http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/07/ap/national/main4328488.shtml
Remote-control Warriors Based In The US Suffer From Psychological Stresses, Too
MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE, Calif. , Aug. 7, 2008
(AP) The Air National Guardsmen who operate Predator drones over Iraq
via remote control, launching deadly missile attacks from the safety
of Southern California 7,000 miles away, are suffering some of the
same psychological stresses as their comrades on the battlefield.
Working in air-conditioned trailers, Predator pilots observe the field
of battle through a bank of video screens and kill enemy fighters with
a few computer keystrokes. Then, after their shifts are over, they get
to drive home and sleep in their own beds.
But that whiplash transition is taking a toll on some of them
mentally, and so is the way the unmanned aircraft's cameras enable
them to see people getting killed in high-resolution detail, some
officers say.
"When you come in (with a fighter jet) at 500-600 mph, drop a
500-pound bomb and then fly away, you don't see what happens," said
Col. Albert K. Aimar, who is commander of the 163rd Reconnaissance
Wing here and has a bachelor's degree in psychology. "Now you watch it
all the way to impact, and I mean it's very vivid, it's right there
and personal. So it does stay in people's minds for a long time."
He said the stresses are "causing some family issues, some
relationship issues." He and other Predator officers would not
elaborate.
But the 163rd has called in a full-time chaplain and enlisted the
services of psychologists and psychiatrists to help ease the mental
strain on these remote-control warriors, Aimar said. Similarly,
chaplains have been brought in at Predator bases in Texas , Arizona and
Nevada.
In interviews with five of the dozens of pilots and sensor operators
at the various bases, none said they had been particularly troubled by
their mission, but they acknowledged it comes with unique challenges,
and sometimes makes for a strange existence.
"It's bizarre, I guess," said Lt. Col. Michael Lenahan, a Predator
pilot and operations director for the 196th Reconnaissance Squadron
here. "It is quite different, going from potentially shooting a
missile, then going to your kid's soccer game."
Among the stresses cited by the operators and their commanders: the
exhaustion that comes with the shift work of this 24-7 assignment; the
classified nature of the job that demands silence at the breakfast
table; and the images transmitted via video.
A Predator's cameras are powerful enough to allow an operator to
distinguish between a man and a woman, and between different weapons
on the ground. While the resolution is generally not high enough to
make out faces, it is sharp, commanders say.
Often, the military also directs Predators to linger over a target
after an attack so that the damage can be assessed.
"You do stick around and see the aftermath of what you did, and that
does personalize the fight," said Col. Chris Chambliss, commander of
the active-duty 432nd Wing at Creech Air Force Base, Nev. "You have a
pretty good optical picture of the individuals on the ground. The
images can be pretty graphic, pretty vivid, and those are the things
we try to offset. We know that some folks have, in some cases,
problems."
Chambliss said his experience flying F-16 fighter jets on bombing runs
in Iraq during the 1990s prepared him for his current job as a
Predator pilot. But Chambliss and several other wing leaders said they
were concerned about the sensor operators, who sit next to pilots in
the ground control station. Often, the sensor operators are on their
first assignment and just 18 or 19 years old, officers said.
While the pilot actually fires the missile, the sensor operator uses
laser instruments to guide it all the way to its target.
On four or five occasions, sensor operators have sought out a chaplain
or supervisor after an attack, Chambliss said. He emphasized that the
number of such cases is very small compared to the number of people
involved in Predator operations.
Col. Rodney Horn, vice commander of the 14th Reconnaissance Wing at
Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base near Houston, said his unit went
out of it way to impress upon sensor operators the sometimes lethal
nature of the job. "No one's walking into it blind," he said.
Master Sgt. Keith LeQuire, a 48-year-old sensor operator here, said
the 163rd asks prospective sensor operators whether they are prepared
for the deadly serious mission. "No one's been naive enough to come in
to interview but not know about that aspect of the job," he said.
Unlike soldiers living together in the war zone, the Predator
operators do not have the close locker-room-style camaraderie that
allows buddies to talk about the day's events and blow off steam. But
many Predator operators at Creech employ a decompression ritual during
the long ride home, said Air Force Lt. Col. Robert P. Herz.
"They're putting a missile down somebody's chimney and taking out bad
guys, and the next thing they're taking their wife out to dinner,
their kids to school," said Herz, a Ph.D. who interviewed pilots and
sensor operators for a doctoral dissertation on human error in
Predator accidents.
"A lot of them have told me, `I'm glad I've got the hour drive.' It
gives them that whole amount of time to leave it behind," Herz said.
"They get in their bus or car and they go into a zone _ they say, `For
the next hour I'm decompressing, I'm getting re-engaged into what it's
like to be a civilian.'"
Col. Gregg Davies, commander of the 214th Reconnaissance Group in
Tucson, Ariz., said he knows of no member of his team who has
experienced any trauma from launching a Predator attack.
Himself a Predator pilot, Davies said he has found the work rewarding.
The Arizona Air National Guard unit flies Predators in both the Iraq
and Afghanistan war zones. It has often provided protection for
American convoys, and its personnel have seen insurgents planting
roadside bombs.
"If we can have an effect there where we can take people out, that's a
real plus in terms of saving American lives," Davies said. "Our folks
look at it as they're in the fight, they're saving lives. They don't
feel too bad about that."
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"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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