Former Drone Operator Discusses His Role In Military Operations That Killed 1,600 Over Five Years

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Former Drone Operator Says He's Haunted By His Part In More Than 1,600 Deaths -- NBC 

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.  

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Update #1: 'I watch him bleed out:' Drone operator who helped kill 1,626 targets reveals trauma of watching them die on a computer screen -- Daily Mail  
Update #2: Drone operator says he ‘lost respect for life’ on missions killing 1,600 people (Photos) -- Examiner  
Update #3: Drone Operator: The Recruiter Used A 'James Bond' Reference In His Pitch -- Business Insider    
My Comment: To put it all into perspective .... legendary SEAL sniper Chris Kyle killed upwards of 160 insurgents with his rifle. Drone Operator Brandon Bryant, on the other hand, was involved in the "targeted killing" of at least 1626 people. This is an astounding number .... and makes me wonder how he was able to do it for so long.

Drone Pilot Burnout

MQ-1B Predator unmanned aerial vehicles sit in a clamshell at night at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, July 31, 2011. U.S. Air Force

Drone Pilot Burnout Triggers Call For Recruiting Overhaul -- NBC

Driving a war drone is a stressful business. Shifts up to 12 hours long are stretches of dullness, watching and waiting, interrupted by flashes of intense activity in which pilots must make life-or-death decisions. Not their own life or death, however.

Pilots may be thousands of miles away from the flying weapons system they're operating. They often head home at the end of the day, as if returning from any other office job, maybe picking up milk on the way. But while at work, their drones' onboard cameras put them in a unique position to watch people being killed and injured as a direct result of their actions.

As psychologists learn more about the mental scarring warfare leaves on drone pilots — caused by long shift hours, isolation, witnessing casualties and those Jekyll-and-Hyde days split between battlefield and home — experts from within the U.S. Air Force are calling for a review of drone pilot selection.

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My Comment: Warfare is changing .... but the impact of killing someone has not. For some drone pilots .... their suffering is just as bad as those in the field.

A Candid And Chilling Conversation With A Top U.S. Drone Pilot

Capt. Richard Koll, left, and Airman First Class Mike Eulo monitored a drone aircraft after launching it in Iraq. U.S. Air Force/Master Sgt. Steve Horton

Drone Strikes: A Candid, Chilling Conversation With Top U.S. Drone Pilot -- David Wood, Huffington Post

He always watches for the kids.

Peering through cameras and sensors from his computer station thousands of miles away, he absorbs the details of daily life in the villages below. He develops an eerie intimacy with his targets. Which house these kids belong to. When that mom goes out to market. Who visits and why. He tries to ensure innocents are nowhere near. Then he yells "Rifle!" and fires the missile, watching until "Splash," the detonation of the missile warhead. Until the last few seconds, if kids suddenly do appear, he can yank the missile away.

Bill "Sweet" Tart is a drone pilot, one of the most experienced in the U.S. military. A decorated Air Force colonel, he sat down for a frank chat with The Huffington Post's David Wood, providing a rare glimpse into the secretive U.S. drone wars.

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My Comment: A fascinating read for those who are interested in drones.

Drone Pilots Learn The New Art Of War

DoD photo / Senior Airman Larry E. Reid Jr

In New Mexico Desert, Drone Pilots Learn The New Art Of War -- Reuters

(Reuters) - The tide of war may be receding, as President Barack Obama is fond of saying, but U.S. military demand for unmanned drones and their remote pilots is growing.

Here in the New Mexico desert, the U.S. Air Force has ramped up training of drone operators - even as the nation increasingly debates their use and U.S. forces prepare to leave Afghanistan.

"Every combatant commander in the world is asking for these things. Down in Southcom, Africom, Pacom, they're all asking for these assets, so it is in very high demand," said Lt. Col. Mike Weaver, 16th Training Squadron commander at Holloman Air Force Base, referring to the military's Southern, Africa and Pacific commands.

Weaver is an example of a fighter jet pilot turned pilot of Remotely Piloted Aircraft, or RPA, as the Air Force insists on calling drones. He flew F-15 fighter jets over Iraq and, after those squadrons were drawn down, trained on drones and flew them over Afghanistan.

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My Comment: Even though the wars may be receding .... advancements and trends reveal a future of more drones and even more drone pilots.

A Three Part Series On The Life Of An American Drone Operator

Drone operators at Holloman Air Force Base in the southwestern state of New Mexico: Modern warfare is as invisible as a thought, deprived of its meaning by distance. Gilles Mingasson/ DER SPIEGEL

The Woes Of An American Drone Operator -- Nicola Abé, Spiegel Online

A soldier sets out to graduate at the top of his class. He succeeds, and he becomes a drone pilot working with a special unit of the United States Air Force in New Mexico. He kills dozens of people. But then, one day, he realizes that he can't do it anymore.

For more than five years, Brandon Bryant worked in an oblong, windowless container about the size of a trailer, where the air-conditioning was kept at 17 degrees Celsius (63 degrees Fahrenheit) and, for security reasons, the door couldn't be opened. Bryant and his coworkers sat in front of 14 computer monitors and four keyboards. When Bryant pressed a button in New Mexico, someone died on the other side of the world.

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WNU Editor: The other two parts of this series are the following ...

Part 2: An Unpopular Job 
Part 3: No Room for the Evils of the World

Learning How To Pilot A Drone

Flying Lessons: Learning How To Pilot A Drone -- CNN

Paris (CNN) -- Police and military forces are increasingly reliant on unmanned aerial vehicles to do jobs deemed too risky for humans to do in person, with drones regularly used in surveillance and warfare, from Liverpool to Libya.

So just how easy is it to pilot one? CNN got a drone flying lesson to find out.

The makers of one drone recently exhibited at the Paris Air Show claim their UAV is designed to be easier to use than a computer game -- which is just as well but I've never been much good with games either, whether World of Warcraft or Wii.

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Meet The First Drone Test Pilot

US Appoints First Drone Test Pilot -- CBS News

America has appointed its first "drone" test pilot as it seeks to limit the number of unmanned aircraft crashing in Afghanistan.

Captain Nicholas "Hammer" Helms, 29, who originally trained to fly F-16 fighter planes, has been admitted to the elite US Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

Unlike his fellow high fliers Capt Helms' job will not be to scorch across the sky in the latest supersonic jet. Instead, he will sit at a desk exploring the limits of unmanned aerial vehicles using a joystick and television monitor.

His recruitment marks a watershed in the use of drones, and demonstrates the US military's commitment to an increased reliance on them in the future.

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My Comment: The first of many .... that I am sure of.