Posted on 06/06/2013 1:34:30 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
A former Air Force drone operator who participated in missions that killed more than 1,600 people remembers watching one of the first victims bleed to death. [snip]
Yet he recalls watching helplessly as insurgents buried an IED in a road and a U.S. Humvee drove over it.
“We had no way to warn the troops,” he said. He later learned that three soldiers died. [snip]
Bryant said that most of the time he was an operator, he and his team and his commanding officers made a concerted effort to avoid civilian casualties.
But he began to wonder who the enemy targets on the ground were, and whether they really posed a threat.
He also remembers [seeing] seen a child scurry onto his screen during one mission just before a missile struck...
After participating in hundreds of missions over the years, Bryant said he “lost respect for life” and began to feel like a sociopath.[snip]
In 2011, as Bryant’s career as a drone operator neared its end, his commander presented him with a scorecard showing that he had contributed to the deaths of 1,626 people.
“I would’ve been happy if they never even showed me the piece of paper,” he said. “I've seen American soldiers die, innocent people die, and insurgents die. And it's not pretty. It's not something that I want to have -- this diploma.”
Now that he’s out of the Air Force and back home in Montana, Bryant said he doesn’t want to think about how many people on that list might’ve been innocent: “It’s too heartbreaking.” [snip]
“I don’t feel like I can really interact with that average, everyday person,” he said. “I get too frustrated, because A) they don't realize what's going on over there. And B) they don't care.”
(Excerpt) Read more at openchannel.nbcnews.com ...
I hope I caught the gist of it in this 300-word excerpt, but please, read the rest.
I hope we can fix this, it seems like drone pilots should be able to get onto an emergency channel. Very interesting story, thanks for posting.
We refueled B-52s in the air heading for Vietnam. It does not bother me one bit if they hit more than just empty jungle.
Terrorists kill and wound noncombatants: either because that´s what they´re aiming to do, or because they´re killing indiscriminately. That´s what we call them "terrorists´.
Mr. Bryant says that he and his commanders conscientiously tried to avoid civilian deaths, and in doing so they were acting in a manner that befits a soldier´s sense of justice, honor, and right. That´s why we DON´T call them terrorists.
Mr. Bryant´s problem is that, as time went on, he knew they were getting more callous, more cynical, more indiscriminate. In a drone war where supposedly all the targeting is done on Barack Hussein Obama´s personal sign-off, wouldn´t it bother you to be blasting people to bloody oblivion when you don´t even know what they´re doing or who they are?
Just because Obama said so?
Never thought I´d see the day when "conservatives" would be uh-huhing Dear Leader's Kill List and disparaging the conscience of an ordinary, decent American enlisted man.
This drone program is so un-American it’s not funny. When did we start trying to become the Soviet Union?
You said it.
But there has never been a war fought where people did not suffer and die. indiscriminately, enemy and innocents.
As graphic as this kind of killing must be for the operators who have to watch up close, drone strikes have got to be the most discriminant form of warfare ever attempted.
“watching helplessly as insurgents buried an IED in a road and a U.S. Humvee drove over it.”
Couldn’t the drone have been used to blow up the IED?
Thanks for your service...and for helping to make those Buff strikes possible. Those of us down on the ground really appreciated it.
islamists belong dead and need killing. En masse.
This man, this Air Force veteran, this Brandon Bryant, is not talking about pacifism or even personal preference. He´s talking about objective moral norms.
Bryan knew he was doing the right thing when "he and his team and his commanding officers made a concerted effort to avoid civilian casualties." His problem --- a conscience problem --- came only when he realized that they were becoming more callous, more indiscriminate.
When a target being armed or unarmed, combatant or noncombatant, adult or child, innocent or guilty ceases to make a difference to us, we have sunk to the level of Tamerlan and Djokhar Tsarnaev.
My own son, presently in the Marine Corps OCS at Quantico, knows (I hope) that the difference between a war hero and a war criminal lies in just that kind of distinction. I pray for all our men and women in uniform. I am particularly concerned when the man ultimately making the moral decisions and "calling the shots" is Barack Hussein Obama.
Have a little less respect for Dear Leader and his Kill List, and more for the moral conscience of a decent American veteran.
He operated the camera on a drone. He wasn’t the drone operator, and he didn’t fire missiles.
My maternal grandfather’s family were Germans from Hamburg. My grandfather, born on a farm in Ohio, fought with the American Army in WWI, was gassed in France, but survived to be disinherited by his father for fighting against the Fatherland. Oh, well.
His nephews, all pure-blooded ethnic Germans born in the U.S.A., served with American forces during WWII. One of them was a bombadier on a bomber over Hamburg. If you’ve ever seen photos of the damage inflicted on Hamburg by American bombers, you’ll understand when I say my family isn’t sentimental.
It’s war and it’s Hell. There is no other way to put it.
I agree with you. These experiences will have long term fall out with thousands of men as they grow older. Self medication, suicides, violence bizarre behavior. I have seen it with Vietnam vets I know PERSONALLY, worked with, worked for. Price of war is very very high and lasts for years.
Lots of times conservatives (I am one) just want say “suck it up, don’t be a pu$$y”.
But reality can and will interfere.
In WWII we incinerated 500,000 or so “innocent” civilians. That’s how wars are won, by removing the will to fight. This man has absolutely nothing to feel guilty about. Nothing.
Whe we start treating those “innocent” people who harbor, aid, feed, and provide comfort to these savages as enemy combatants, because they are, they’ll quit fighting
I have always wondered about what could be done from a pre-screening process to avoid situations like this. I know snipers go through a mental selection process. I wonder if some similar type of program could be applied to drone pilots.
I also wonder if some training in the Infantry might not be worthwhile. Yes, fly the drones but if as a drone pilot, you understand what the Infantryman experiences and have some idea of the data that they are looking for, you might be better able to communicate with the ground troops.
For example, it is well know to the Infantry that if there are no children out playing, you are likely to get into a firefight or hit by an IED. Pilots could look for these types of conditions and relay to the ground.
Remember this... when we kill innocent people in combat is an accident, when our enemy kills innocent people it is their target. That ends the liberal arguments quickly and helps our service men and women live with the accidental deaths.
Why does your distinction matter?
Zero tolerance.
Our government has proven that they can't be trusted.
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