The Life Of A U.S. Drone Operator

A drone pilot at the base at Hancock Field, near Syracuse, working the controls of a craft flying over Afghanistan. Heather Ainsworth for The New York Times

A Day Job Waiting For A Kill Shot A World Away -- New York Times

HANCOCK FIELD AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, N.Y. — From his computer console here in the Syracuse suburbs, Col. D. Scott Brenton remotely flies a Reaper drone that beams back hundreds of hours of live video of insurgents, his intended targets, going about their daily lives 7,000 miles away in Afghanistan. Sometimes he and his team watch the same family compound for weeks.

“I see mothers with children, I see fathers with children, I see fathers with mothers, I see kids playing soccer,” Colonel Brenton said.

When the call comes for him to fire a missile and kill a militant — and only, Colonel Brenton said, when the women and children are not around — the hair on the back of his neck stands up, just as it did when he used to line up targets in his F-16 fighter jet.

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Update #1: With shift to drones, war is often waged from home -- Stars And Stripes/L.A. Times
Update #2: A Day in the Life of a U.S. Drone Operator -- The Atlantic

My Comment: Both the New York Times and the Stars and Stripes/L.A. Times articles are must reads.