy,

Good point,, back when they started the UAV programs, they actually looked for HS kids that had "game" aptitude. Remember the movie 1984 "The Last Starfighter".

They wanted someone who could handel the violence, while being able to work in a 3D World with the spacial acuity needed to fly these things..

I'm not trying to down play in-your-face violence,, it's bad and needs to be dealt with,, it's just that the left will be pounding on this as a anti-war topic...

All we need is one of these kids to go off the deep end,,

"Pvt 1st Class xxx, a Senior AF UAV pilot, goes xxx after flying xxx UAV missions over xxx" (fill in the xxx...)

My initial comments were meant to be obliquely satirical. After our long thread on PTSD & PH, this was a little disturbing..

Very graphic to say the least, but they games lack one crucial perspective, the sounds of agony, desparation and suffering. When gaming I found sitting in front of screen the most stressful.

Having had one experience with such sounds, I can say that of that entire experience the sounds still bother me.

My point, I personally would find the detachment of a screen much easier than being on site..

Stressful.............I'm sure
PTSD??? I'm gonna throw the bullshit flag. If'n I'm wrong, come visit me in Hell.

I agree.

PTSD for non-combatants.:rolleyes:

What about people who watch a lot of violent movies or video games?

TR

I totally agree with Firebeef....The bullshit flag needs to be dropped....Visit me in Hell also....:boohoo

Simple, give the CONTROL to those that have no problem with killing the enemy.

General George Patton would roll over in his grave if he knew about this article.

Team Sergeant

Would you like me to hold the door or close it on the way in?? :D

Much agreed on the whole "PTSD" $hit. I'm about to buy hip waders since it seems to be getting deeper. I'm guessing a follow on bitch would be the need for HFP or Save Pay since they are "in the fight".

OK buddy, me too :rolleyes:

A new AF related injury for the VA to treat - PTHD (Post Traumatic-less Hemorrhoidal Disorder) for those who fight the war in air-conditioned vans without being too hungry, too tired, too hot, too cold, too dirty, too thirsty, too sore, too wet, or wearing boots that are too tight or being too scared? Give me a break. :rolleyes:

UCAV - you call, we bawl! :boohoo

Richard's $.02 :munchin

Christ, Can the Air Force do Anything Right???
 

I swear sometimes I am actually embarrassed to be an AF member on this site. I too have to say I called BS when I read this article. My brother was an F-16 pilot dropping bombs on Afghanistan his first turn out. His second was dropping bombs on Baghdad. His third he was the commander of a UAV detachment in Iraq. I am sure at some point in time what you do becomes stressful, hell at some point in time all of us become stressed out doing what we do during wartime. BUt to in anyway compare what these folks are doing (albeit important) to what the guys on the ground are dealing with is simply ludicrous.

I would love to have one of these "warrirors" sit down with my son, the Marine who has done 2 tours to Iraq, one of which being in Fallujah, and compare notes. I am sure the guy flying the UAV can relate to my son's Hummer being blown up by and IED and all on board luckily surviving. (Seeing the pictures I can't believe anyone made it out alive) I am sure that is a direct comparison to watching things on a tv screen. I am sure they can also compare notes about holding your friend in your arms waiting for a Medivac and hoping he doesn't die before it gets there.

This is the same type of bullshit pilots of all types pull. I do not want to paint them all with broad brushstrokes. But with that being said, you are always going to have your guys complaining about shit like this because they want to feel that what they do is just as dangerous, stressfull, etc as the guys on the ground. I think it is shameful, and most of the pilots I am stationed with right now would agree with me, regardless of what airframe they fly.

Just remember, not everyone in the AF has this type of mentality. Also, there are plenty of us who have spent our time in the dirt so to speak. Knowing what we do isn't anywhere close to what you all face, but certainly different than sitting in an air conditioned hotel room while deployed to someplace really nasty like Ramstein!!!! My husband has been to more hell holes than I care to count. I wonder what these air chair warriors would say about their stress levels if they had to deal with what he has on the ground.

Not all of us are primadonas, even if that is what is being portrayed through the media as of late. I hope these guys are ashamed, very very ashamed.

I suspect there is a Soldier or two, sidelined by a combat injury, who would appreciate the opportunity to ‘sit in’ for these Airmen… :lifter


( A new AF related injury for the VA to treat: 'Carpal Tunnel Syndrome':boohoo )

Hell, I'd like to do it on my time off. Going to war in AC, with a cup of coffee, smoking bad guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:cool:

Sounds like a vacation. Can you get a backrub after putting a Hellfire right into the window of a HVT's house?:D

There is more to this story than meets the eye. There is a big gun fight going on in the concrete sphincter among the AF, Army, Marines about who owns and who should fly the UAVs. The stress thingee is part of the AF ploy to retain control over the UAVs and want them flown by pilots. Gates, we need to prepare only for unconventional and terrorist threats SECDEF, wants the AF to ramp up the number of UAVs incountry. The AF, who wants sole ownership of UAVs, says they cannot comply with more UAVs because of pilot fatigue and shortage because they have to fly manned aircraft also. Apparently the stress argument by the AF is that if their seasoned pilots get stressed from playing video games sitting stateside flying missions think of the stress the other services who allow NCOs who are not seasoned pilots (perish the thought):D will have to suffer when they fly UAVs . Of course the other services counter with the fact that their UAV "operators" are in theater and work hand in glove with the troops that they support and are subjected to the day to day successes and failures on site because whom they support are real folks and not blips on the radar screen. At this point, from what they have reported, stress does not seem to be any more of a problem for them than for anyone else. And so boys and girls we have shitheads in uniforms and civilians in the five sided puzzle palace fighting over rice bowls while kids in the sand box deal with the realities of non support.