Shrinks To Help UAV Pilots Cope With Distant War

Four months after a highly publicised study reported UAV pilots face more fatigue, emotional exhaustion, burnout and video-game thumb than traditional combat pilots, the US Air Force has decided to do something about it. As with the previous study, this new move will surely have in-theatre combat jockeys riled up. Top Air Force brass has decided to call in chaplains, psychologists and psychiatrists "to help ease the mental strain on these remote-control warriors," the Associated Press reports. Many UAV combat sorties in Iraq and Afghanistan are actually flown by pilots and senor operators here in the United States via remote satellite link. When this scenario first began, many UAV pilots were happy and commented that, "most of the time, I get to fight the war, and go home and see the wife and kids at night." This was until the demand for their operations exploded and their hours became more and more prolonged with new internal comparisons to "prisoners with life sentences." While this is enough to get traditional pilots up out of their seats with expletives (along with every other Army grunt and Marine who spends numerous 15 month rotations in the sandbox getting shot at) some higher ups caution that the back and forth between war and peace is straining these distant drone drivers. "It is quite different, going from potentially shooting a missile, then going to your kid's soccer game," sighs Lt. Col. Michael Lenahan. This is why the 163d Reconnaissance Wing out of March ARB in California is looking to help their crews with whatever emotional or psychological issues that may come up. If it works, then its back to bombing insurgents by day and sleeping in their bed with their wives by night.

[Boston Globe via Danger Room]

Home to PointNiner