The Army's drone pilots are not being trained because they are too busy mowing lawns! Thoughts?

GySgt Wayne A. Ekblad — Sun, 17 May 2015 06:35:12 -0400

According to a recent GAO report "Army UAS pilots in all of the focus groups we conducted stated that they had difficulty completing UAS pilot training in units because they spend a significant amount of time performing additional duties such as lawn care, janitorial services, and guard duty."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2015/05/15/the-armys-drone-pilots-dont-get-enough-training-because-theyre-too-busy-mowing-the-lawn/?hpid=z16

The Army’s drone pilots aren’t being trained because they’re too busy mowing lawns

A new GAO report documents the chronic shortage of drone pilots in the military.

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made May 17 at 2015 6:53 AM

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 17 May 2015 06:53:30 -0400

GySgt Wayne A. Ekblad, my first thought was, "Why didn't they also mention doing KP?" Doing area beautification, guard duty, kitchen patrol (KP), cleaning/waxing of floors, pulling staff duty and CQ, etc., are all part of being a Soldier. It's a cost-effective way to get these jobs done, and it also minimizes down time. It's more prevalent in the junior enlisted ranks, but the Senior NCOs have already gone through the rituals and put in their fair share of time waxing floors.

It does cut into training time, but not to the extent that missions can't be accomplished.

Response by PO2 Johnathan Kerns made May 17 at 2015 6:56 AM

PO2 Johnathan Kerns — Sun, 17 May 2015 06:56:23 -0400

I can believe it. After working the Army on Bragg for over 3 years, I've seen things like this on more than one occasion.

Response by PO1 John Meyer, CPC made May 17 at 2015 7:08 AM

PO1 John Meyer, CPC — Sun, 17 May 2015 07:08:12 -0400

That sounds like the Navy with us sending young sailors on the ship to the mess decks or the master-at-arms shack or anywhere needed outside of their division.

But isn't that the military motto anyway? Work more with less?

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made May 17 at 2015 7:50 AM

CPT Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 17 May 2015 07:50:57 -0400

To be honest I am pretty disappointed. I would have thought they could have turned a lawn mower into a drone and drove it around the lawn for training. This is the out of the box type of thinking we are missing in the Army.

Response by PO2 Johnathan Kerns made May 17 at 2015 9:27 AM

PO2 Johnathan Kerns — Sun, 17 May 2015 09:27:31 -0400

lol

Response by SrA Edward Vong made May 17 at 2015 9:29 AM

SrA Edward Vong — Sun, 17 May 2015 09:29:02 -0400

What I'm wondering is, why are officers doing lawn and janitorial work?

Response by SPC Jan Allbright, M.Sc., R.S. made May 17 at 2015 11:22 AM

SPC Jan Allbright, M.Sc., R.S. — Sun, 17 May 2015 11:22:34 -0400

Simple...
Rig some drone to mow lawns..

Response by Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS made May 17 at 2015 12:54 PM

Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS — Sun, 17 May 2015 12:54:15 -0400

Looking at the article. It mentioned required training time being about 25~ hours per year.

Let me restate that. 25 hrs/year. Normal work WEEK has 40 hours. A year has 52 weeks. If you did 1 hour every OTHER week, you'd be fine.

If we're pulling them away from function so often that they can't get 30 minutes of flight training time per week, there's a #^%$#^ problem.

Now don't get me wrong. I did my share of #%^#% jobs as a PFC, LCpl, Cpl, & Sgt. Today I was at the USMC Historic Half in Fredericksburg, and I saw every rank from PFC through Maj (Quantico is the local base). I get $^&$ details. I have no problem with them. They have to get done, and they have to get done by somebody. Sometimes it's a Col, and sometimes it's a LCpl (most often).

But, if we can't get 1/80th (1.25%) of our time to "basic job related training," we need to rethink out lives.

How is this not being screamed up & down the chain of command, by literally everyone? I had training NCO's on my butt if I didn't MCIs done withing 60 days of them being ordered. They'd lose their mind if I got within 30 days of my PFT or Rifle Qual expiring. How is this any different?