I Was a Drone Warrior for 11 Years. I Regret Nothing.

[Blue_Tires]

I'll never forget the time I prevented a young Predator pilot from making an illegal shot. The incident stands in stark contrast with the expert conduct that I typically witnessed from professional aviators flying the U.S. Air Force’s remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs), commonly known as drones.

The Intercept’s recently released “drone papers” paint a picture of unprofessional and bloodthirsty behavior by the crews manning the Predator and other drones. Certainly, war is chaos, and mistakes do happen. But in my 11 years flying the Predator, I was satisfied to see how few actually did. While the “drone papers” would have you believe otherwise, drone pilots are subject to the exact same rigorous checks and balances used for all military operations—and then some. (After all, is there a difference between bombs dropped off a drone or a fighter?) And when we make a gross error, we also risk going to jail.

I’m not saying that the U.S. drone operation doesn’t have its problems. Its unmitigated success in providing crucial information on the battlefield has spiked demand for ground commanders and forced the Air Force to cut training time to the bare minimum. Graduating crews can fly combat missions within days of certification. Fighter pilots may fly for months or even years before their first combat mission.

And I’m not saying that the ramping up of drones strikes has been enormously successful: The military has quadrupled drone strikes over the past seven years; and now instead of hiding in Waziristan, al Qaeda is flourishing throughout the world, setting Africa, Asia and the Middle East on fire. This is due, in large part, to the expansion of attacks to mid-level coordinators that has resulted less in disrupting networks than dispersing them.

But I am saying this: Drone operators are licensed pilots. We are not terminators rampaging across the countryside like war’s a video game. We are not heartless; we are not brainless. And we do not like to make mistakes.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/10/drone-pilot-book-213263

(waits for the insults and smears to fly)

[HassleCat]

1. Another cog in the machine

You shoot the person they tell you to shoot. This applies to everyone from the grunt with a rifle, to the person who turns the key to launch an ICBM. You are a cog in the machine, just like I was when I was in the military.

There are a couple of big problems with the drone program. (1) The intelligence is often no good, either inaccurate, or outdated, or both. By the time the drone arrives, the subject of the attack is gone. (2) The people who make the decisions seem to have little regard for friends and family of the subject, and we often kill many people in addition to the subject. (3) There is a question as to whether or not we need to be chasing these people all over the world and killing them, or if it is even legal. We are "at war" with them solely because... um... I guess I don't know why we are at war with them. We decided they were bad people for some reason, and I'm sure some of them are very bad, and some of them are so designated based on faulty intelligence.

One thing to keep I mind is that we are killing people because of their associations. If they associated with al Qaida or on of the other groups we consider terrorist organizations, we kill them. I'm not sure this has been done before, and 'm not sure it's legal. I'm pretty sure it's a bad idea.

[Human101948]

2. "waits for the insults and smears to fly"

What was your motivation for posting this? Just to rile up some of us here on DU?

[Blue_Tires]

8. I figure if everyone is going to accuse me of being a Pentagon/NSA paid shill

I might as well own that shit, play the role and give DU it's money's worth...

[AllTooEasy]

9. Thank you for your service!

Many DUers prefer manged strikes over done strikes, but I'm happy that you weren't in harms way while taking out the terrorists. One less US soldier being shot down is a good thing. Another dead Al-Qaeda or ISIS member is just as sweet. I hate Repukes, but I don't want to kill them. No mercy for ISIS.

[denverbill]

3. "we also risk going to jail". Has that ever happened?

I mean, we've had 15 years of "war", and launched thousands of drone strikes during that time, in countries we are not at war against, against people who haven't been convicted of any crime, though they may well be guilty of waging war against us or our allies. I don't recall a single instance of anyone being convicted of a crime, though we know many innocent people have died.

I'd love to see the reaction of Americans to Mexico launching drone strikes against people in the US who sell illegal guns to Mexican nationals, killing as many innocent civilians as criminals. We'd be invading Mexico in 5 minutes. But I'm sure all the people in however many countries we've done this to are just fine with it.

[GeorgeGist]

4. Here's a fucking clue ...

Graduating crews can fly combat missions within days of certification.

[Downwinder]

5. If it is all so above board,

why not make information and videos of the strikes publicly available?

[frizzled]

6. Except 90% of people they kill are innocents, and the whole murdering people outside of war thing

Fucking monsters. nt

[OnyxCollie]

7. XOXO, John.

[IMG][/IMG]

[marmar]

10. He doesn't regret that 90 percent of those killed were not "targets"?

I guess some people really don't have a conscience. ....... But then again, I suspect that he has that Chris Kyle, all of "them" are the enemy mentality.

[Dan]

11. I've always been curious

as it relates to your activities - what are the rules of engagement as it relates to "Drone Warriors"?

[cprise]

12. "We are not... we are not... we are not !!!"

You know what they say about denial.