Do You Buy This? A Unique form of Combat Stress for our Drone Pilots (Remotely Piloted Aircraft)???

Sir,
I understand where you are coming from, but I had a buddy of mine who is a Corpsman (FMF, Combat Aircrew). He's now doing EMT for a North Carolina Fire Department, and recently did a few classes on PTS.

One of the things he ran into was the high instances of PTS in Dispatchers, in addition to the Responders. The Dispatchers aren't physically present at the scene, but they take the calls, hear what is going on, and are interacting with the people until the Responders arrive.

One of the "unique" issues they ran into is that they have no ability to affect the outcome of the situation. They are essentially in a "sit & wait" mode, while the events unfold, but they are "seeing" everything as it happens. There is a certain "helplessness" to the situation.

I'm not saying drone pilots are the same, but each person that interacts with continuous operations has a different level of stress. Control tower operators for flight ops tend to be wound a little tight. Dispatchers have a different kind of stress. Drone pilots have to switch from On to Off instantly, whereas ground operators have a different tempo.

I think this stress is more akin to our MP/Police brethren where they are interacting with the dregs of society during the day, and expected to act like everything is normal during the night. If we think about it like that, it makes a little more sense.

I firmly believe adrenaline over a long period of time changes the constitution of the brain. It sounds like their optempo is high and their missions are complex. We can add another perspective: they kill people.

All of our stress levels differ, I have the patience of a farm animal, but not everyone is as dull as I am.

Do I think that drone pilots face stress ? Yes I do, anyone who has been tasked with a mission is stressed to some degree. Pilot A might be extremely stressed due to his makeup while Pilot B faces no stress at all. It may have to do with self-confidence.

The issue of PTSD isn't as cut and dry to me. I am going out on a limb here, but other than flying requirements, blowing people up in a manned aircraft and blowing people up from Las Vegas is still blowing people up.

Some just can't take that stress.

.

Col, here's the deal: With advanced standoff warfare, we lost the capability of seeing the destruction we wrought. When we fired tank rounds, or Howitzers or M4's or whatever, we saw the immediate effect of our actions. This tempered our actions and made us think when we shot; we were taking a human life. By doing that calculus and realizing that it's "Us or them..." you are able to cope a little better.

When you do stand off warfare, whether it's with JDAMs, Tomahawks, BQM whatevers... we are disconnected from our battle damage. We don't SEE the effects of our actions, so it becomes very easy for our leaders to order this kind of warfare. Less risk to the troops, and less guilt because we don't see the lives we are destroying. No fuss, no muss, easy peasy lemon breezy...

BUT - the AF drone pilots were tasked with doing BDA after their missions. The didn't have the ability to truly "SEE" what they were bringing in advance, so they had no preparedness. Then, when they flew their drones in low orbits with super high-res cameras to do the BDA, they saw the mangled bodies - often civilian, since a 1000 lb bomb doesn't discriminate - nor does any missile. They can't sort out the civilians at the wedding party from the terrorist who is the "Ace of Spades."

These pilots were not in any way prepared for the damage that they saw, that they realized they caused. So, even though they were out of harm's way, going home at night and working in air conditioned bunkers, they suffer PTSD from this.

It may seem to you as a soldier that this is goldbrickery, but it is very real. I think it's actually a good thing that we are now doing BDA on our standoff weapons. IT brings the human cost back into the picture - hopefully the NCA will begin to realize that standoff warfare isn't as easy as it seems...

Always look for the unintended consequences...

V/R Rabbi Jaron

COL Charles Williams
I am with you on this one, buddy. I just don't see it.

I find it difficult to believe.

If they get PTSD through what they do, perhaps so do those who play Call of Duty!

Not sure I buy it, but killing is killing is killing. I would give some credit to the idea that squeezing a trigger on a target with limited awareness/surety of guilt and watching them die is a traumatic event that some people simply aren't equipped to handle.

Sir, I suspect that drone crews suffer from 2 sources of stress which their in-cockpit counterparts don't experience.

First is what you might consider a form of survivor's guilt. They are not sweating in fear as they watch tracers grow to the size of bowling balls before zipping (hopefully) past them, They are not facing personal danger, and in many cases they cannot even claim that they were coming to the aid of fellow soldiers under fire. They are would-be warriors who have been selected for one- and two-man firing squads, without even a blank round to offer some doubt that it was their shot which killed. Where can you find any vestige of redeeming honor in that, especially if it turns out a mistake was made? How would you cope with discovering that the "insurgent meeting" you just ripped asunder was really a wedding party with a would-have-been bride your daughter's age?

Second, unlike the CAS jet jockeys who will only see their target briefly, and even then from a distance, the drones loiter while their crews identify the target, engage it and then conduct as detailed a damage assessment as their sensors will permit. I presume that includes full-color imagery of the bodies (or body parts) of the people they just executed.

I'm not saying that these crews are feeling the same intensity of stress that ground troops must endure, but there are some very real reasons for them to feel stressed. In addition, they aren't surrounded by peers that they can look at and see that it's alright to feel the emotions they're feeling or to have reinforce the necessity of the things that they just did.

Just my 2 cents worth.

I am also not seeing this one. Combat stress IS a unique kind of stress, but these guys aren't experiencing it, nor a "form" of it. When your pink body is not getting shot at, when you are not now or repetitively exposed to the possibility of imminent violent death, then you are not feeling combat stress.
They may be overworked, tired, bored, harassed, and even "stressed out". But Sen McCaskill accepted the speech she was handed and didn't review this one for "makes sense".

Honestly, from what I read, it sounds a lot more like fatigue from working too many hours than PTSD.