Drone skills 101: Special forces train for Ukraine in Methow Valley

Deep in the forests of northern Ukraine, fighters don’t always know what’s hiding behind a stand of trees.

U.S. Marine veteran Dakota Mendenhall embedded with Ukrainian troops last year. They’d get ready for an ambush, he said, only to find Russian forces waiting for them.

“We only knew that once our buddy got his eyes through his glass,” Mendenhall said. “He saw them, and it's like, ‘Damn, if only we had a drone, we could have seen that well before we got out here.’”

Now, Mendenhall will be able to help with that tactical advantage. He and two other foreign special forces fighters, who also embedded with Ukrainian troops, recently took a weeklong intensive drone training class in Washington’s Methow Valley.

“Observation alone is a massive, massive advantage,” he said while piloting a drone 120 feet above a nearby apple orchard.